Town of Salem

[Randox]

Town of Salem is an online browser based game, based on the concept of the party game Mafia (aka werewolf) that I assume most people here played as a child (and if you didn't, then your childhood isn't complete yet and this game offers a chance to fill that hole in your soul). The game is about deception, trust, teamwork, and limited information. Town of Salem massively expands on that concept, with 30 different roles (~15 in the simpler beginners version of the game) that are divided up between town, mafia, and neutral teams. The goals of the various neutral roles are quite carried, and may find themselves allied with the town, mafia, or no one. In the Normal (classic) mode, mafia and neutral will each get 3 set roles, and the remaining 9 people on the town team are dived between 7 set roles, and two random town roles (meaning there can be duplicates, or almost one of every town role).

 

Every player is assigned a role at random, and every role has a specific goal. For example, anyone who has a town role will have the goal to lynch all mafia and evildoers (everyone on the mafia team, and some of the neutral roles as well). The game takes place in rounds, with each round consisting of multiple phases. Communication is limited in different ways at different times. For example, no one can talk at night except the mafia, who talk privately to each other, and the medium, who can talk to the dead. Through most of the day, everyone can talk to other living players (except during a lynching, when the accused will be allowed to give a defense. There are also things like last wills, that are revealed when you die (along with your role), and killer notes, that can be left by anyone in a killing role when they take a life. There are also some really neat roles, like the Jester, whose goal is to convince the town to lynch them (and they get to kill someone who voted guilty on them in revenge), or the executioner, whose goal is to convince everyone else to lynch a specific player (always a townsman), and if their target gets killed at night, they become a Jester.

 

Anyway, the game is a lot of fun, a round takes around 20 minutes to play usually, and it's totally free (there are micro transactions for cosmetic things, and scrolls which give you a greater chance of getting a certain role). If you loved mafia/werewold as a child, or just need to fill the hole in your life from having never played it, you should give the game a shot.

[Vanamonde]

Some of us moderators played this for a while. It was kind of fun. 

[GluttonyReaper]

Tried it for a bit with friends once, it was fun, but not as fun as mafia in real life IMO. There's something about looking into someone's eyes as they lie to you that's irreplaceable in my mind.