General Overview
Roles and Objectives
Espionage revolves around the interplay between special roles that two players are assigned: the
Spy and the
Detective. The
Spy's goal is to eliminate the
Detective by whatever means possible, while the
Detective's goal is to locate and lynch the
Spy. The remaining players will be
Civilians. Some of those have been corrupted and are to assist the
Spy, they're the
Informants. All other
Civilians are to help the
Detective.
So you can think of it like this:
Detective and
Civilians make up one team trying to kill the
Spy,
Spy and
Informants make up another team trying to kill the
Detective.
These are the four only roles in the game. There's one
Detective, one
Spy, a small number of
Informants, and a lot of
Civilians. How many
Informants are in the game depends on the total number of players and is announced when the game begins. The roles are assigned randomly and aside from one exception you alone are informed of your role.
This is a game in which you are allowed to lie and players pretend to be roles they're not. You can rarely be certain if someone's telling the truth and it's often not easy to tell who's friend and who's foe.
Events Over The Course of The Game
The game consists of phases that are 24 hours long. Two important things happen at the end of every phase:
— A player might die at the hands of the
Spy.
— A player might be lynched by the entire town.
Over the course of the phase every player is expected to send their vote using the Espionage Manager. Unless there is a tie, whoever receives the most votes is lynched. In addition to the vote the
Spy can also use their Kill action, thereby eliminating a player. Players' roles are revealed upon death.
When the
Spy dies the game ends in a
Detective/
Civilians win. When the
Detective dies the remaining
Civilians have two more phases in which they can try to find and lynch the
Spy and win. If the
Spy is still alive after those two phases, the game ends in a
Spy/
Informants win.
Rules
Roles and Their Abilities
Spy
Kill: Kills one player the
Spy chooses to target.
Order: Sends a message of any length to all
Informants.
Note: Order can be used every phase, including Prep Phase.
Detective
Investigate: The
Detective sends in the names of three players to be investigated one of which they'll learn is not the
Spy. Since there is just one
Spy in the game out of the three names submitted either two or all three are non-Spies. Which of those two or those three is returned is random.
Informant
No abilities
The
Informant learns the identity of the
Spy when the game start.
If the
Spy uses
Order, all
Informants still alive receive the message at phase change.
Civilian
No abilities
At the end of Prep Phase, every
Civilian receives a list with a unique set of names of fellow players. Each contains the
Detective's and all
Informants' names among others.
With the exception of
Order, all abilities mentioned above cannot be used in Prep Phase. Use is optional any Day phase.
Each Day phase every player, no matter what role they've been assigned, has to cast a vote for any player still alive. Whoever receives the most votes will be lynched. Specific rules:
— You may not abstain.
— You have to vote a player who is alive as of the phase the vote is cast. Voting a dead player or someone who isn't even playing is invalid. You may vote yourself.
— Ties cancel the lynching.
— If you fail to send in a valid vote in time, you'll automatically vote yourself.
— Votes are made public regardless of ties. Results don't indicate if a player voted him or herself due to no valid vote having been submitted or not.
Order of Abilities
At the end of every phase the lynching always takes place before the
Spy's
Kill ability. That means even if you are killed, your vote still goes through. If the
Spy intends to
Kill the player receiving the most votes, the ability has no effect as the target will already have been lynched. In that case, additionally to the votes, who was lynched, and their role, it is announced that no one died. Phase change results don't specify if the above-mentioned is what happened or if the
Spy decided not to kill.
Gameplay
— You are not allowed to discuss the game in private messages with other players as long as either you or they are alive. The only place to discuss it is this topic.
— Once you have been killed by the
Spy or lynched, you are dead and therefore considered 'out of the game'. From that point forward you can no longer use your abilities or vote, and are to stop discussing the game in this topic or influence the game in any way until it ends. You are allowed to talk about the game with other players that have died.
— In order to vote or use your abilities, just go to the 'Actions' section of the Espionage Manager. If you want to change vote or use of an ability, you can do so as long as the phase is still ongoing.
— It is advised to ask any questions you may have concerning any rules before the game starts since there will be no human GM to assist you in this round once the game begins.
Guidelines
— Do not attempt to participate with more than one username. This is grounds for permanent banning from any and all future games.
— You may not quote, screenshot, or otherwise duplicate or showcase messages from the Espionage Manager to prove your role, actions, or results.
— Encrypted codes, invisible text or any other attempt to hide information in your posts are forbidden, except for evil players (
Spy &
Informants)
This also means that players shouldn't try to use references only some people will understand (insider information, so to speak).
What to Keep in Mind
— You are allowed to share details of your list publicly, but while it may help identify
Informants you might be helping the
Spy find the
Detective. It is up to you if you want to reveal whole or parts of lists publicly, and if what you claim is even true. But always consider that you are not just talking to your allies, your opponents are listening as well.
— As
Spy it is generally considered advisable to use
Order to figure out who the
Informants are, so as to prevent to accidentally kill an ally. Usually, orders among other things include the request to post messages in the game topic that are framed a certain way, so the
Spy can tell who was on the receiving end of the order.
— While the ability is referred to as
Order,
Informants are not obligated to comply. They can evaluate the situation themselves and might decide to disobey if they see fit.
— Unlike Mafia, in Espionage you cannot leave any wills to be published upon your death.
— Unlike some previous rounds, in this round no partial lists are revealed upon a
Civilian's death.
Lastly, I'm not making this a rule, but I would ask players to be careful when it comes to editing. From the second something is posted, it's possible another player has seen it. If that has happened, it would be unfair to withhold that information from players who haven't seen it yet by editing it out or deleting it. If you have an additional thought shortly after posting and you don't wanna start a new post just for that, go ahead and add a paragraph and indicate that it was edited. If you realize you've referred to the
Spy as
Detective and your entire post doesn't make sense or is misleading because of that, change the word and indicate what you corrected. Doing that is okay. But please refrain from deleting parts of your messages.