Making Excuses

This section hopes to explore what makes excuses believeable, and how to employ that information for use in TTT.

For the Detectives and Innocents.

Something to bear in mind with the Innocent team discussing how to root out the Traitor team is that at least one person in the lobby is intent to make the conversation as difficult to nail down as possible.

Always bear this in mind, Traitor buddies will cover for each other, they'll deny and subvert or cover for one another, you are discussing the case, but also arguing it against fervent attempts to discredit you, and your evidence.

If you aren't a completely clear player, or the Detective, your hunches may need extra leverage; very often, a hunch that is declared openly will come at the cost of saying 'If I'm wrong, you should kill me next.'

As a play, this works sometimes for Traitors as a way to convince the Innocent team to whittle their numbers down but, at the same time, shows you're more committed to your hunch.

Generally speaking, you want to play more reactively as the Innocent team. If you start pointing fingers before there's even evidence to consider, you're going to kill someone at random. When your team is in the majority and has the least information, that 'random murder' is weighted against you by default.

There's no way to know every single detail of the cases that take place, which is either a blessing or a curse depending on how much evidence can be mounted against you; bearing this in mind, try to think laterally if it comes down to it.

Sincerely gathering evidence and presenting it well makes you a prime target for the Traitors; if you put suspicion on an actual Traitor you're hard to kill off because that essentially guarantees them guilty and if you name someone that isn't guilty with the evidence at hand it makes you look a little stupid. It is best to explain your working theory as, once you're dead, all they'll have is the evidence on your body.

For the Traitors and Independents.

Always have an alibi. If I could offer you one bit of advice, other than 'wear sunscreen' it'd be to craft an alibi as you go, and recognise how you play when you're not a Traitor to do so.

Nothing is going to hurt your case more than someone asking what you were doing at a given moment and awkwardly stammering through saying 'Uh...' before an elaborately detailed explanation.

It is also important to deliver this alibi as though unprompted, or as though it wasn't anticipated to have to be delivered; some muddling is necessary, but don't ham it up too much.

When crafting an alibi, too, if you need to improvise you might want to bear in mind where other players were and avoid incriminating yourself by implying you were somewhere you provably weren't.

A lot of the game comes down to discussion of other things during gameplay, so if the suspicion isn't too strong, you could hand-wave it away and continue steamrolling ahead with the conversation at hand. Directing the conversation delicately can mitigate a lot of the suspicion on you by just making it appear that you're interested in the discussion, if you're subtle.

Best case scenario, you hear about a murder when it happens from someone else; you don't even want to be near the corpse when it is discovered. You'll likely want to go find another gun to replace the one you killed them with, if you used a gun, and you'll want to come up with something you were doing at that time. You also want to rope your Traitor buddy (if you have one) into the story as little as possible. If your ship sinks, don't take your teammates with you.

Conversely, if your teammate is caught, it can make you appear very clear indeed to accuse them fervently. If you know you're absolutely screwed, it can be good to falsely challenge your teammate and look even more suspicious, so that the Innocent team will believe that your teammate couldn't possibly be the 'other Traitor' before it is too late.

Sometimes, you'll be caught red-handed. The best outcome from that is killing the witness before you have a chance to be announced as a Traitor, as clumsy or messy as it is. If you are outted as a Traitor, do not out your partner. Play as quietly and carefully as possible, you will be shot as soon as you're seen.

All of this is to say, if you lie, manipulate, and gaslight your friends, you can steer the 'facts' of the situation to any conclusion you want. Congratulations, sociopath.

Some extra tips and tricks, if you feel you need them.

Here, I'll give some tidbits of handy info, or advice, and do my best to give a few examples of 'suspicious behaviour' so that you might be able to better identify it.

• If a player is taking a body from a scene of a crime without identifying it, it is likely a Traitor that is recovering their buddy to revive them (or they've killed them).
• Some items can only be bought from the Traitor shop which means that someone with those items is a Traitor, or could identify them.
• If someone is killed from great range near you, seek cover and try to rely on the people near you if you're not immediately killed, try to figure out their location, and seek cover.
• Self-preservation is an important part of the game; you can only contribute your evidence if you are alive, in most cases. Try to survive.
• You still win if you have died by your team wins, so if you must die, try to do so in as inconvenient a way for the enemy team as possible.
• You can check if someone claiming to be a Jester is or isn't by checking if they're able to do damage, for better or worse.

Hopefully that helps you out, thanks for reading.

PARADISE KILLER artwork used without permission, but I do have an alibi.