Roles

Overview

There are 10 clean roles and 5 corrupt roles. The Mayor always sits at seat 1. Every card shows a clean role: corrupt officials wear one as a disguise, and their true identity is only revealed when they are arrested. The Mayor seat can be corrupt too, so the Mayor title alone is not proof of innocence.

A role's statement type is what it says when it is telling the truth. Roles are either passive (their statement appears automatically) or active (you trigger an investigation by selecting one or more targets). When a clean official is forced to lie, the statement keeps its format but flips its meaning. When a corrupt official lies, it picks any plausible-looking statement to mislead you.

Reading the cards

• Alignment tells you whose side the role is on. Clean is blue. Corrupt is red.
• Active or Passive tells you whether you have to spend an ability use to hear from this role. Active roles have a button; passive roles speak on their own. Corrupt roles inherit the active/passive type of whichever clean role they are disguised as, so a Crook in a Legal Advocate disguise behaves like an active investigation while the same Crook in a City Planner disguise speaks passively.
• Cap is the highest count of a role that can appear in a single case. Clean roles other than the Mayor cap at 2 each; the Mayor is always exactly one. Corrupt caps vary: Crook has no practical cap, Blackmailer is shown explicitly when it caps at 2 and the rest cap at 1 each.

Clean Officials

Ten roles. Three are active investigations you trigger by selecting targets. Seven are passive statements that appear automatically.

↻ Mayor

Clean Passive

Names one official as innocent. The single most valuable passive statement in the game and the most visible target for corrupt interference.

Truth "#4 is innocent" - the named seat is genuinely clean.

Lie "#4 is innocent" - same wording, but the named seat is actually corrupt. If a Manipulator was at the table when the case began: "I trust no one" instead.

Special: Arresting a clean Mayor ends the case immediately; arresting a corrupt Mayor is a correct arrest like any other. Only the Manipulator can target the Mayor.

↻ Vice Mayor

Clean Passive

Points to two officials and claims at least one of them is corrupt. When honest, the truth is stronger than the wording: exactly one is corrupt and the other is clean. The pair is locked at the start of the case and never refreshes, which makes the Vice Mayor a stable anchor point across many arrests.

Truth "At least one of #3 or #8 is corrupt" - one of the two is genuinely corrupt.

Lie "At least one of #3 or #8 is corrupt" - same wording, but both seats are actually clean.

↻ Legal Advocate

Clean Active

Pick one target. The result says whether that official is telling the truth or lying. This checks lie status, not alignment, so a blackmailed clean official reads as lying even though arresting them is a wrong arrest. The verdict is only as honest as the Legal Advocate: a lying Legal Advocate (corrupt or blackmailed) reports the opposite.

Result "#5 is telling the truth" or "#5 is lying"

Note From an honest Legal Advocate, "telling the truth" means the target is clean, because corrupt officials always lie, and "lying" means corrupt or blackmailed. If a Manipulator was at the table when the case began, checking the Mayor returns "#1's testimony has been suppressed" instead of a verdict.

↻ Zoning Director

Clean Active

Pick two targets. The result tells you whether they are on the same side or on different sides. Powerful for chaining suspicion across the table when you already have one alignment locked down. A lying Zoning Director (corrupt or blackmailed) reports the opposite: same becomes different and different becomes same.

Result "#2 and #6 are on the same side" or "#2 and #6 are on different sides"

Note Reads alignment, not lie status. A blackmailed clean and a normal clean are reported as the same side.

↻ Finance Director

Clean Active

Pick three targets. The result is a count of how many of them are corrupt: 0, 1, 2 or 3. From an honest Finance Director the count is exact. A lying Finance Director (corrupt or blackmailed) reports a wrong count, never the true one.

Result "#1, #4, #7 include 2 corrupts" - exact count of how many of the three picks are corrupt.

Note Counts alignment, not lie status. Blackmailed cleans are not counted as corrupt.

↻ Police Chief

Clean Passive

Says yes or no to a single neighbourhood question: is there a corrupt official in either of the two seats next to me? Strong when the table is wide and you can pin location.

Truth "At least one neighbor is corrupt" or "Neither neighbor is corrupt" - whichever matches reality.

Lie The other line of the pair. A liar with corrupt neighbors says "Neither neighbor is corrupt" and vice versa.

↻ City Planner

Clean Passive

Reports the circular distance to the nearest corrupt official, measured in seats around the table. A small number is a tight ring of suspicion; a large number tells you the seats around the Planner are clean.

Truth "Nearest corrupt is 3 seats away" - the actual circular distance.

Lie "Nearest corrupt is 5 seats away" - same wording, but the number is a wrong value locked at the start of the case.

↻ Council Chair

Clean Passive

A single yes-or-no about the entire table: are any two corrupt officials seated side by side? Devastating when combined with a Blackmailer read because Blackmailer victims tell you exactly where the corrupt edges are.

Truth "Some corrupts sit side by side" or "Corrupts don't sit side by side" - whichever matches reality.

Lie The other line of the pair. The wording is fixed; only the answer flips.

↻ HR Director

Clean Passive

Tells you how many clean officials were forced to lie by Blackmailers when the case began. The number does not drop when a Blackmailer or a blackmailed official is arrested, so it says nothing about whether a Blackmailer is still free. From an honest HR Director, a non-zero count means at least one Blackmailer was dealt in; zero combined with a confirmed clean liar is impossible, so check whether the HR Director is lying.

Truth "2 people are blackmailed" - the real number of blackmailed clean officials, fixed for the whole case.

Lie "0 people are blackmailed" - same wording, but the number is wrong and locked at the start of the case. When the real count is 0 the lie says 1 or 2; otherwise it is always lower than the real count.

↻ IT Director

Clean Passive

Reports the longest unbroken run of clean officials around the circular table. Only the maximum possible value (every clean official in one run) means the corrupt sit in a single contiguous arc; any lower number proves they are split into at least two groups. A low number tells you the corrupt are spread out.

Truth "Longest innocent chain is 4 seats" - the actual longest clean run around the table.

Lie "Longest innocent chain is 7 seats" - same wording, but the number is wrong. Lie values lock at the start, stay within the range the table makes possible and are less likely to be the smallest or largest value in that range.

Corrupt Officials

Five roles. All of them lie. Four also apply a side effect that disrupts how clean information reaches you.

Crook

Corrupt No Cap

The baseline corrupt role. No special effect. Lies about whatever clean role it is disguised as. Crooks fill out the corrupt headcount when the more dangerous corrupt roles are already at their per-act caps.

Effect on table: none. The whole job of a Crook is to be one more lying voice in the noise.

Silencer

Corrupt Max 1

At the start of the case, picks one random non-Mayor target and silences them. The silenced official refuses to speak ("I don't want to talk"). The silence is permanent until the Silencer is arrested.

Who gets silenced: Anyone except the Mayor and the Silencer themselves. Silenced targets can be clean or another corrupt. Clicking a silenced card produces a small shake animation.

When the silence ends: The silenced official animates as freed and resumes speaking the moment the Silencer is arrested.

Blackmailer

Corrupt Max 2

Forces both immediate clean neighbours to lie. Blackmail does not change alignment; victims are still clean and arresting them still counts as a wrong arrest. The Mayor cannot be blackmailed but can sit next to a Blackmailer.

Who gets blackmailed: The two seats adjacent to the Blackmailer, wrapping around the table. Corrupt neighbours are not affected.

Blackmail is permanent: Forced lying does not end when the Blackmailer is arrested. Once a clean neighbour is locked into the forced-liar list, that lie status persists for the rest of the case. Arresting the Blackmailer does not free their victims, so plan accordingly: lock down the victims' actual alignment before deciding what to do with them.

Reveal: A blackmailed clean shows a flag (⚑) next to their identity when arrested. The flag is only visible in Act I (Easy difficulty); from Act II onwards the flag is hidden during play and only surfaces on the game-over reveal.

Converter

Corrupt Max 1

At the start of the case, picks one random clean official (never the Mayor) and permanently turns them into a Crook. Their alignment, role and lie behaviour all flip. Statements they previously gave as clean were already corrupt-flavoured from the start.

Who gets converted: Any non-Mayor clean official, not yet affected by another corrupt role. The conversion is permanent.

Reveal: Converted officials display a star (★) next to their identity when arrested, so you know it was a conversion rather than a primary corrupt slot.

Manipulator

Corrupt Max 1

Permanently suppresses the Mayor's statement. The Mayor refuses to declare anyone innocent and instead displays a generic "I trust no one" line, removing the single most reliable clean read from your board.

Who gets affected: The Mayor, globally. There is no fixed target seat.

When suppression ends: Suppression persists for the entire case, even after the Manipulator is arrested. Once manipulated, the Mayor stays silent.

Special Rules

Mayor protection

Arresting an innocent Mayor ends the case immediately, regardless of how many wrong arrests are left. A confirmation dialog protects you from a misclick. Corrupt roles cannot blackmail, silence or convert the Mayor seat.

Lying does not equal corrupt

A blackmailed clean official is producing false statements but is still clean. Arresting them counts as a wrong arrest. The Legal Advocate detects lying. The Finance Director and Zoning Director check alignment. Conflating the two is the most common way to lose a case.

Targets are locked at start

Mayor's innocent target, Vice Mayor's pair, City Planner's lie value, HR Director's lie value, IT Director's lie value, Silencer's victim and Converter's victim are all decided when the case begins and never change. This prevents you from rerolling statements by waiting for refreshes.

Silencer is the only effect that ends on arrest

When the Silencer is arrested, the silenced target plays a "freed" animation and starts producing statements again. Blackmail and Manipulation are different: a Blackmailer's forced-liar grip on its neighbours and a Manipulator's suppression of the Mayor both persist for the rest of the case, even after those corrupt cards have been arrested. Once those effects appear, they stay.

Corrupt disguises

Every corrupt role takes on the disguise of a clean role chosen for that seat at the start of the case. Any clean role is valid as a disguise, including the Mayor when the Mayor seat itself is corrupt. The disguise sets the role icon, the short name and the type of statement the corrupt produces. The true identity is revealed when the corrupt is arrested, and on the game-over screen the entire table flips to expose every remaining hidden role.