Lifthrasil: I haven an idea for a new role. But I'm not sure yet about it's playability and utility.
The Pairity Cops They work basically like a Parity Cop, but in pairs. I.e. there have to be two Pairity-Cops and each of them gets to investigate one person each Night and they get a result of 'Same' if the two targets share the same alignment and 'Different' if they differ. So basically, together they are one Parity-Cop who works twice as fast as usual.
There are some variants / open questions to decide.
The most powerful version would know each other and have a Night-Chat to coordinate. This version would combine the powers of masons and a turbo-Parity-Cop. Probably IMBA.
The mid-level powered version would know each other, but have not possibility to communicate secretly. They would have to find a way to coordinate within plain sight.
The weakest version would NOT know each other. This would pose the challenge when to claim. Does one claim after a Night or Two to compare notes? Or does one risk that the investigation results get lost? Or does one breadcrumb heavily and hopes that after ones death the unknown partner will pick up the hints?
One could also raise the power of the weakest version to mid-level, by introducing that upon the death of one Pairity-Cop the other Pairity-Cops inherits the notes of his deceases partner, so that he can retroactively make sense of his own readings.
In the cases where the Pairity Cops know each other, a requirement would be that they can't investigate each other. Otherwise it would be too easy to calibrate the 'same' / 'different' responses, thereby turning the Pairity Cops into regular Cops.
So, what do you think?
Oy. I like the idea of these cops, but I see a lot of gamebreaking potential. But before that, I am not sure what you mean by "compare notes". In my view both Buddy Cops get the same result: "equal" or "different" (no names included) in both PM boxes. I suppose you mean each of them doesn't know who the other targeted, right? In this case indeed that knowledge risks being lost if one of them dies before they can tell who their target was.
I understand their optimal strategy would be to keep checking until they find "different" OR up to N investigations succeed, then come out and blurt out all they know about everyone. Both are immediately confirmed as mason-likes. Once one of them is dead, the other becomes
defacto an IC: useless as a role, but pretty much unlynchable.
Furthermore, they can easily confirm a boatload of people in a sudden moment. Suppose they investigated players A and B the first night, B and C the second. Then the poor unaware mafia kills any of these the second night. Upon the flip the effectively-easily-confirmed-as-Town duo already know and can vouch for two other players' alignment.
Mafia would run out of hiding spots extremely fast. That's why I see them as too easy to break the game: if you leave them alone two nights, the game is lost already.
Some nerfs are essential. At the very least, limit the number of investigations to 2 in a large game and 1 in a smaller game.
There is also the issue of what happens if both cops can't coordinate and they happen to choose the same target. Is the shot spent and they receive "equal"? I entertained the thought that they would not lose their limited use shot but it's a wasted night and they risk being next night's NK so it is a loss. As a consolation prize they would know their partner chose the same target, so at least they know their partner isn't the player they were looking into.
