A few questions about Serial Killer

[johnniegibson]

Hi, I have a few questions about Serial Killer, will SK die at night? How did that happen? And what if the mafia and SK are still alive in the game?
Thank you for your reply!

[Ythan]

It sounds like you're talking about an ongoing game. Not one here I hope.

[the worst]

Please don't discuss ongoing games anywhere. Even if it is from another site, you run the risk of being recognised and accidentally giving away too much information. I know it might seem dramatic, but the best course of action really is just not discussing games outside of game threads (or approved private topics) until they're over.



That question does look answerable though.
A lot of what you're asking depends on the setup. So I'm going to answer it from a perspective of "this is how it usually works"...

Hi, I have a few questions about Serial Killer, will SK die at night? How did that happen?

Most of the time, an SK can die at night. This usually happens because the mafia, or a town vigilante, shoot them with their night-kill.

In some games with more zany setups, it can happen because the serial killer died passively due to someone else's role (e.g. if the serial killer targeted a Paranoid Gun Owner, if the serial killer was a Lover with another player, etc.)

Since a SK usually needs to live right until the end of the game, their win condition is usually viewed as more difficult than town's, or groupscum's. Because of this, a lot of game designers will grant serial killers immunity to night actions. This may take the form of them being 1-shot, 2-shot or completely bulletproof. It may also take the form of them being ascetic, or (less commonly) appearing as town to cops.

And what if the mafia and SK are still alive in the game?

This means that the serial killer and mafia could absolutely kill each other with their night actions!

As far as ending the game goes, it depends on how the mafia & serial killer win conditions are worded. For example, if you have 3 mafia, 2 vanilla townies and 1 serial killer left alive:

- if the mafia win when they achieve parity, technically they can still win with a serial killer alive.
- if the mafia win by removing all threats, then the serial killer is still a threat, so they would need to remove the serial killer before they could win.
- a serial killer's win condition is usually that everyone else is dead, or nothing can prevent that. If that is their wincon, then the serial killer would need to remove the entire mafia faction before they could win.


So a lot of the answer is... "it depends". If you're designing a game, think about whether a serial killer should have some kind of immunity to night kills or investigation. Also be careful that the serial killer's and Mafia's win conditions account for the fact that they need to deal with each other at some point.

If you're playing a game, please promptly reprimand yourself for discussing ongoing games and don't do it again. If these questions come up in a future game, maybe ask your game mod if they can answer any of this (noting that if its a closed setup, they're within their rights to just say "no").