The Courtesan: Blocking the Right Player

• Faction: 💋 Villagers (Town)
• Ability: Each night, choose one player to block — their night action is cancelled
• When you act: Night phase
• Win condition: All Werewolves and the Maniac (if present) are eliminated

You point at a player during the night. Whatever that player was going to do doesn't happen. If they're a Werewolf, their vote within the Werewolf team is cancelled (though the remaining members can still act). If they're the Doctor, nobody gets healed. If they're the Seer, no divination happens that night. If they're a regular Villager with no night action, nothing changes.

The critical detail: you don't learn what role you blocked. The GM doesn't tell you "you blocked the Doctor" or "you blocked a Werewolf." You have to figure it out from what happens the next morning. Did nobody die? Maybe you blocked a key Werewolf voter. Did someone die? Maybe you hit a Villager or accidentally shut down a town power role. This makes the Courtesan a fundamentally deductive role — your blocks are experiments, and the morning results are your data.

Like the Doctor, you cannot block the same player on consecutive nights. This restriction forces you to rotate targets and prevents you from permanently locking down a single suspect — plan your blocks across multiple nights with alternating targets.

One more nuance: blocking a Werewolf doesn't always prevent the night action. In a 3-Werewolf game, blocking one still leaves two to vote on the target. But in smaller teams — or when other Werewolf members have been removed — blocking the right person can stop the action entirely.

1. Block someone you suspect is a Werewolf, then analyze the morning. If you block a player and nobody is taken out that night, several explanations are possible: the Doctor made an independent save, you blocked the decisive Werewolf voter, or both. Cross-reference your block target with the morning announcement and the day discussion to narrow down what actually happened.

2. Never block someone you're confident is the Seer. This is the worst outcome for the town. You waste the Seer's divination for the night — they chose a target but the GM gave no result. The Seer might not even realize they were blocked. If you're unsure, always err toward blocking a suspected Werewolf rather than a suspected town role.

3. Use alternating blocks to test a hypothesis. If you suspect Player 5 is a Werewolf, block them one night, block someone else the next, then block Player 5 again. If both nights you block Player 5 are peaceful but the gap night has a loss, that's strong circumstantial evidence. One peaceful night could be coincidence or a Doctor save. Two correlated peaceful nights targeting the same suspect is much harder to explain away.

4. Keep a private log of every block and its result. After three or four rounds, patterns emerge. "Night 2: blocked Player 7, nobody was taken out. Night 3: didn't block Player 7, we lost Player 4. Night 4: blocked Player 7 again, nobody was taken out." Without a log, you'll forget the details and your eventual reveal will sound vague. With a log, you can present a compelling circumstantial case.

5. Reveal your log when you have three or more correlated data points. Unlike the Seer, you don't get clean binary answers. But a multi-night pattern of "blocked Player X, peaceful; didn't block Player X, elimination" is powerful evidence. Present it clearly: what you did each night and what happened the next morning. Let the table draw the conclusion.

Hinting without revealing: "I want the table to pay close attention to Player 5. I can't go into details yet, but I've been tracking something over the last two nights and Player 5 is at the center of it. If anyone else has suspicions about Player 5, now's the time."

Defending your block target: "I targeted Player 8 last night. I know some of you think Player 8 is clean, but their behavior during yesterday's vote was off. They pushed hard to save Player 2, who turned out to be a Werewolf. I don't think that's a coincidence, and my results back it up."

Creating doubt about night results: "Before we take the morning announcement at face value — remember there's a Courtesan in this game. Someone's night action was cancelled. If the Doctor was blocked, then the Werewolves' attack went through even if the Doctor picked the right target. A loss doesn't mean the Doctor was wrong."

Full reveal with log: "I'm the Courtesan. Here's my log. Night 1: blocked Player 6, someone was taken out. Night 2: blocked Player 3, nobody was lost. Night 3: blocked Player 3 again, nobody was lost. Night 4: blocked Player 10, someone was taken out. Two peaceful nights when I blocked Player 3, two losses when I didn't. Player 3 is a Werewolf."

Redirecting a bad decision: "Voting out Player 4 right now would be a mistake. I have reason to believe their night action has been critical to our survival. I'm asking the table for one more day. If I'm wrong, hold me accountable tomorrow."

Addressing friendly fire concerns: "Yes, it's possible I accidentally blocked the Doctor one of those nights. I can't know for sure. But my overall record shows two peaceful nights that line up perfectly with blocking Player 3. If I were randomly hurting the town, the pattern wouldn't be this clean."

Blocking randomly with no reasoning on Night 1. You have zero confirmed information, true — but you can still make a strategic guess. Block the person who seemed most eager to lead Day 1 discussion. Werewolf members who lead early often have night roles worth disrupting. A purely random block teaches you nothing.

Accidentally blocking the Doctor every night. If your blocks aren't producing peaceful nights after several tries, you might be locking down a town power role instead of a Werewolf. Pay attention to results. If nothing useful is happening, switch targets — you're probably hitting the wrong person.

Revealing with insufficient evidence. One peaceful night after a block doesn't prove anything. The Doctor might have independently saved the same target, or the Werewolves might have been blocked by some other interaction. You need multiple correlated nights before your Courtesan claim is convincing. Revealing with weak data just makes you a night target with nothing to show for it.

Forgetting you're on the Villager team. The Courtesan has a disruptive, chaotic power, and it's easy to become obsessed with the night-phase puzzle. But you're a Villager first. Participate in day discussion, vote on your reads, support Seer claims when they're credible. Don't get so focused on your blocks that you neglect the day game.

The Doctor is your accidental worst-case scenario. If you block the Doctor, nobody gets healed — even if the Doctor chose the right person to protect. The Werewolves' night action goes through and an innocent player is lost because of your block. You can't coordinate with the Doctor without revealing both roles, so the best approach is to avoid blocking anyone you believe is a town power role. When in doubt, block someone you suspect is a Werewolf.

The Seer is another risky target. Blocking the Seer cancels their divination — no result for that night, one less divination for the town. Some Seers won't even realize they were blocked and might misinterpret the silence from the GM. If you have any indication of who the Seer is, keep your block far away.

Against the Werewolves, you're an unpredictable disruption they can't plan around. They don't know who you are or who you're blocking each night. In smaller Werewolf teams (2 or fewer), blocking the right Werewolf can prevent the night action entirely. In larger teams, your block reduces their capability without removing it. Either way, you're introducing randomness that favors the town's side.

Blocking the Alpha Wolf is especially valuable. The Alpha Wolf has a separate night action — divining a player to find the Seer. If you block the Alpha Wolf, you cancel both their vote in the Werewolves' elimination decision and their nightly investigation. This can buy the Seer an extra night of safety without anyone realizing why.

Interpreting your blocks requires combining what you did with what happened the next morning.

You blocked Player X and nobody was taken out: Either you blocked the decisive Werewolf voter (stopping the night action), the Doctor independently saved the target, or both happened simultaneously. If this result repeats when you block the same player, the Werewolf explanation becomes much more likely.

You blocked Player X and someone was lost anyway: Player X is probably not the critical Werewolf member — or the Werewolf team is large enough that your block didn't matter. Consider switching targets. Player X might be a Villager, the Doctor, or a non-essential Werewolf member.

You blocked Player X and two people were lost: If a Maniac is in play, your block didn't affect either night action. Or you blocked a Villager and both the Werewolf and Maniac eliminations went through as usual.

The key is multiple data points. One night means nothing on its own. Three nights of consistent results tell a story.

• The Doctor: Who to Save and When
• The Seer: When to Reveal and Who to Divine
• Playing as Werewolf: Bluffing, Strategy, and Survival
• The Lover: Vote Protection Tactics
• all roles explained

The Courtesan's block interacts with the Doctor's heal, the Seer's divination, and the Werewolves' elimination — easy for the game master to get confused. The app processes all intersections automatically and shows the result without errors.