The Courtesan: Blocking the Right Player

You cancel someone's night action. One choice, every night, and the consequences are wildly different depending on who you pick. Block a Mafioso and you might prevent a kill. Block the Doctor and you've accidentally doomed whoever they were trying to protect. The Courtesan is the role where information and instinct matter most — because your power cuts both ways.

• Faction: 💋 Citizens (Town)
• Ability: Each night, choose one player to block — their night action is cancelled
• When you act: Night phase
• Win condition: All Mafia members are eliminated

You point at a player during the night. Whatever that player was going to do doesn't happen. If they're a Mafioso, their kill vote within the Mafia team is cancelled (though the remaining members can still vote). If they're the Doctor, nobody gets healed. If they're the Sheriff, no investigation happens that night. If they're a regular Citizen 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 Mafioso." You have to figure it out from what happens the next morning. Did nobody die? Maybe you blocked a key Mafia voter. Did someone die? Maybe you hit a Citizen 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.

In most rulesets, you can block the same player on consecutive nights. This differs from the Doctor's restriction and gives you the ability to lock down a suspect for multiple rounds — a powerful investigative tool when used correctly.

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

1. Block someone you suspect is Mafia, then analyze the morning. If you block a player and nobody dies that night, several explanations are possible: the Doctor made an independent save, you blocked the decisive Mafia 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 Sheriff. This is the worst outcome for the town. You waste the Sheriff's investigation for the night — they chose a target but the GM gave no result. The Sheriff might not even realize they were blocked. If you're unsure, always err toward blocking a suspected Mafioso rather than a suspected town role.

3. Use sequential blocks to test a hypothesis. If you suspect Player 5 is Mafia, block them two nights in a row. If both nights are peaceful (no kills), that's strong circumstantial evidence. One peaceful night could be coincidence or a Doctor save. Two in a row, 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 died. Night 3: didn't block Player 7, Player 4 died. Night 4: blocked Player 7 again, nobody died." 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 Sheriff, you don't get clean binary answers. But a multi-night pattern of "blocked Player X, peaceful; didn't block Player X, death" 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 Mafia. 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 Mafia's kill went through even if the Doctor picked the right target. A death 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 died. Night 2: blocked Player 3, nobody died. Night 3: blocked Player 3 again, nobody died. Night 4: blocked Player 10, someone died. Two peaceful nights when I blocked Player 3, two deaths when I didn't. Player 3 is Mafia."

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. Mafia 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 Mafia. 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 Mafia 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 kill target with nothing to show for it.

Forgetting you're on the Citizen team. The Courtesan has a disruptive, chaotic power, and it's easy to become obsessed with the night-phase puzzle. But you're a Citizen first. Participate in day discussion, vote on your reads, support Sheriff 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 Mafia's kill goes through and an innocent player dies 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 Mafia.

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

Against the Mafia, 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 Mafia teams (2 or fewer), blocking the right Mafioso can prevent the kill entirely. In larger teams, your block reduces their capability without eliminating it. Either way, you're introducing randomness that favors the town's side.

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

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

You blocked Player X and someone died normally: Player X is probably not the critical Mafia killer — or the Mafia team is large enough that your block didn't matter. Consider switching targets. Player X might be a Citizen, the Doctor, or a non-essential Mafia member.

You blocked Player X and two people died: If a Maniac is in play, your block didn't affect either kill. Or you blocked a Citizen and both the Mafia and Maniac kills 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 Sheriff: When to Reveal and Who to Check
• Playing as Mafia: Bluffing, Strategy, and Survival
• The Lover: Vote Protection Tactics
• all roles explained

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