This is long overdue. If you search “@orangeandblack5 fool”, you can see that I have spoken out against the Fool, both in FoL and ToL, many times over the past year. However, I always kind of hoped that we’d be able to somehow manage having them in FoL with no real issues. If nothing else, FoL 11 has shown me that this is not the case.
First off, Fool is insanely easy. Just look at Sketch. Although I really do like and respect him, he is not afraid to use cheeky tactics in pursuit of a win (just look at his meta “Maid-slip” in his first game), and in FoL 11 he won as a Fool by doing literally nothing. He just didn’t post. This inactivity is unlike him, and with no better target he was the obvious lynch choice. There was no way anybody could read him as a Fool, because he basically didn’t even play. Yet he got himself lynched and a win. This is essentially ususal. Of the 6 games a Fool has spawned in so far, they have only lost one game, and in that game they were randomly killed Night 1. They have won every other game, giving them what I believe is the highest FoL winrate at over 83%. That’s way too high, and it stems from the fact that convincing people to lynch you is really easy when you have several days to do it, a factor that is only helped by the trial clock not pausing the day timer. When somebody is voted up in FoL, voting them innocent often doesn’t leave you enough time to change targets, so an execution is much more likely to be the best option. This all means that Fool is way too easy for FoL.
In addition, the entire purpose of the Fool is really nullified in a forum game like FoL. Although they would probably be better off without a Fool or Jester, games like ToS, ToL, and SC2M have this role to provide a crutch to new and/or bad players. By making scummy actions potentially come from a Fool/Jester, these games allow poor play to go unpunished due to fear. This is inherently a bastard mechanic; punishing the Town for lynching somebody who is scum goes against their entire purpose, as lynches are the Town’s only true way of eliminating their enemies. In a forum game like FoL, however, the extended timer and discussion put much less pressure on the scum to quickly react to things, which means that there should be no need for this crutch whatsoever. If a scum player messes up in FoL, they shouldn’t be saved by the fear of a Fool.
This is made worse by the fact that the punishment for lynching a Fool is absolutely aggravating. Being unable to lynch people for two days grinds the pacing of the game to a halt for 10 entire days. 240 hours is a long time, and to make pretty much every BD unable to do anything of real value during this time is ridiculous. Having no ability to push people that are scummy pulls you out of the experience of playing the game, and it can be really hard to get re-invested after a game wastes your time for more than an entire week.
Although there are many more points I could make, given the time, I think that I’ve covered the main issues with the Fool here in FoL. This bastard role has no place in a forum game, and pretty much every other FM site on the internet has reached that conclusion. Talk to somebody from MafiaScum, Town of Salem FM, or Mafia Universe, and you will hear nothing but criticism for the Jester/Fool, for good reason. I believe it is high time we stop lagging behind the rest of FM on this particular issue.
