The sheriff is a town-oriented investigative role, and whenever somebody appears suspicious, the sheriff will be able to tell whether he is a serial killer or a mafia member. But, the sheriff is limited only to these two options and if you are playing the role of sheriff, you won’t be able to find the godfather as he is immune to the sheriff’s magnifying glasses. The sheriff shines in the classic mode but fails miserably when it comes to the matter of custom mode. An interesting thing is that he is vastly outclassed by the investigative roles and the lookout role. It is crucial to know what you can get when you are playing as a sheriff and how to use this role to its fullest potential.
Lead the Lynches
The first thing you need to do when you are playing as a sheriff is that you should lead the lynches because of this – saying you are a sheriff and you are getting your turn to investigate as a sheriff – you will get people’s trust easily. The bad side of this effect is that you can be fooled by framers and possibly witches when they are trying to redirect your investigation. Also, as you cannot spot the godfather, and you are only limited to finding serial killers, your role becomes useless when the serial killer is dead. But, there are still few tricks that you can use to your advantage: it is the sheriff who is going to determine finally whether someone is a doctor or a serial killer after the information is provided by the investigator. So if you are playing the role of sheriff, and you are given the information by the investigator that he thinks one of them might be a serial killer, then scrutinize the person. Since you have the ability to see the potentially suspicious characters, you will be able to identify immediately who is a doctor and who is a serial killer.
You can also investigate someone who appears seemingly mafia if he says I’m a Jester. If someone is claiming out loud that I’m a jester, come and lynch me, he might probably be mafia and using this trick as a shield.
Use of Instinct
You must know clearly how to choose your target and when to go for a suspicious person, and this is going to involve a lot of instinct, and a lot of your own personal initiative which is why the sheriff role is possibly the hardest.
One thing is quite certain that the authority and the word of sheriff matters a lot: therefore if you point a finger towards somebody, he is certainly going to be lynched that day or the day after the present day even when he is not a serial killer. So, it means you have the authority to manipulate things for your own advantage: for instance, if you clearly know that someone is an arsonist and you say, no he is a serial killer, the town will easily go for this. You don’t need to be truthful all the time: all you need to do is get the job done.
Why the sheriff needs to use his instinct is a very important question, and here is the explanation for that. As a sheriff, you can investigate the suspicious people – which is authoritative and I acknowledge that – but the problem is when you are investigating someone and he cooperates with you even when he is a serial killer, he will cease to be suspicious at all, and sometimes serial killers use this trick of cooperation to get off from the sight of sheriff. Therefore, in the end, you will have to rely more on your instinct instead of rational choices. Instinct can be your biggest power as a sheriff, especially if the mayor is on your side and you let him know that you are the sheriff, then both of you can drive the lynching towards climax by cooperating with one another. Hopefully, you will also be able to kill lots of mafia people this way.
Don’t Reveal Your Findings Too Early
Don’t reveal your findings too early. If you find the mafia or a serial killer early on, then don’t reveal your findings until around day 3. Otherwise, the town community might think that you are an executioner creating fake evidence. Make sure that you write your evidence in your will, though, in case, you get murdered early.
Don’t Make Brash Decisions
For the sheriff role in Town of Salem in particular and for all roles in general, you need to be very careful about how you deliver the information. If you are too quick and impatient, then the people who should trust you won’t. Be absolutely sure of your evidence, and be ready to argue for your position before calling someone. One tactic that you can use to combat the sense of urgency is to ask someone about their role and the discussion period. You don’t need to accuse them initially: you only need to ask them few questions and see whether their response matches the evidence. If you think that the person is not suspicious then let him go away. And if you think that he is suspicious, then first collect enough evidence and then reveal him.