Salem is a witch-hunt themed party game in which one player, known as the ‘witch’, tries to fool other players into thinking they are a fellow witch. The witch wins if they convince enough players that they are indeed a witch and those who believe them also become witches. If the remaining players can discover who the witch is they win. There are many strategies and roles to aid you in fooling your friends and claiming victory at Salem!
Salem has three main official roles that are not included in this guide – Investigator, Witch, and Villager. An investigator player will have a way to check if someone is a witch or not. The Villager role has no special abilities, it is just the “everyman” figure in the game. We will be focusing on the Witch and Town roles since these are the ones that are available in this party game.
Town Roles:
The three main town roles in Salem – any one of these can win the game for your team. You will not know which one you are playing as until someone claims victory! Townies do not have any way of knowing who is a witch, so if everyone were to claim the town role it would be up to randomly guessing (and sheer luck) which player is lying. The main roles in the game of Salem:
Town Roles: Witch – A player who has been classified by another player as a witch. If the town votes to execute this person they win along with anyone else who claimed the Town role (if any). Villager – A normal, everyday person living in the town of Salem whose only job is to watch and observe the other players. Townie – A normal, everyday person living in the town of Salem whose only job is to watch and observe the other players.
Witches are very important in Salem! If there are five villagers but three witches it is extremely likely that one of those witches will win with the help from their fellow evil-doers. Witches will win if they manage to convince enough people that they are town and survive up to the end of the game.
If you don’t want your fellow villagers to know who you really are it is best not to claim victory in any way possible! You can make a “shoot the moon” (see next section) or simply not vote when it’s your turn.
Here are some common strategies for claiming victory at Salem:
Vote with the majority of players – this simple strategy is actually more complex than it sounds, but essentially you do what the townies say and try to follow your fellow villagers’ voting pattern. The main drawback here is that often players will “shoot the moon” (see below) and you will be killed with the rest of the townies.
Claim before anyone else – if you are one of the first to claim victory it can often throw other players off your scent as they may think you simply guessed a random person’s role or wanted to seem important. Your goal at this point would be to try and convince them that you are a townie and not a witch.
Claim after a “shoot the moon” – although you may be killed by this action, it can still work in your favor if nobody else is ready to claim victory or they fear being the last person alive with the witches. If you manage to convince others that you are indeed one of the good guys (there are usually some townies left at this point) you will win the game.
Conclusion:
As a townie in Salem you have many strategies to win the game, but witches have just as many. Witches must convince the other players that they are indeed one of the good guys and not a villainous fiend like themselves.
