Script Notes: Canary
Canary (Townsfolk): Each dusk, you may visit the Storyteller to learn something a Minion is mad about.
The Canary is fairly flexible — regardless of script, Minions likely want to be pushing worlds and saying things publicly, so the info in town doesn’t corner the Demon. Learning that evil is supporting a particular push can be neat. Pairing the Canary with evil disruption can also be cool, since it isolates Minions socially, and makes them more hesitant to say things. A Canary who learns a NO knows that nobody who’s actively pushing worlds is a Minion.
To that end, the Canary likes towns that actually, uh, say things! If people aren’t nominating or voting on D1, and don’t have a ton to go off of, the Canary’s going to be upset. Pairing the Canary with characters that encourage strong pushes to begin with can encourage players to be more decisive and make strong plays, and for Minions to join in on those pushes. There’s a lot that works, and I’d encourage you to experiment a bit — frontloaded info good wants to share early like that of an Investigator, characters that encourage coordination like a Princess, that sorta thing. As a quick and dirty rule of thumb, characters that script well with the Harpy tend to script well with the Canary, too.
On the flipside, characters that encourage town-wide info hiding, like the Heretic, can be weird to pair with the Canary. If everyone is staying quiet and not really pushing much other than “look just vote on this the trusted players know what’s up”, a Canary might have a hard time feeling useful.
Interesting interactions:
“Dusk”: Maybe this goes in the main almanac, but for clarity: this is shorthand for “just before dusk”. A Poisoner, Sailor, or Xaan droisoning the Canary causes them to get droisoned info, even though their effects end at dusk.
Alchemist: An Alchemist with a Minion ability isn’t a Minion, so things they’re mad about don’t register to the Canary.
Bounty Hunter/Goon/Ogre/Mezepheles: Similarly, an evil Townsfolk or Outsider isn’t a Minion, so anything they’re mad about wouldn’t be on a Canary’s radar unless a Minion was also mad about it.
Minstrel: Technically, the Minstrel drunks two days of the Canary’s info: right after a Minion dies by execution, and at the end of the Minstrel day (since the Canary technically acts just before dusk). Feel free to handwave this to be good and not bad if you so choose; I’m not interested enough in scripting Minstrel to jinx this.
Preacher: A preached Minion still counts as a Minion for what the Canary tracks.
Town Crier: Can cause towns to get nom-policey about players who were pushing specific worlds yesterday to narrow Canary info. This isn’t a “don’t script these characters together ever” thing, but it’s something to keep in mind.
Recluse: Yes, and do.
Boffin: A Boffin-Canary ability is nice the way Boffin-TC can be in a game with evil info disruption. Try it out!
Evil Twin: Twin Canaries are awesome if the Evil Twin is up for bluffing Canary (since it’s not particularly easy). A Canary outside the twinpair can help solve it — just don’t tell them “X is the evil twin”, because that’s lame as hell.
Pit-Hag/Scarlet Woman/Imp: A Canary has to learn a NO if there aren’t any Minions in play. It’s Town Crier-like in that sense.
Psychopath/Vizier: If everyone already knows who the Minion is, the Canary isn’t learning anything new. I’d avoid scripting these together.
Spy: Yes, but I wouldn’t.
Legion: All Legion players register as Minions, so the Canary can learn about something one of them is mad about. This doesn’t tend to solo-solve Legion, but it can give the Canary a clue if they’re learning stuff from all sides of the rhetorical aisle over the span of a couple days.
Leviathan: I wouldn’t script these two together — the first few days of a Leviathan game are usually pretty quiet, and the Canary’s either going to learn insane info if a Minion decides to out something, or a NO if none do.
Vortox: The Canary learns something no Minion was mad about. This can be fun, but also deceptively tricky to Storytell in larger games with Minions who are taking every side of a worldbuilding debate — you’d give a NO if you physically can’t think of something that was said that a Minion hasn’t been convincing town of.
Yaggababble: These two characters don’t actually directly interact, but I do want to point out that the Canary doesn’t suffer from the same “final 4” problem the Yaggababble does, since it just means that if nobody’s saying much of anything, the Canary learns a NO that day and life moves on.
Barista: Barista-truthserum would affect a Canary going for info at the end of the day (see the section earlier on “Dusk”). A Barista-doubled Canary learns two things Minions are mad about.
Butcher: I’d rule that dusk happens after a Butcher uses their ability (or declines nominating) for the purposes of when a Canary should solicit their info.
Knaves: A potential Knaves-swap would happen after the Canary would get their info (see “Dusk”). I’m not really sure why you’re scripting these two together, but, like, if you wanted to.