Town of Salem: The Game That Inspired Among Us Modders

Town of Salem is a social deduction game by BlankMediaGames from 2014. As pilgrims, players are assigned roles in which they are either trying to kill other townsfolk or working to discover which players are murderers. These roles may seem familiar to fans of Among Us, since modders are now adding in a lot of Town of Salem roles into the game.

Like many games in the social deduction subgenre, Town of Salem mimics the impostor mechanics of popular party games like Mafia and Werewolf. Roles can be neutral, good, or evil. In the years since its release, more modes have been added to Town of Salem alongside additional roles. Werewolves, witches, mafia hitmen, and serial killers visit players at night, while daytime is reserved for accusations, deduction, and deception. The browser game was incredibly popular, especially a few years ago, so it’s no surprise that modders are working to make Among Us feel more like Town of Salem now.

There are multiple mods for Among Us that add interesting player roles already. Doctor, Sheriff, Jester, and Vigilante are all popular roles that can make Among Us even more fun. These modded roles can make gameplay more exciting and their popularity is just one of the reasons developer InnerSloth should add official roles when Among Us 2 releases. However, almost all of these mods are based off of roles from Town of Salem.

How Town Of Salem Roles Inspired Among Us Mods

It’s not just the names of the roles that come directly from Town of Salem either. Modded roles in Among Us, like Doctor or Vigilante, work either exactly the same or similarly to how they function in Town of Salem. A Doctor in Town of Salem, for instance, can prevent another townsfolk from dying, while a Doctor in Among Us can revive fallen allies. The Vigilante role in Town of Salem allows a player to shoot killers, but if they mistakenly shoot an innocent pilgrim, they die too. This is exactly how Vigilante (and Sheriff) works in Among Us, too.

It’s not just helpful roles from Town of Salem that have found their way into Among Us. Jesters in Town of Salem have to get the townsfolk to lynch them in order to win, much in the same way the Jester mod in Among Us requires the Jester to get ejected from the game to win the round. This role adds a bit of chaos in either game, but it’s still a lot of fun.

Town of Salem still has a loyal following, so it shouldn’t be too surprising that modders are putting some of the game’s popular roles into Among Us. However, for anyone getting a little tired of Among Us right now, Town of Salem is definitely a great alternative.

About The Author

Austin King
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Austin King is a Game Features Editor at Screen Rant. He’s the author of several books and hosts the Dragon Quest FM and JRPGs & Me podcasts. You can find him on Twitter @DragonQuaustin.

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