Despite its quiet launch back in 2018, Among Us has quickly grown into one of the biggest games of 2020. Building off the social deduction games that came before it, Among Us is a game of deception that secretly pits two teams against each other. One side, the Crewmates, just want to stay alive while completing a list of mundane tasks. The Imposters, on the other hand, need to secretly kill off all the crewmates while remaining undetected.
RIP my partner in crime. :(
Throughout the game, players get multiple opportunities to vote on who they think are secretly imposters. If any player gets the majority of the votes, they are swiftly ejected out of the airlock to their untimely demise (regardless of if they were actually an imposter or not). During these votes, both sides are often quick to point fingers at each other, to either point out which players are behaving suspiciously or to deflect suspicion away from themselves. But what makes a player suspicious, and how can you use it to your advantage?
What’s The Motive?
Whenever someone does an action in Among Us (or in any social deception game really), there are multiple possible explanations behind that action. For example, let’s say a player calls a meeting immediately after discovering a body. On the one hand, they could be an honest crewmate who just happened to stumble across the murder. On the other hand, they could be an imposter that self-reported their own murder to try to make themselves look innocent. Those are two completely different motivations behind the same action, and that brings us to the heart of what it means to be suspicious.
“I swear they were like that when I got there.”
See, we often think saying someone “looks suspicious” is the same as saying that they are lying. It’s not. If we knew for certain someone was lying, we wouldn’t call them “suspicious”. Rather, being suspicious means we think they might be lying and that they might be telling the truth. It means we’re uncertain.
Certainty is the opposite of suspicion. As soon as someone does an action that only has one possible explanation, they are no longer suspicious. Instead, we become certain if they are a threat or not. That’s why some tasks like the scanner or the guns are so important in eliminating suspicion because they trigger a visual effect that can only occur if the player is a crewmember. Likewise, watching someone pop out of a vent eliminates suspicious because it’s an ability that only imposters can do. In both cases, suspicion disappears because we become certain of the other player’s intentions.
But as long as an action has multiple possible interpretations, that player will remain suspicious. Did Blue stop moving to check their map, or to trigger a sabotage? Did the progress bar move up because Red finished a task, or because someone else on the map finished their task at the same time? Are Pink and Yellow moving together to stay safe, or are they actually a pair of killers?
Be Certain?
So what do we do with this knowledge? Well, as a crewmember, your goal at all times should be to act as clearly and consistently as possible. You want to make the other players feel certain that there is only one possible explanation behind your actions. You want other players to see you complete tasks, watch you pass up on easy kill opportunities, and spot you rush to fix sabotages. On the flip side, you don’t want to be seen doing anything that could be interpreted ambiguously. That means you don’t want to randomly stop moving in the middle of a hallway, or spend too much time by yourself. You need to always be on your best behaviour, and make sure everyone sees you being a good team player.
On the flip side, as an imposter, you always need a solid believable interpretation for your nefarious deeds. But even more importantly, you need to say those interpretations with enough conviction that they seem like the only possible explanation. Don’t let the other players entertain the idea that you’re an imposter, because then even if you’re very convincing they’ll remain at least a little suspicious.
On top of that, as an imposter it’s not enough to make others feel certain you’re safe. You also need to make the crew feel uncertain about everyone else. Whenever someone says why they did something, make up another reason (e.g. “Oh, you were hanging out with Yellow? Maybe you did it to make a fake alibi.”). Use your sabotages to split people up so they can’t vouch for each other, or cut the lights so they can’t see what’s going on. And whenever someone makes it certain they can be trusted, eliminate them as quickly as possible. Certainty is your true enemy, and you need to kill it first.
