A 9 player game will have 5 town, 2 outsiders, 1 minion, and the Imp
A 10 player game will have 7 town, 0 outsiders, 2 minions, and the Imp
An 11 player game will have 7 town, 1 outsider, 2 minion and the Imp
generally i would recommend to make a good setup for first time players:
* A Scarlet Woman (backup incase the Imp is struggling)
* No Spy (it's a bit overwhelming for game 1)
* A couple of ongoing info roles (Empath, Fortune Teller or Undertaker)
* A reason for players to get false info (Drunk, Recluse, Poisoner)
* A reason for good players to lie and get killed (Ravenkeeper, Soldier, Saint)
so an example 10-player setup might be:
Washerwoman, Chef, Empath, Undertaker, Monk, Ravenkeeper, Slayer
Poisoner, Scarlet Woman, Imp
Bluffs: Fortune Teller, Recluse, Investigator
it's pretty much impossible to make a bad setup in Trouble Brewing so you'll be fine :D
This is strong advice and that's a good setup for 10. The one bullet point I would add is making sure that there are a couple of sources of first night information. It's pretty easy to manage with how balanced the script is and the Empath serving as both first and ongoing, but I make sure there's both first night and ongoing information getters.
Trouble Brewing works with literally any combination of the roles. It’s meant to be newbie friendly, so just let them pick randomly and you’re good to go.
Luckily for you - it's really difficult to do a bad setup of roles in Trouble Brewing.
But honestly, at the end of the day, choosing your roles randomly will work out completely fine.
Here are some standards I use to teach beginners:
* Not too many first-night-only roles (can be boring for players)
* No Spy (can be confusing in a player's first game)
* Scarlet Woman (the chance of the evil team messing up is significantly higher for new players)
* Either a Poisoner or a Drunk (or neither) (misinformation should exist, but not too much to make it unfair. Remember roles like Fortune Teller and Recluse can provide smaller amounts of misinfo, which are great.)
* Good, easy-to-understand Demon bluffs. Saint, Washerwoman and Soldier are great. A mistake some people do is giving a beginner the Mayor as a bluff. They will not understand the purpose of it.
* SOME reasons for good players to lie. Soldier and Ravenkeeper are both good, so long as players understand how to play them.
Depends on how experienced your players are, if there very new its common to go with Scarlet Woman as the first minion and avoid the Spy (although you could focus on the ability to register as good more). If they are an experienced group, a random selection that reflects the correct combination of characters (once you've added any extra Outsiders if you have a Baron) should be good.
I've seen this recommend a few times: Imp, Scarlet Woman, Baron, Recluse, Mayor, Virgin, Washerwoman, Chef, Undertaker with Empath for 10 and Saint for 11. There would be a floating drunk with this setup, which would probably be the Chef but could be another character depending on pulls from the bag and the final seating arrangement.
There's a helpful post on the BGG forum that lists role breakdowns for different players counts for the 3 base games which is very helpful. The instruction manual also recommends good starting roles to use. [Link to BGG here.](https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/274204/suggested-roles-for-player-counts-7-12)
People will likely tell you TB is inherently balanced, you can shuffle the tokens randomly and it will work out fine. That's true, but for first time storytelling and playing, I'd recommend catering the roles to what you're comfortable with and which abilities seem most fun for your group. For example, my first time storytelling TB I didn't include a Spy because I was nervous showing the grimoire would make noise or I would drop it. It helped me feel more confident going into the game knowing I wouldn't need to worry about that.
I would definitely recommend using the Drunk as an outsider because it's very fun and it introduces the group to the Drunk mechanic. I also recommend using Scarlet Woman as a minion as a way to keep the game moving if things get hairy for the evil team early on.
At the end of the day, the roles that go in the bag will send you and your friends on a wild and chaotic journey. Take your time during the night phase, own your mistakes, and feel free to take the back seat and let your players do a lot of the work for you.
If it's 1 one Minion game, you'll probably want SW or Poisoner. A full house of outsiders (Baron) would be solvable and probably really hurt Evil's chances. The Demon can 100% use a Saint bluff/double claim to buy time, and could always back into a Recluse play.
10/11 Player, you can't really go wrong with Baron/SW/Poisoner combos. If evil uses Outsider Bluff, town will auto think its a Baron game. So SW/Poisoner can really run amuck here.
As other people said, a combo of N1 Information, ongoing information and a reason for good to lie. If you are crafting a specific game; think about which Demon Bluffs to give out. Monk in play with Solider as a Bluff for example (to explain a no death night).
TB is resilient, but here are some tips in order of importance.
- No Spy, you'll fry their brain.
- Scarlet Woman for some backup for the demon.
- Exactly one form of droisoning. I'd recommend a Drunk over a Poisoner to make it easier to sus out.
- One or two recurring info roles (Empath, UT, FT). Empath encourages conspiracy with your neighbors, Undertaker encourages executions, both help new players understand the value of these shady seeming tools. If you put both in, make one drunk.
- One or two first night roles. These set the tone of the early game and get people talking. Washerwoman can be useless if your players are too open, Chef can be a bit puzzley for newbies, and Investigator can lead to defensiveness and he said she said stuff. I usually go with a Librarian seeing Drunk, as a Drunk hunt is a fun way to kill a few days and inattentive towns can sometimes miss counting outsiders. Give the Librarian the two each night roles from before to make it more interesting. You don't need a Librarian if you have a Baron, since your players will already be privy to the outsider count being messed with and focus on it. In that case, Baron is a good Investigator ping.
- Characters they have incentives to be cagey. I really just mean Ravenkeeper. If you properly explain the goal of the Ravenkeeper, they can be a great catalyst for building conspiracy with other players.
- Protection is optional. Fear of being killed at night is big, and having a powerful character out publically and then get monk protected for the rest of the game could teach players a bad lesson. YMMV, it doesn't really matter.
- Outsiders besides drunk don't really matter. Avoid Butler because it sucks but also players are going to struggle to remember rules without having a secret character specific one to follow.
- I typically go for the cheap demon bluffs (Saint, Soldier, Recluse, Slayer) so the demon doesn't have to make up information for a role they wouldn't even understand if they had it. However, in groups where players only talk to share their information, You might need to put in empath or ravenkeeper or washerwoman to give the demon a reason to seek out their minions.
After game 1, start throwing in spicier characters. Poisoner, Chef, Fortune Teller. The Drunk Librarian trick is always fun to pull on a new group. Once your players start regularly conspiringnwith each other, then you'll know you can start using stuff like Spy and Monk to their full potential.
I once ranked the TB characters on beginner-friendliness, and think it could be useful in this conversation. I'll make a separate comment with my personal character suggestions for a 9, 10 and 11 player game, based on the rankings below.
Townsfolk:
1. Undertaker: It brings back a familiar feature of similar social deduction games: learning the role of dead players. It encourages players to execute, something new players are often hesitant about
2. Monk: A fairly basic protection role. New players are more likely to tell everyone about there role, so the Monk can reduce the potential consequences for doing so.
3. Washerwoman: A solid "you start knowing" confirmation role, it's a role that encourages starting a private chat, a mechanic newer players often underutilize.
4. Empath: A solid passive information role. Has a bit of complexity, with potentially wanting to kill their neighbors to gather more info, but this strategy isn't important enough to avoid giving this role to newer players by any means.
5. Mayor: Players might get a bit bored with how passive the ability is, but it can spice up the final 3
6. Fortune Teller: The red herring mechanic and picking 2 people each night, might lead to a bit of confusion, but the role is still pretty simple.
7. Chef: It might be a bit hard to figure out how useful this info is for newer players, however, it's unlikely to cause any issues.
8. Ravenkeeper: Having a role be one that wants to be targetted by the demon during your first game, might pose an issue, as you're unlikely to know how to properly bluff a different role. However, when it triggers, it often results in a fun experience for the player.
9. Virgin: Players might not realise the benefit of the Virgin's ability, and the Virgin might end up getting a powerful townsfolk killed, but teaching players about mechanical confirmation can't be a bad thing.
10. Soldier: while the role is pretty simple, I often see new players be dissatisfied with this role. There isn't a lot of feedback on whether you're actually doing something, and it also adds the problem of trying to bait the demon, which new players are once again ill-equipped to do.
11. Slayer: While I think it's a pretty beginner friendly role, the sudden end to a game might be anti-climactic and if they miss, the role might be seen as boring.
12. Librarian: I've seen new Librarians try to execute their outsider, because "they have a harmful ability" way too often. Probably best paired with a Saint.
13. Investigator: If anyone has it rough with fake claiming during their first game, it's the evil team. Putting extra pressure on them with an investigator ping, is ill-advised.
Outsiders:
1. Recluse: Solid outsider, not too punishing, but does have it's ways to mess with the good team.
2. Saint: If they do get executed, the end of the game doesn't come out of nowhere, unlike the slayer shot. It'd have been a decision by the majority of the group.
3. Drunk: An iconic character in blood on the clocktower, but new players often forget to entertain the idea of being the drunk, which leads to the Drunk often being more impactful than it should be.
4. Butler: Many people find this role boring, so I just wouldn't risk using it in your first game, to not have your players lose interest in the game simply because they're the butler.
Minions:
1. Scarlet Woman: A safety net for the evil team, very helpful for new players as they are often not comfortable enough with the game to properly bluff.
2. Poisoner: A great introduction to droisoning, also helps the evil team stay under the radar while they're still getting the hang of the game.
3. Baron: Might be perceived as a boring role, but gets players familiar with outsider modification
4. Spy: Likely to be overwhelming (especially for in-person games) and the registering as good might end up causing a bit too much confusion for the good team.
Demons:
1. Imp: There are so many reasons why the Imp is the best Demon on the script, trying to mention them all is a lost cause, so I won't mention any of them.
As for which role to make the drunk think they are, most roles are fine, but I'd avoid the following:
-Soldier: Makes a role that barely does anything, do even less
-Mayor: Reaching final 3 and convincing people not to execute, only to lose, would just feel really bad for the player that thought they were Mayor
-Chef: Their info is already not as to-the-point as other info roles, it's best to give the chef correct info in their first game.
-Slayer: Similar to the Mayor, guessing the Demon correctly, but not winning because you're the drunk, is likely to leave a bad taste in the player's mouth
-Ravenkeeper: successfully getting yourself killed by the Demon, only to be fed false information, would feel bad.
In a 9-player game, I'd suggest the following lineup:
Townsfolk: Undertaker, Librarian (seeing the saint), Monk, Fortune Teller, Mayor
Outsiders: Recluse, Saint
Minion: Scarlet Woman
Demon: Imp (Empath, Ravenkeeper and Slayer as bluffs)
Then, in a 10-player game, I'd go with the lineup of:
Townsfolk: Undertaker, Washerwoman (seeing Mayor), Mayor, Chef, Empath, Ravenkeeper, Monk
Minions: Scarlet Woman, Poisoner
Demon: Imp (Fortune Teller, Investigator and Slayer as bluffs)
Lastly, if the game reaches 11 players, I'd go with:
Townsfolk: Undertaker, Washerwoman (seeing Mayor), Mayor, Slayer, Fortune Teller, Ravenkeeper, Monk
Outsider: Recluse
Minions: Scarlet Woman, Poisoner
Demon: Imp (Empath, Investigator and Soldier as bluffs)
Depends on if you consider your group to be "gamerbrains" or not. I've hosted some online games with my heavy gamer friends as well as in-person groups where some people have never played a modern game before. If you're group is the former, maybe just leave out the Spy because it's a lot of pressure on a first time evil player.
If your group is the later, you may want to avoid characters they might feel are boring/frustrating to run. Soldier and Ravenkeeper can do interesting things but newbie players tend to not know how to use them and just tell everyone right away which basically makes their abilities useless. It takes a few games for players to figure out that good players can and should lie sometimes. I'd also not use the Saint or Slayer because they can make a game end early. Slayer seems like a great idea because it's a straight-forward and fun ability, until you get a game with a demon who doesn't know how to lie at all or doesn't understand their bluffs and the game ends before it can even get started because the Slayer snipes the obviously sus demon. I had a game end very quickly because the Saint didn't understand that they could be confirmed by outsider count and they should use that to gain trust, they literally just allowed themselves to be executed and never told anybody they were the Saint until it was far too late and it just looked like demon-panic. Butler is frustrating for everyone, even experienced players tend not to like it.
Considering all these factors, I recommend Washerwoman for early team-building, Drunk to get them to understand how outsider count and handling potential misinformation work, Librarian to help narrow down the possible drunk, Fortune Teller for consistent info that isn't iron-clad, Empath and Undertaker to give more info and also tacitly encourage executions (which new players are often hesitant to do). Maybe Monk if you need another because it feels strong and can possible help the game last a bit longer. For minion it's pretty safe to say Scarlett Woman is the obvious choice because it can buffer the game against an incompetent Demon.
It's Trouble Brewing. you really don't have to overthink it. It's so durable that you could pull any combination and make a great game. No spy for a 1st game, and do make sure to include scarlet woman. Drunk is a great outsider. Try to have a variety of townsfolk types in the game, but which ones doesn't really matter.
A 9 player game will have 5 town, 2 outsiders, 1 minion, and the Imp A 10 player game will have 7 town, 0 outsiders, 2 minions, and the Imp An 11 player game will have 7 town, 1 outsider, 2 minion and the Imp generally i would recommend to make a good setup for first time players: * A Scarlet Woman (backup incase the Imp is struggling) * No Spy (it's a bit overwhelming for game 1) * A couple of ongoing info roles (Empath, Fortune Teller or Undertaker) * A reason for players to get false info (Drunk, Recluse, Poisoner) * A reason for good players to lie and get killed (Ravenkeeper, Soldier, Saint) so an example 10-player setup might be: Washerwoman, Chef, Empath, Undertaker, Monk, Ravenkeeper, Slayer Poisoner, Scarlet Woman, Imp Bluffs: Fortune Teller, Recluse, Investigator it's pretty much impossible to make a bad setup in Trouble Brewing so you'll be fine :D
This is strong advice and that's a good setup for 10. The one bullet point I would add is making sure that there are a couple of sources of first night information. It's pretty easy to manage with how balanced the script is and the Empath serving as both first and ongoing, but I make sure there's both first night and ongoing information getters.
Trouble Brewing works with literally any combination of the roles. It’s meant to be newbie friendly, so just let them pick randomly and you’re good to go.
Luckily for you - it's really difficult to do a bad setup of roles in Trouble Brewing. But honestly, at the end of the day, choosing your roles randomly will work out completely fine. Here are some standards I use to teach beginners: * Not too many first-night-only roles (can be boring for players) * No Spy (can be confusing in a player's first game) * Scarlet Woman (the chance of the evil team messing up is significantly higher for new players) * Either a Poisoner or a Drunk (or neither) (misinformation should exist, but not too much to make it unfair. Remember roles like Fortune Teller and Recluse can provide smaller amounts of misinfo, which are great.) * Good, easy-to-understand Demon bluffs. Saint, Washerwoman and Soldier are great. A mistake some people do is giving a beginner the Mayor as a bluff. They will not understand the purpose of it. * SOME reasons for good players to lie. Soldier and Ravenkeeper are both good, so long as players understand how to play them.
Depends on how experienced your players are, if there very new its common to go with Scarlet Woman as the first minion and avoid the Spy (although you could focus on the ability to register as good more). If they are an experienced group, a random selection that reflects the correct combination of characters (once you've added any extra Outsiders if you have a Baron) should be good. I've seen this recommend a few times: Imp, Scarlet Woman, Baron, Recluse, Mayor, Virgin, Washerwoman, Chef, Undertaker with Empath for 10 and Saint for 11. There would be a floating drunk with this setup, which would probably be the Chef but could be another character depending on pulls from the bag and the final seating arrangement.
There's a helpful post on the BGG forum that lists role breakdowns for different players counts for the 3 base games which is very helpful. The instruction manual also recommends good starting roles to use. [Link to BGG here.](https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/274204/suggested-roles-for-player-counts-7-12) People will likely tell you TB is inherently balanced, you can shuffle the tokens randomly and it will work out fine. That's true, but for first time storytelling and playing, I'd recommend catering the roles to what you're comfortable with and which abilities seem most fun for your group. For example, my first time storytelling TB I didn't include a Spy because I was nervous showing the grimoire would make noise or I would drop it. It helped me feel more confident going into the game knowing I wouldn't need to worry about that. I would definitely recommend using the Drunk as an outsider because it's very fun and it introduces the group to the Drunk mechanic. I also recommend using Scarlet Woman as a minion as a way to keep the game moving if things get hairy for the evil team early on. At the end of the day, the roles that go in the bag will send you and your friends on a wild and chaotic journey. Take your time during the night phase, own your mistakes, and feel free to take the back seat and let your players do a lot of the work for you.
If it's 1 one Minion game, you'll probably want SW or Poisoner. A full house of outsiders (Baron) would be solvable and probably really hurt Evil's chances. The Demon can 100% use a Saint bluff/double claim to buy time, and could always back into a Recluse play. 10/11 Player, you can't really go wrong with Baron/SW/Poisoner combos. If evil uses Outsider Bluff, town will auto think its a Baron game. So SW/Poisoner can really run amuck here. As other people said, a combo of N1 Information, ongoing information and a reason for good to lie. If you are crafting a specific game; think about which Demon Bluffs to give out. Monk in play with Solider as a Bluff for example (to explain a no death night).
TB is resilient, but here are some tips in order of importance. - No Spy, you'll fry their brain. - Scarlet Woman for some backup for the demon. - Exactly one form of droisoning. I'd recommend a Drunk over a Poisoner to make it easier to sus out. - One or two recurring info roles (Empath, UT, FT). Empath encourages conspiracy with your neighbors, Undertaker encourages executions, both help new players understand the value of these shady seeming tools. If you put both in, make one drunk. - One or two first night roles. These set the tone of the early game and get people talking. Washerwoman can be useless if your players are too open, Chef can be a bit puzzley for newbies, and Investigator can lead to defensiveness and he said she said stuff. I usually go with a Librarian seeing Drunk, as a Drunk hunt is a fun way to kill a few days and inattentive towns can sometimes miss counting outsiders. Give the Librarian the two each night roles from before to make it more interesting. You don't need a Librarian if you have a Baron, since your players will already be privy to the outsider count being messed with and focus on it. In that case, Baron is a good Investigator ping. - Characters they have incentives to be cagey. I really just mean Ravenkeeper. If you properly explain the goal of the Ravenkeeper, they can be a great catalyst for building conspiracy with other players. - Protection is optional. Fear of being killed at night is big, and having a powerful character out publically and then get monk protected for the rest of the game could teach players a bad lesson. YMMV, it doesn't really matter. - Outsiders besides drunk don't really matter. Avoid Butler because it sucks but also players are going to struggle to remember rules without having a secret character specific one to follow. - I typically go for the cheap demon bluffs (Saint, Soldier, Recluse, Slayer) so the demon doesn't have to make up information for a role they wouldn't even understand if they had it. However, in groups where players only talk to share their information, You might need to put in empath or ravenkeeper or washerwoman to give the demon a reason to seek out their minions. After game 1, start throwing in spicier characters. Poisoner, Chef, Fortune Teller. The Drunk Librarian trick is always fun to pull on a new group. Once your players start regularly conspiringnwith each other, then you'll know you can start using stuff like Spy and Monk to their full potential.
I once ranked the TB characters on beginner-friendliness, and think it could be useful in this conversation. I'll make a separate comment with my personal character suggestions for a 9, 10 and 11 player game, based on the rankings below. Townsfolk: 1. Undertaker: It brings back a familiar feature of similar social deduction games: learning the role of dead players. It encourages players to execute, something new players are often hesitant about 2. Monk: A fairly basic protection role. New players are more likely to tell everyone about there role, so the Monk can reduce the potential consequences for doing so. 3. Washerwoman: A solid "you start knowing" confirmation role, it's a role that encourages starting a private chat, a mechanic newer players often underutilize. 4. Empath: A solid passive information role. Has a bit of complexity, with potentially wanting to kill their neighbors to gather more info, but this strategy isn't important enough to avoid giving this role to newer players by any means. 5. Mayor: Players might get a bit bored with how passive the ability is, but it can spice up the final 3 6. Fortune Teller: The red herring mechanic and picking 2 people each night, might lead to a bit of confusion, but the role is still pretty simple. 7. Chef: It might be a bit hard to figure out how useful this info is for newer players, however, it's unlikely to cause any issues. 8. Ravenkeeper: Having a role be one that wants to be targetted by the demon during your first game, might pose an issue, as you're unlikely to know how to properly bluff a different role. However, when it triggers, it often results in a fun experience for the player. 9. Virgin: Players might not realise the benefit of the Virgin's ability, and the Virgin might end up getting a powerful townsfolk killed, but teaching players about mechanical confirmation can't be a bad thing. 10. Soldier: while the role is pretty simple, I often see new players be dissatisfied with this role. There isn't a lot of feedback on whether you're actually doing something, and it also adds the problem of trying to bait the demon, which new players are once again ill-equipped to do. 11. Slayer: While I think it's a pretty beginner friendly role, the sudden end to a game might be anti-climactic and if they miss, the role might be seen as boring. 12. Librarian: I've seen new Librarians try to execute their outsider, because "they have a harmful ability" way too often. Probably best paired with a Saint. 13. Investigator: If anyone has it rough with fake claiming during their first game, it's the evil team. Putting extra pressure on them with an investigator ping, is ill-advised. Outsiders: 1. Recluse: Solid outsider, not too punishing, but does have it's ways to mess with the good team. 2. Saint: If they do get executed, the end of the game doesn't come out of nowhere, unlike the slayer shot. It'd have been a decision by the majority of the group. 3. Drunk: An iconic character in blood on the clocktower, but new players often forget to entertain the idea of being the drunk, which leads to the Drunk often being more impactful than it should be. 4. Butler: Many people find this role boring, so I just wouldn't risk using it in your first game, to not have your players lose interest in the game simply because they're the butler. Minions: 1. Scarlet Woman: A safety net for the evil team, very helpful for new players as they are often not comfortable enough with the game to properly bluff. 2. Poisoner: A great introduction to droisoning, also helps the evil team stay under the radar while they're still getting the hang of the game. 3. Baron: Might be perceived as a boring role, but gets players familiar with outsider modification 4. Spy: Likely to be overwhelming (especially for in-person games) and the registering as good might end up causing a bit too much confusion for the good team. Demons: 1. Imp: There are so many reasons why the Imp is the best Demon on the script, trying to mention them all is a lost cause, so I won't mention any of them. As for which role to make the drunk think they are, most roles are fine, but I'd avoid the following: -Soldier: Makes a role that barely does anything, do even less -Mayor: Reaching final 3 and convincing people not to execute, only to lose, would just feel really bad for the player that thought they were Mayor -Chef: Their info is already not as to-the-point as other info roles, it's best to give the chef correct info in their first game. -Slayer: Similar to the Mayor, guessing the Demon correctly, but not winning because you're the drunk, is likely to leave a bad taste in the player's mouth -Ravenkeeper: successfully getting yourself killed by the Demon, only to be fed false information, would feel bad.
In a 9-player game, I'd suggest the following lineup: Townsfolk: Undertaker, Librarian (seeing the saint), Monk, Fortune Teller, Mayor Outsiders: Recluse, Saint Minion: Scarlet Woman Demon: Imp (Empath, Ravenkeeper and Slayer as bluffs) Then, in a 10-player game, I'd go with the lineup of: Townsfolk: Undertaker, Washerwoman (seeing Mayor), Mayor, Chef, Empath, Ravenkeeper, Monk Minions: Scarlet Woman, Poisoner Demon: Imp (Fortune Teller, Investigator and Slayer as bluffs) Lastly, if the game reaches 11 players, I'd go with: Townsfolk: Undertaker, Washerwoman (seeing Mayor), Mayor, Slayer, Fortune Teller, Ravenkeeper, Monk Outsider: Recluse Minions: Scarlet Woman, Poisoner Demon: Imp (Empath, Investigator and Soldier as bluffs)
Amazing feedback! Thank you so much :)
Depends on if you consider your group to be "gamerbrains" or not. I've hosted some online games with my heavy gamer friends as well as in-person groups where some people have never played a modern game before. If you're group is the former, maybe just leave out the Spy because it's a lot of pressure on a first time evil player. If your group is the later, you may want to avoid characters they might feel are boring/frustrating to run. Soldier and Ravenkeeper can do interesting things but newbie players tend to not know how to use them and just tell everyone right away which basically makes their abilities useless. It takes a few games for players to figure out that good players can and should lie sometimes. I'd also not use the Saint or Slayer because they can make a game end early. Slayer seems like a great idea because it's a straight-forward and fun ability, until you get a game with a demon who doesn't know how to lie at all or doesn't understand their bluffs and the game ends before it can even get started because the Slayer snipes the obviously sus demon. I had a game end very quickly because the Saint didn't understand that they could be confirmed by outsider count and they should use that to gain trust, they literally just allowed themselves to be executed and never told anybody they were the Saint until it was far too late and it just looked like demon-panic. Butler is frustrating for everyone, even experienced players tend not to like it. Considering all these factors, I recommend Washerwoman for early team-building, Drunk to get them to understand how outsider count and handling potential misinformation work, Librarian to help narrow down the possible drunk, Fortune Teller for consistent info that isn't iron-clad, Empath and Undertaker to give more info and also tacitly encourage executions (which new players are often hesitant to do). Maybe Monk if you need another because it feels strong and can possible help the game last a bit longer. For minion it's pretty safe to say Scarlett Woman is the obvious choice because it can buffer the game against an incompetent Demon.
It's Trouble Brewing. you really don't have to overthink it. It's so durable that you could pull any combination and make a great game. No spy for a 1st game, and do make sure to include scarlet woman. Drunk is a great outsider. Try to have a variety of townsfolk types in the game, but which ones doesn't really matter.