Bay 12 Games Forum

The spheres are broad categories of roles and limitations to roles and can include things not shown in the examples below. Some spheres are dark blue, indicating they work on a meta level, modifying other spheres you have. As such, you can't pick three dark-blue meta spheres— the role has to do something.

Blue Ability Spheres
Sneak: You can detect the actions of others (e.g. watch, track)
Chat: You interact with chats (e.g. have an additional chat with another player, or are able to send information to other player's chats etc.)
Curse: Curse abilities give other players detriments that are not fatal, they may get progressively worse, add harmful corruptions, or mimic or transfer existing flaws.
Daytime: At least one of your abilities works during the day.
Fruit: You send players fruit. On its own, this does nothing, but may be augmented by other spheres. Fruit can be traded, but it rots away at the end of the next night. Fruit ingested usually would give a temporary effect or ability.
Hats: Your role involves hats, which are items that can be Traded in the Trading phase, which usually give a passive effect to the player. Players can usually only wear one hat at a time.
Improvement: You can improve a role (new powers, new shots, better targets, one-off free actions etc.)
Kill: You can kill to some capacity. This might be a direct kill ability, or indirect like poison, arson, infection etc.
Mass-Effect: Your abilities have multiple targets or game-wide effects.
Mimic: You can use other players abilities in some way (e.g. copycat, hypnotise, reflect)
Mutation: Your ability changes roles in some way (e.g. swapping, evolving, mashing-up)
Necromancy: Your power involves the dead (e.g. mediums, resurrection, graverobbery, ghouls)
Protection: Your powers protect others from harmful (usually killing) powers.
Redirection: You can change the reliability of other player's targets (e.g. bus/redirect/randomise)
Peek: You can learn details about player roles (sphere detection, censuses etc.)
Second Wincon: You have another way to win the game beyond your main wincondition.
Selfish: You have a way of avoiding some harm (often killing).
Speed: You have multiple actions or lots of [free] actions.
Spheres: You have a power that targets spheres. What it does to spheres will depend on your other spheres.
Super: Your power trumps other powers in some capacity. e.g. a kill that cannot be redirected, a detect that can't be fooled.
Thief: You steal things (particularly hats, but fruit, role abilities, shots, votes etc. all possible)
Trade: There is a trading phase that happens after each day, for trading hats and fruit. Your spheres interact with the Trade phase in some way.
Thwart: Powers that prevent other player's actions (e.g. bans, delays, jails).
Variety: You have more abilities to pick from than other players (guaranteed more powers than any player without Variety)
Votes: Your power involves votes.

Red Flaw Spheres
Blowback: Your abilities may cause direct or indirect harm to yourself or your team, or aid to your enemies.
Cascade: Something you can do can get out of hand and have cascading effects, impacting extra players after your intended target, in possibly hard to foresee ways.
Convolution: Your role has some significant complexities to how it can be used, e.g involving achieving specific states.
Counter: Another player has a direct counter to one or more of your abilities.
Cursed: Your role risks becoming progressively more flawed (accumulation of restrictions/vulnerabilities, magnetism for role-theft etc.).
Distributed: Parts of your role begin the game scattered among other players.
Flux: Your own abilities are subject to change, making long-term planning difficult.
Limitation: You have at least one ability with a limitation (limited shots, limited targets, limited phase use etc.)
Niche: At least one part of your role (but not all of it) is only useful in very specific circumstances.
Selfless: You lack access to some protections other players may have (most often protect-immune, but not exclusively).
Slow: Your role takes several day/night cycles to reach its full potential, or only powers up after a certain number of players have left the game.
Uncertainty: Knowledge you receive might not be absolutely confirmable, there may be gaps, or there may be misinformation to sift through.
Vulnerability: You are more likely to die (e.g. lovers, self-destruction, magnetism etc.)