Is Boobytrap an inherently anti-town power?
Should town ever use it, considering that it's far more likely that it will kill someone in the town?
Meh?
I'm rather ambivalent about the issue, to be honest. If the self auto didn't exist, then no, it would absolutely not be anti-town. Scum teams tend to work together to synergize their powers, leading to things like bless, santa, and cleanse targeting the scumteam. However, it is just as likely, with the self auto in place, to nuke a townie who was trying to build themselves up. And the obvious scum powers, like gossip (which no townie should take outside of some batshit insane gambit, because the only possible town use for it I asked NQT about and it was shot down), are too weak to actually be used by the scumteam under normal conditions.
Is that an open question? Because from what I can see, booby trapping kill powers would be helpful from the town since there's a pretty good chance that a scum player would use one of them.
My experience in the game has lead me to see that more players tend to take kill as town than as scum, since we always seem to have at least one or two vigilantes from the start of the game. Which, just FYI, is a horrible build in this setup, particularly with the masquerade aspect.
I wouldn't say it's inherently anti-town, but it's a risky one to use as town, given the lack of information on what the other players have as powers.
Doesn't mean people haven't taken it though, and it doesn't mean the town haven't all decided to create a Liberal Vigilante Squad.
Hehehe Liberal Vigilante Squad. I'm going to make LVS Mafia now (not liberal crime squad, liberal vigilante squad).
On a more serious note, isn't any offensive or support build risky as town? You could always aid a scum or screw a townie, after all. It's a matter of personal preference about acceptable risk.