Board Game Arena

game got ruined turn one by the host announcing there's a decoy despite the extra role supposed to be hidden. Was not enjoyable.

Was the game with a random role maybe?
And then at the beginning of the game you can see what role has been put in the game. From the log maybe.

As you should always know with what special role you are playing. That should not be "hidden".

I was the host. It was random roles. Everyone can click on the ? to see what the special role is. A lot of people don't realize this, so when I host a random role game, I always announce what the role is so everyone is on the same page. For this game, as always, I simply stated "The special role is the Decoy."

There is no option for "hidden" roles.

Armitad already explained:
You can create a table with a random role. That just means, that the table creator does not select the role, but BGA does it randomly. The role is public to all players.

But beginners may not know, that clicking the question mark (in the player section or in the bottom left edge of the page). So, if the table creator announces the randomly selected role, this is just fair for all.