Choosing Roles

Since I'm going to host my first game in the future I was wondering how hosts pick the roles for the players. You can probably use a number generator, but how would go about setting that up? Would rolling a dice be easier? I would just like to know my options.

I think a randomizer would be fine if you're having trouble deciding. However, I highly suggest looking at the description for the character since some can't work without another role or two.

For me personally, I'd pick a role I find the most interesting to try and add to the game.

Well, I would say, go down the role list and see which one you understand best. After that, I tend to like to use a randomizer to randomize my roles. 

So in hypothetical land lets say we have 10 players. I chose to have a set up with 3 mafia, 1 fool, 1 weak doctor, 1 cop and 4 villagers. 

What I like to do is take the sign up list and then use that for my number count for players. I then take my roles/characters and give them each a role.

so for example, let's use Harry Potter:

1 Harry Potter- Fool
2 Hermione Granger- Villager
3 Ron Weasely- Mafia
4 Draco Malfoy- Villager
5 Dumbledore- Mafia
6 Hagrid- Cop
7 Hedwig- Weak doctor
8 Voldemort- Villager
9 George Weasley- Villager
10 Fred Weasley- Mafia


 Then I randomize with the randomizer site:

Players 1-10 in order will get the numbered character/role from the above list:

6
1
3
9
7
10
8
4
5
2

so the number 6th person would get the role as the fool, correct?

you can do it that way. I usually take the list of players from 1-10 and give them their roles. So the the first person would be Hagrid-cop. Either way works though. Doesn't make that big of a difference. ^^