Tangeld smiled as her ghost floated above the hamlet of Ravenswood Bluff. It had been many years since the tragedy at the Flower Festival, and she could see the town was healing. The streets, once marred by blood and lies, now bore host to a new sort of colorful townsfolk. And beneath it all, she could see that these were a hardier people; they had learned to survive and weather the maelstrom of death.
They would need to, for there was only one reason for Tan to have been brought back here. She came to a stop near the top of the great clocktower that had once been her tomb.
“What brings your kind back here? You’ve already taken so much from this place. Myself, Priestess, Arete… What more could you possibly want?”
The demon smiled, and Tan could see fire between its teeth.
“We want it all.”
Blood on the Forums has returned for the thrilling third installment, and we’re gonna break the tie in style! With none other than self-proclaimed scumgod @Marshal as co-host, we’re headed back to Ravenswood Bluff for the slaughterhouse that is Bad Moon Rising!
For those of you just joining us, I have a quick rundown of the things you’ll need to know. Some of this stuff is actually helpful no matter how much experience you have with BotF, so I encourage you to brush up.
Character List
This game will be running the Bad Moon Rising script; lighter on information by design, and certainly not lacking in ways to die, players will have to be willing to take risks to secure what they need, but Good has ways to keep people alive long past the use-by date and Evil has powerful abilities to swing the game back from the brink if played well.
Townsfolk:
Grandmother: You start knowing a good player and their character. If that player is killed by the Demon, you die as well.
Sailor: Each day, choose a living player; either they malfunction tonight and tomorrow day, or you do. You cannot die. (You act on the first night as well.)
Chambermaid: Each night, choose two living players (not yourself); you learn how many of them wake tonight due to their own ability (but not which ones).
Exorcist: Each night (but not the first), choose a player (you may not choose the same player two nights in a row); If you choose the Demon, they do not act tonight, but they learn who you are.
Innkeeper: Each day, choose two players; those two players cannot die tonight, but one of them will malfunction tonight and tomorrow day.
Gambler: Each night (but not the first), choose a player and guess their character. If you guess wrong, you die.
Gossip: Each day, you may make a public statement. If your statement is true, a player dies that night.
Courtier: Once per game, at night, choose a character; if it is in play, that player malfunctions for three nights and days.
Professor: Once per game, at night, choose a dead player; if that player is a Townsfolk character, they will come back to life.
Minstrel: If a Minion died today, all non-Traveler players will malfunction tonight and tomorrow.
Tea Lady: If both of your living neighbors are good, they cannot die.
Pacifist: If a good-aligned player is executed, they might not die.
Fool: The first time you would die, you do not die.
Outsiders:
Tinker: You might die at any time.
Moonchild: When you learn that you have died, choose a living player; if that player is good, they die the next night.
Goon: Each night, the first player to target you with their ability malfunctions until dusk, and you become their alignment.
Lunatic: You believe that you are the Demon, but you cannot kill. The real Demon knows who you are and who you target each night.
Minions:
Godfather: You start the game knowing which Outsiders are in play (but not which players are Outsiders). If an Outsider dies during the day, you may choose a player that night; they die. [-1 or +1 Outsider]
Devil’s Advocate: Each night, choose a living player (you may not choose the same player two nights in a row). If the player you chose is executed tomorrow, they do not die.
Assassin: Once per game, at night (but not the first night), choose a player; they die immediately, even if they normally would not die.
Mastermind: If the Demon dies by execution and the game would end, instead play for one more day. If a player is executed on this day, their team loses.
Demons:
Zombuul: Each night (but not the first), if no one died during the previous day, choose a player; they die. The first time you would die, you live but appear to die, and register as dead to all abilities.
Pukka: Each night, choose a player; they malfunction until you would next act, and then they die. You may act on the first night.
Shabaloth: Each night (but not the first), choose two players; they die. A dead player that you attacked the previous night may come back to life.
Po: Each night (but not the first), choose a player; they die. You may choose to kill no one; if you do so, you may kill three players the next night.
Townsfolk and Outsiders start good-aligned, Minions and the Demon start evil-aligned. There are no neutral parties in Ravenswood Bluff.
Special Warning: The interaction between Assassin and Goon is a point of clarification for new and experienced players alike, since their abilities seem to interact so weirdly. The proper way to run this (which is clarified in the official rulings for both Assassin and Goon) is that if the Assassin is the first player to select the Goon at night, the Goon still dies and turns evil; they do not prevent the Assassin from killing them by making the Assassin malfunction.
On Sailor and Innkeeper: These two characters are probably going to be the biggest headache I have all game. As you can see from their abilities, they both make one of two players malfunction whenever they act (Sailor makes either themself or their target malfunction, Innkeeper makes one of their two targets malfunction). Because of this, they’re typically the first two woken to perform their actions, as characters which cause malfunctions usually are. However, due to the ambiguous nature of their abilities and the fact that a text-based format makes it quite possible for other players to submit their actions before the Sailor or Innkeeper, this has the potential to open a whole can of worms regarding my decisions on who malfunctions from either of these abilities on a given night (because it is the Storyteller who chooses which player malfunctions in each case). Therefore, I have given these characters the ability to select their actions during the day phase, so as to attempt to resolve the issue of timing; if you get either of these characters, please be so kind as to submit your targets during the day, and I’ll process them promptly at the next night phase, as if you woke up first thing and did your thing. If you miss the day submission, you may still submit a target at night, but be warned that my knowledge of what actions have been submitted before you may influence my decisions on who malfunctions from your ability.
deep breath Modrant over. Thanks for reading all that.
Town Composition
This game is designed for a variable number of players, and thus the composition of the game is able to change depending on how many players join. The following list denotes the composition of the game at each possible player count.
Total Players: Townsfolk/Outsiders/Minions/Demons
5: 3/0/1/1
6: 3/1/1/1
7: 5/0/1/1
8: 5/1/1/1
9: 5/2/1/1
10: 7/0/2/1
11: 7/1/2/1
12: 7/2/2/1
13: 9/0/3/1
14: 9/1/3/1
15: 9/2/3/1
Every character in-game is unique in that more than one of the same character will never appear at the start of the game (there can never be two Gossips at the start, for example).
Certain characters may contain parts of their ability which modify the game composition by adding or removing certain character types. Be sure to take notice of these.
Phase Length
Each day phase will last for no longer than 48 hours.
12 hours: Discussion phase. Nominations may not be cast at this time.
12 hours: Nomination phase. Players who wish to nominate may do so at this time, and votes may begun to be cast during this time as well.
24 hours: Vote finalization. During this time, votes may be cast freely on any existing nomination, but no new nominations may be made. Once this time ends or all votes have been locked in, the day will resolve.
The night phase will last for no more than 24 hours. If all relevant actions have been submitted and processed, Storytellers reserve the right to begin the next day early.
Storyteller
The Storyteller is the key moderator for the game; All ability uses at night must be sent to the Storyteller via private message, and Storyteller will have the final say on any open-ended ability behaviors (those abilities which use the words “may” or “might”, or in some other way leave ambiguity as to exactly how their effect plays out). Storyteller’s goal is to keep the game both fun and balanced, and they’ll often be trying to make it last as long as possible; however, the Storyteller may not alter any existing rules to accomplish this.
The Fabled
The Fabled aren’t really characters so much as special modifiers that the Storyteller can put in play to tweak the game. For example, the Angel can be put into play to help keep newer players from being targeted, or the Buddhist can be put into play to keep the more experienced players from dominating the discussion. Fabled will always be announced when they are in play, along with their effect upon gamestate. A breakdown of Fabled characters can be found below.
Angel: Something bad might happen to whomever is most responsible for the death of a new player.
Buddhist: Veteran players may not speak for the first six hours of the day phase.
Doomsayer: If more than four players live, each player may publicly invoke the Doomsayer once per game to cause a player of their own alignment to die.
Fiddler: Once per game, at night, the Demon secretly chooses a player of an opposing alignment; All players then choose which of these two wins the game.
Hell’s Librarian: Something bad might happen to whomever speaks when the Storyteller calls for silence.
The following Fabled character must be added before the game begins; please speak to the Storyteller if you wish to see it added.
Revolutionary: Two neighboring players are known to be the same alignment. Once per game, one of them may register falsely.
Scum Info
On the first night of the game, when relatively few characters act, the evil characters will all be woken to learn who one another are. Evil players will not be allowed to communicate at night. The Demon will be told who all of their Minions are, and the Minions will know who the Demon is and who all of the other Minions are. However, the Minions and the Demon will not learn which specific characters any of their fellow evils are. The Demon will additionally be told three characters that are not in play, to serve as safe claims. They may claim any of these, none of these, or simply hand the claims off to Minions; however they think they will be best served.
Malfunctions
The primary source of interference with abilities in this game is the malfunction. A class that is malfunctioning is not told that they are malfunctioning; if the class is one that gathers information, then the information they receive that night is arbitrary (open-ended, Storyteller may resolve at their discretion), otherwise, the malfunctioning class’ ability simply does not have any effect.
Nominations and Voting
(Oh boy, I had to rewrite this whole section from previous games… This one’s notoriously been a source of confusion for BotF players, I really recommend you read this section carefully.)
Once the discussion phase has ended, the Storyteller will formally announce the opening of the nomination phase. Players must be nominated before they may be voted on that day. Each player may only be nominated once per day, and each player may only nominate once per day. Beyond this, nothing limits who may be nominated; dead players may be nominated, and even the host (although be warned that executing the host is an instant evil win).
When a nomination is opened, an accusation and defense will be presented, and then the storyteller begins to track votes for that nomination. The players may precast votes, but the votes will lock in a clockhand format. Starting with the player below the nominee on the list, and working downwards, the votes will be locked if they are cast. As an example, take the following five players;
Alex
Brianna
Cameron
Derek
Ellen
Brianna is nominated. Cameron’s vote will be locked as soon as he places it, because he is the first person below Brianna on the list. Derek may cast his vote before Cameron, and may alter his vote if Cameron has not yet voted, but once Cameron has voted and had his vote locked, Derek’s vote will be the next to lock, and if it is placed when Cameron’s vote locks, then Derek’s vote will lock however it was at that time.
Any votes that are not cast by EoD will be considered votes to pardon. If the count of votes to execute is more than half of the number of living players, and is the highest count of votes against any player that day, the accused will be considered “about to die”. At the end of the day or when all votes on all nominations have been cast, the player who is “about to die” will be executed. If there is a tie between two or more players for the highest count of votes, the day will end with no execution. The Storyteller may only declare an early end to voting if it is no longer possible to tie or exceed the highest nomination.
Whispers
Players may whisper each other in-game through private messages. Whispers must, however, be publicly announced, typically by requesting permission to whisper (a standard format is /whisper [Player]). Whispers to your neighbors (those seated next to you) do not have to be announced. Once a whisper has been declared and accepted, the two players may whisper via private message until one of them speaks publicly in the game chat, at which point the whisper is considered over and the players must declare whispers again if they wish to whisper.
Death
When a player dies, nothing is revealed about their character and they are allowed to stay in the game and speak (I believe the common nomenclature for this is “flipless and deathless”, if that helps). They may not nominate and they will have only one vote token (this will allow them to cast a vote to execute) for the entire game. Evil players who die may thus continue to help their allies by keeping up their claim and spreading misinformation, and good players may similarly help their allies by retaining relevant info that others may have forgotten in the heat of the game. Once a player dies, their ability stops working, which means that a player killed before they would perform their ability on a given night will not perform their ability, and any ability with a persistent effect (such as causing another player to malfunction) will end upon the death of that character.
Victory
Good wins by eliminating all Demons (Minions do not necessarily need to die for Good to win, but eliminating Minions can be helpful). Evil wins by reducing the game to two living players (regardless of either player’s alignment). The Storyteller may also declare a victory for Evil if Good may no longer possibly win (for example, if only evil players are left alive and thus no one would nominate the Demon). Certain class abilities may present alternate routes to victory; these classes, if able to appear, will be made known on the class list. In the event of a tie (both teams would win simultaneously), Good wins.
If you’re still not sure on something, don’t be afraid to ask myself or Marshal in DM; the Storyteller is meant to be an easily accessible source of reliably true info on how the game runs. The last thing anyone wants is for a player to be hamstrung by not knowing how a particular interaction works, and that end up being the thing that decides the game rather than someone’s bold play or brilliant deduction.
The player list can be found below; just ping Marshal or I with /in and the seat you want (yes, you get to choose). If the game starts with fewer than 15, we just collapse any spaces in the list, so you’ll always have neighbors. Seats 1 and 15 are adjacent.
Players
- N.1
- Winterfall
- an_gorta_pratai
- Magnus
- SirDerpsALot
- Clonedcheese
- TheBlueElixir
- Apprentice
- KyoDaz
- Zone_Q11
- Italy
- Amelia
- Arete
- oB_L1ght
Backups
- Jane
- Geyde
If you’d prefer spectating to playing (maybe you learn by watching rather than doing), you can let Marshal or I know and we’ll add you to an informed spectator chat once the game gets going.
Spectators:
Kat
Datbird
Nerbins
Ooh, almost forgot to mention the Travelers!
Travelers
Yeah, we’re not doing Travelers for this game. I’ve seen too many people go drunk with power when it comes to Travelers, and that actually has the potential to destabilize the game (for the folks who don’t know, Traveler characters are really powerful and play by a different set of rules). If you wanted to be a Traveler, I apologize, but other people kind of messed that up for you. You’re still more than welcome to join as a citizen, however.
Traveler Characters
Why did you open this spoiler? I already said that Travelers aren’t going to be used in this game.
…Wait, were you expecting some kind of Easter egg? I don’t think I’m allowed to put the picture of Marshal as a catgirl here, so no Easter egg for you. Sorry.
As a side note: We will be allowing alts in this game, but you must disclose your identity to the hosts or you will not be allowed to play.
