In the shadows of the great clocktower of Ravenswood Bluff, evil is lurking… A ruthless demon, stalking and murdering the townspeople by night, and taking human form by day. Will the people be able to save their fair town, or will there be blood on the clocktower?
That’s right, folks, we’re bringing Blood on the Clocktower to the forums. And when I say “we”, I mean myself (who knows Blood on the Clocktower) and Priestess (who knows these forums).
Before we begin, I should issue a gentle warning; this game runs a fair bit differently than other forum games you might have played before. Allow me to give you a quick rundown of the things you ought to know.
Character List
We’ll be running the Trouble Brewing setup for this first game. It’s a solid build which should provide a fair balance.
Townsfolk:
Investigator: You start knowing that one of two players is a particular Minion.
Washerwoman: You start knowing that one of two players is a particular Townsfolk.
Librarian: You start knowing that one of two players is a particular Outsider (or that no Outsiders are in play).
Monk: Each night (not the first), select a player (not yourself); the Demon cannot kill your target.
Soldier: You are safe from the Demon’s attacks.
Mayor: If you are killed at night, another player might die instead. If there is no execution when only three players remain, good wins.
Chef: You start the game knowing how many instances of adjacent evil players exist.
Empath: Each night, you learn how many of the living players next to you are evil.
Fortune Teller: Each night, select two people; you will learn if one of them is the Demon. One good player is the “Red Herring” and will register as Demon to you.
Slayer: Once per game during the day, publicly select a target. If they are the Demon, they die.
Virgin: The first time you are nominated, your accuser will instead be executed if they are Townsfolk.
Ravenkeeper: If you are killed by the Demon, wake to select a player; you learn their class.
Undertaker: If a player was executed that day, you learn their class.
Outsiders:
Butler: Each night, select a player to be Master. You may not vote and Master’s vote is doubled.
Drunk: You think you are a Townsfolk, but the ability that you think you have instead malfunctions.
Recluse: You might register as a Minion or Demon, even if dead.
Saint: If you are executed, evil wins.
Minions:
Poisoner: Each night, choose a player; their ability malfunctions that night and the next day.
Spy:You might register as a Townsfolk or Outsider, even if dead, and you may view the Grimoire each night.
Baron: Two Townsfolk are replaced by Outsiders.
Scarlet Woman: If more than five players are alive and the Demon dies, you will become the Demon.
Demons:
Imp: Each night (not the first), select a player; they die. If you select yourself, you die and a Minion becomes the Imp.
Townsfolk and Outsiders are good-aligned, Minions and the Demon are evil-aligned. There are no neutral parties in Ravenswood Bluff.
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 Mayors, for example).
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 24 hours, or until all abilities have been performed and resolved.
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. Storyteller will often be trying to make the game 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. For this game, we will in fact be introducing a Fabled known as the Channel-Master, designed to balance games in a text format.
Channel-Master (Fabled): One Townsfolk chosen at the start of the game permanently malfunctions.
Channel-Master may be lifted depending upon player count. It’s a much more punishing effect in a game with five Townsfolk than one with nine, for example.
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 (but not which Minion characters they are), and the Minions will know who the Demon is as well as any other Minions. 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
Voting in this game works a little differently. After the formal discussion phase has ended, the Storyteller will declare that nominations are opened. A player must be nominated before they can be voted on. Each player may only be nominated once per day, and each player may only nominate once per day.
When a nomination is opened, the storyteller will begin to count votes. Votes may be precast, and may be altered so long as they are considered not to be locked in. A vote is locked in when everyone between the accused and the voter (going down the list from the accused) has locked in their vote, or once the day ends, assuming that not all votes on the nomination have been cast. Any votes that are not counted at 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 two or more players would be “about to die” at the same time, neither will be executed; the tie must be surpassed by a different nomination There isn’t such a thing as a quickhammer around here; we’re a little more careful with what we do.
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 or is executed, nothing is revealed about their character and they are allowed to stay in the game and speak. 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 things. Once a player dies, their ability stops working, which means that a player killed before they would perform their ability will not perform their ability, and any ability with a persistent effect will end upon the player’s death.
Victory
Good wins by eliminating all Demons (you don’t need to kill Minions to win). Evil wins by reducing the game to the Demon and one other player (irrespective of the other player’s alignment). The Storyteller may also declare a victory for Evil if Good may no longer eliminate the Demon (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.
We’re looking to start this over this coming weekend. The player list can be found below; just ping myself or Priestess with /in and the seat you want (yes, we let you choose. Aren’t we nice?).
- Eevee
- Italy
- Arete
- Shurian
- Marshal
- DirectorHail
- Simon
- Nerbins
- Frostwolf103
- WazzaAzza
- Maxwell
- Magnus
- Possessed
- KyoDaz
Backups:
Isaac
Spectators:
katze
Jgoesgaming
Kape
Teleology
Solic
PoisonedSquid
Astand
DatBird
Geyde
You’ll have to compare timestamps for every whisper.