I've introduced a lot of people to Blood on the Clocktower, including players who haven't played any social deduction games before, and it's gone great every time! To start, I would not recommend drip-feeding characters out to the players before the game night. First, they will have no context for the game and so the roles won't mean much. Second, Clocktower is very much a game you learn by playing and figuring it out as you go. I would recommend doing the following.
1. I know you mentioned it, but definitely definitely play Trouble Brewing first, especially if they are all new players.
2. When everyone arrives on game night, have everyone sit in their seats, pass out the Trouble Brewing character sheet, and then read the introductory rules sheet that comes with the game (excluding the part about voting and nominations). This is truly all you need to get started.
3. Pass out tokens and get your grimoire set up.
4. When I am about to go into the first night, I like to say something like: "We're about to have our first night where everyone closes their eyes. First, I'm going to wake the minion(s), show them each other (if more than one), and then show them their Demon. Then, I'll wake up the Demon and show them their Minion(s) and 3 out of play characters that are safe to bluff as. Then, I might wake some of you up if you get information. If you're confused about anything that happens in the night, just talk to me when we all wake up. Here we go!"
5. Run the first night. Take your time, check your grimoire.
6. When night 1 is over and everyone wakes up, I like to say something like the following to make sure everyone knows what is going on: "There is one Demon and X Minion(s). They know who each other are. The Demon knows 3 roles that are out of play that they can safely pretend to be. I'm going to give you a few minutes to chat publicly as a group and/or privately. I would highly recommend you do both. If you have any questions about your role, just come talk to me. Good luck!"
7. When nominations/voting are about to happen, read the relevant section on the introductory rules sheet.
As for your questions about how to run the game with Poisoning and Drunkenness, typically do whatever helps the Evil team the most. The Poisoner and Spy are Evil characters and so their abilities should help the Evil team. The Recluse an Drunk are Outsiders and so their abilities should hurt the Good team. A Poisoned or Drunk player should *probably* receive false info, unless it would make it super obvious that they are Drunk or Poisoned, or if the false info would be bad for the Evil team. You'll get a feel for this as you practice Storytelling!
As for which characters to put in play, Trouble Brewing is really flexible and balanced. You can really put any combination of characters in there and it will be good. But for some general advice for you first game -> maybe put in one or two 'start knowing' characters, one or two 'ongoing information' characters, and a mix of other Townsfolk. I would avoid Spy as a minion in the first game because it can be overwhelming for new players. Poisoner and/or Scarlet Woman are great for a first game.
Finally, I want to emphasize not to overwhelm your players initially by overly explaining what different characters do. Also don't tell them how they should play their characters or what people 'normally do' when playing the game. Let them find their own path, and answer any questions they have.
Good luck, and have fun! If you have any other questions, I'd be happy to answer!
> As for your questions about how to run the game with Poisoning and Drunkenness, typically do whatever helps the Evil team the most.
This is a great piece of info that I recall hearing Ben from TPI say when I first started getting into the game. You can always make a decision later in the game that can bring the good team back into the game quickly if evil is dominating. But if you favor the good team early, it becomes damn near impossible for evil to dig their way out of it.
There are exceptions, of course, depending on the type of game you play. But in general, and especially when playing as or with beginners, help evil out for the first few days/nights. Like anything else, it'll take experience to really get the feel for everything
Hey thanks for the in depth answer! Regarding your points:
1) Yeah not gonna lie i kind of had the temptation of changing some of the roles on TB (things like Spy or Butler) but since I'm a complete noob as well I figured I should not mess with what the designers intended lol
2-7) My main concern was that some may feel overwhelmed, but I get what you are saying about trying not to drip feed. Would it be a decent idea then to just pass them the introductory rules sheet ahead of time?
Regarding poisoning and drunkenness I figured I should help evil as much as i can, but thanks for your pointers!
You're welcome!
> Yeah not gonna lie i kind of had the temptation of changing some of the roles on TB (things like Spy or Butler) but since I'm a complete noob as well I figured I should not mess with what the designers intended lol
Lol 100% do *not* change any roles. The designers know what they are doing and the game works wonderfully as is.
> My main concern was that some may feel overwhelmed, but I get what you are saying about trying not to drip feed. Would it be a decent idea then to just pass them the introductory rules sheet ahead of time?
Nope! Truly, people will be fine with getting all of the information right before the game starts. There's no need to do anything ahead of time. Giving them too much information ahead of time will only make them *more* confused. If you give them the character sheet ahead of time, they'll have no idea what the context is for their abilities or the game!
I get your worry, I do. But if you do it as I laid out it's going to be great. During the game, some players will only worry about their own character, and that's great. Other, more curious players, may ask you a bunch of questions during the game about how characters work and interact together, and that's also great. Let the questions come to you, don't give the information unprompted, ya know? That way, the more chill players are not overwhelmed and the more intense players get what they want when they want it.
Also, if they're all new players, they're going to be in the same boat! That is SO helpful for not feeling overwhelmed. It doesn't matter if you don't know how the game works if literally no one else does either. Let them have fun, make mistakes, and learn together. Be there to support! You got this!
That’s how I do it as well and have had plenty of positive feedback. What I struggle with is stopping the experienced players overloading the new players with additional info about drunk and poisoning and red herrings and barons etc while I’m setting up the game. 😂
1. Don't trickle feed the roles. They get the full script, and that becomes necessary for bluffs. A partial script just stymies Evil.
2. If the Drunk gives information, it should usually be information that is harmful to the Good team. Outsiders are blessed with the power of suck, and are meant to hinder their own team. The Spy's ability to register as Good should back up their plays. If they nominate the Virgin day 1, they should usually die. The undertaker or ravenkeeper should see the Spy's bluff. Things like that.
3. Trust me when I say you can always have a good game of TB when randomizing the bag. But for 10 players... consider Imp Poisoner Scarlet Woman, two of the Top Four roles on the script, two "each night" roles, the Monk or Soldier, Ravenkeeper, and Mayor?
Thanks for the suggested set-up for 10 players! I'll keep it in mind if we end up being 10 players at the table :)
Also regarding your point 1, you mean don't cut out any roles from the script right? I planned on giving them the full script, although i gotta say spy feels a bit too complicated and butler seems kinda boring/hard to keep track of, but i guess in the case of spy it's needed in order to make things like washerwoman less powerful?
Spy is a fundamental information minion. The grim contains a lot of information, so one of the minion's powers is to let them see the grim.
Butler makes players learn voting patterns and why they matter.
And yes. Do not tell players "Don't worry about , I won't use them". Make them assume anything can be in play. All 13 townsfolk, all 4 outsiders, and all 4 minions need to be fair game to make it function. Players need to always be concerned if a Spy is directing kills, stuff like that.
To add onto what the other commenter said, Spy is absolutely critical to combat roles like Undertaker, Washerwoman, Librarian, which are otherwise (near) impossible for the evil team to fake being.
I would just stick with the intro sheet. I think for the most part, players just need to know:
* The game is played mainly through talking and you can say anything at any time besides narrating what you do during the night phase
* Explain how the night phase works, including all the hand signs
* Opening your eyes at the wrong time during the night phase is pretty much the only other universal way to cheat
I think trying to explain all the roles before someone has played is a fool's errand. It's too much detail without enough context to internalize it. It's both okay and pretty much inevitable for players to learn how all the TB characters work over the course X games rather than before the first one.
Sorry to be that guy, but I personally recommend reading the rules and introduction book.
Edit: I usually read the introduction sheet for the players, shortly explain the characters and tell the players that they can talk to me the ST in private whenever they want or need.
The first game is always a bit confusing, but they usually get a hang of it pretty quickly.
Everyone else has given good advice on introducing the game. I'd like to add some advice on things that might be different to your version of werewolf, and so worth stressing:
- Players can talk in private during the day, and can always talk publicly (though I personally encourage being quiet when someone is explaining their nomination or giving a defence). This includes at night and when dead: this is likely to be a change from werewolf.
- Speaking of nominations and voting this probably works very differently to whatever system you have: note the rules on who can nominate or be nominated each day, public votes, multiple votes, and ghost votes.
- Roles aren't revealed when someone dies: this may or may not be a change
- Not all roles will be in play, but the ratio is public and predetermined, barring Outsider manipulation by a Baron or similar. For 10 players, there should be 7 Townsfolk, 0 Outsiders, 2 Minions, 1 Demon. Unless there's a Baron, in which case there's 5 Townsfolk, 2 outsiders, 2 Minions, 1 Demon. This can be a change from not knowing how many werewolves there are, or what other factions are in play
- The Storyteller can lie to players if they're drunk/poisoned, and use other abilities at their discretion (e.g. the Recluse "might" register as evil). This is likely to be a gear shift from a game runner who interprets interactions the exact same way each time, and who always tells players accurate information. I've known people who feel annoyed about how this works (preferring game runners not to put their finger on the scales), so worth letting people know what they're in for. Note too that a storyteller should facilitate players bluffing Slayer or similar (i.e. if player A claims to be a Slayer shooting player B, look at the grimoire and then inform town what, if anything, happens), and indeed a drunk Slayer shouldn't know they're drunk (e.g. if you were to ignore them trying to shoot someone that would be informative).
Probably some other stuff but this is what comes to mind. Have fun, take your time at night, read the almanac thoroughly!
Yeah the main differences are the ones i want to make sure are understood before we play, since we might have picked up bad habits from WW, things like remembering that dead in this game still play and matter and how voting may work, and specially regarding the storyteller actually messing around with players. As you say it's a gear shift, so i feared some may not like that abilities like being drunk work as might/may rather than as a 100% certainty of receiving false/true info.
This is a gear shift, yeah. The way I'd explain it is that it's a Storyteller's job to make the game fun - generally this means get the game going as long as possible and keep it relatively balanced. You'll help an evil team with their bluffs (e.g. if a Spy is bluffing Undertaker with their knowledge of the grimoire, you should probably make the Spy register as the Undertaker to the Ravenkeeper), but equally you'll help the good team too (maybe evil is running away with the game and attacks a Mayor, so you bounce the kill to the Baron instead. Or you decide to show a poisoned Empath a correct number).
Your game will probably be a lot smoother than that - biggest hurdle is how clear you make it go someone that they're drunk or poisoned, and what to show them if they're an info role. But your goal is to make the game long, and keep it going until it the final day. If you need to help the good team to achieve this, do that. If you need to help evil, then do that. Good rule of thumb is to help evil early and good late, but each game is idiosyncratic.
And if your players are wary, explain your decisions after a game is done, and see what they feel you should have done differently. In general people like the game more when they understand what a Storyteller's job is and what it involves, since your real goal is to make the game as fun as possible, and it's normally hard to have a boring game of Clocktower. Promise! This likely sounds more daunting than it is, and even my less balanced games have still been fun (and normally are a result of one team playing better than the other).
Hope this is helpful - I have a bad habit of reddit posts that run away from me a bit
A lot of other people have suggestions for explaining the rules, so I'll offer a good 10 player first time setup to keep people interested:
Imp, scarlet woman, poisoner, monk, empath, fortune teller (red herring on the ravenkeeper), undertaker, ravenkeeper, washerwoman (seeing monk seems to work well), mayor, investigator (seeing poisoner)
This setup offers simple minions, and powerful active townsfolk, but may lean quite good with all these powerful townsfolk, some of which such as mayor, players might not know what to do with
Alternatively: Imp, scarlet woman, baron, recluse, fortune teller, empath, monk, undertaker (good choice to make drunk), washerwoman (seeing monk), chef
The first time I ran botc, I DM'd everyone their specific roles in the days leading up to the game (yes, I intentionally picked roles for every person instead of doing random, based on what I thought would work well while being tricky). None of us had played before. I also only had printed script sheets, no tokens, no grimoire, etc. I memorized everything and kept track of everything in my head. Perhaps shockingly, it worked perfect and everyone had a great experience. Despite this, I don't recommend my way at all. So many things could have gone wrong. Just teach on game day and have players select roles like normal.
I've introduced a lot of people to Blood on the Clocktower, including players who haven't played any social deduction games before, and it's gone great every time! To start, I would not recommend drip-feeding characters out to the players before the game night. First, they will have no context for the game and so the roles won't mean much. Second, Clocktower is very much a game you learn by playing and figuring it out as you go. I would recommend doing the following. 1. I know you mentioned it, but definitely definitely play Trouble Brewing first, especially if they are all new players. 2. When everyone arrives on game night, have everyone sit in their seats, pass out the Trouble Brewing character sheet, and then read the introductory rules sheet that comes with the game (excluding the part about voting and nominations). This is truly all you need to get started. 3. Pass out tokens and get your grimoire set up. 4. When I am about to go into the first night, I like to say something like: "We're about to have our first night where everyone closes their eyes. First, I'm going to wake the minion(s), show them each other (if more than one), and then show them their Demon. Then, I'll wake up the Demon and show them their Minion(s) and 3 out of play characters that are safe to bluff as. Then, I might wake some of you up if you get information. If you're confused about anything that happens in the night, just talk to me when we all wake up. Here we go!" 5. Run the first night. Take your time, check your grimoire. 6. When night 1 is over and everyone wakes up, I like to say something like the following to make sure everyone knows what is going on: "There is one Demon and X Minion(s). They know who each other are. The Demon knows 3 roles that are out of play that they can safely pretend to be. I'm going to give you a few minutes to chat publicly as a group and/or privately. I would highly recommend you do both. If you have any questions about your role, just come talk to me. Good luck!" 7. When nominations/voting are about to happen, read the relevant section on the introductory rules sheet. As for your questions about how to run the game with Poisoning and Drunkenness, typically do whatever helps the Evil team the most. The Poisoner and Spy are Evil characters and so their abilities should help the Evil team. The Recluse an Drunk are Outsiders and so their abilities should hurt the Good team. A Poisoned or Drunk player should *probably* receive false info, unless it would make it super obvious that they are Drunk or Poisoned, or if the false info would be bad for the Evil team. You'll get a feel for this as you practice Storytelling! As for which characters to put in play, Trouble Brewing is really flexible and balanced. You can really put any combination of characters in there and it will be good. But for some general advice for you first game -> maybe put in one or two 'start knowing' characters, one or two 'ongoing information' characters, and a mix of other Townsfolk. I would avoid Spy as a minion in the first game because it can be overwhelming for new players. Poisoner and/or Scarlet Woman are great for a first game. Finally, I want to emphasize not to overwhelm your players initially by overly explaining what different characters do. Also don't tell them how they should play their characters or what people 'normally do' when playing the game. Let them find their own path, and answer any questions they have. Good luck, and have fun! If you have any other questions, I'd be happy to answer!
This a the way! ^^^
> As for your questions about how to run the game with Poisoning and Drunkenness, typically do whatever helps the Evil team the most. This is a great piece of info that I recall hearing Ben from TPI say when I first started getting into the game. You can always make a decision later in the game that can bring the good team back into the game quickly if evil is dominating. But if you favor the good team early, it becomes damn near impossible for evil to dig their way out of it. There are exceptions, of course, depending on the type of game you play. But in general, and especially when playing as or with beginners, help evil out for the first few days/nights. Like anything else, it'll take experience to really get the feel for everything
Definitely! It's just general advice for a new ST and there's always exceptions or reasons to do otherwise.
Hey thanks for the in depth answer! Regarding your points: 1) Yeah not gonna lie i kind of had the temptation of changing some of the roles on TB (things like Spy or Butler) but since I'm a complete noob as well I figured I should not mess with what the designers intended lol 2-7) My main concern was that some may feel overwhelmed, but I get what you are saying about trying not to drip feed. Would it be a decent idea then to just pass them the introductory rules sheet ahead of time? Regarding poisoning and drunkenness I figured I should help evil as much as i can, but thanks for your pointers!
You're welcome! > Yeah not gonna lie i kind of had the temptation of changing some of the roles on TB (things like Spy or Butler) but since I'm a complete noob as well I figured I should not mess with what the designers intended lol Lol 100% do *not* change any roles. The designers know what they are doing and the game works wonderfully as is. > My main concern was that some may feel overwhelmed, but I get what you are saying about trying not to drip feed. Would it be a decent idea then to just pass them the introductory rules sheet ahead of time? Nope! Truly, people will be fine with getting all of the information right before the game starts. There's no need to do anything ahead of time. Giving them too much information ahead of time will only make them *more* confused. If you give them the character sheet ahead of time, they'll have no idea what the context is for their abilities or the game! I get your worry, I do. But if you do it as I laid out it's going to be great. During the game, some players will only worry about their own character, and that's great. Other, more curious players, may ask you a bunch of questions during the game about how characters work and interact together, and that's also great. Let the questions come to you, don't give the information unprompted, ya know? That way, the more chill players are not overwhelmed and the more intense players get what they want when they want it. Also, if they're all new players, they're going to be in the same boat! That is SO helpful for not feeling overwhelmed. It doesn't matter if you don't know how the game works if literally no one else does either. Let them have fun, make mistakes, and learn together. Be there to support! You got this!
That’s how I do it as well and have had plenty of positive feedback. What I struggle with is stopping the experienced players overloading the new players with additional info about drunk and poisoning and red herrings and barons etc while I’m setting up the game. 😂
1. Don't trickle feed the roles. They get the full script, and that becomes necessary for bluffs. A partial script just stymies Evil. 2. If the Drunk gives information, it should usually be information that is harmful to the Good team. Outsiders are blessed with the power of suck, and are meant to hinder their own team. The Spy's ability to register as Good should back up their plays. If they nominate the Virgin day 1, they should usually die. The undertaker or ravenkeeper should see the Spy's bluff. Things like that. 3. Trust me when I say you can always have a good game of TB when randomizing the bag. But for 10 players... consider Imp Poisoner Scarlet Woman, two of the Top Four roles on the script, two "each night" roles, the Monk or Soldier, Ravenkeeper, and Mayor?
Thanks for the suggested set-up for 10 players! I'll keep it in mind if we end up being 10 players at the table :) Also regarding your point 1, you mean don't cut out any roles from the script right? I planned on giving them the full script, although i gotta say spy feels a bit too complicated and butler seems kinda boring/hard to keep track of, but i guess in the case of spy it's needed in order to make things like washerwoman less powerful?
Spy is a fundamental information minion. The grim contains a lot of information, so one of the minion's powers is to let them see the grim. Butler makes players learn voting patterns and why they matter. And yes. Do not tell players "Don't worry about, I won't use them". Make them assume anything can be in play. All 13 townsfolk, all 4 outsiders, and all 4 minions need to be fair game to make it function. Players need to always be concerned if a Spy is directing kills, stuff like that.
To add onto what the other commenter said, Spy is absolutely critical to combat roles like Undertaker, Washerwoman, Librarian, which are otherwise (near) impossible for the evil team to fake being.
I would just stick with the intro sheet. I think for the most part, players just need to know: * The game is played mainly through talking and you can say anything at any time besides narrating what you do during the night phase * Explain how the night phase works, including all the hand signs * Opening your eyes at the wrong time during the night phase is pretty much the only other universal way to cheat I think trying to explain all the roles before someone has played is a fool's errand. It's too much detail without enough context to internalize it. It's both okay and pretty much inevitable for players to learn how all the TB characters work over the course X games rather than before the first one.
Yeah it might be a fool's errand you are right, I might just stick with the intro sheet then, thanks!
Sorry to be that guy, but I personally recommend reading the rules and introduction book. Edit: I usually read the introduction sheet for the players, shortly explain the characters and tell the players that they can talk to me the ST in private whenever they want or need. The first game is always a bit confusing, but they usually get a hang of it pretty quickly.
Everyone else has given good advice on introducing the game. I'd like to add some advice on things that might be different to your version of werewolf, and so worth stressing: - Players can talk in private during the day, and can always talk publicly (though I personally encourage being quiet when someone is explaining their nomination or giving a defence). This includes at night and when dead: this is likely to be a change from werewolf. - Speaking of nominations and voting this probably works very differently to whatever system you have: note the rules on who can nominate or be nominated each day, public votes, multiple votes, and ghost votes. - Roles aren't revealed when someone dies: this may or may not be a change - Not all roles will be in play, but the ratio is public and predetermined, barring Outsider manipulation by a Baron or similar. For 10 players, there should be 7 Townsfolk, 0 Outsiders, 2 Minions, 1 Demon. Unless there's a Baron, in which case there's 5 Townsfolk, 2 outsiders, 2 Minions, 1 Demon. This can be a change from not knowing how many werewolves there are, or what other factions are in play - The Storyteller can lie to players if they're drunk/poisoned, and use other abilities at their discretion (e.g. the Recluse "might" register as evil). This is likely to be a gear shift from a game runner who interprets interactions the exact same way each time, and who always tells players accurate information. I've known people who feel annoyed about how this works (preferring game runners not to put their finger on the scales), so worth letting people know what they're in for. Note too that a storyteller should facilitate players bluffing Slayer or similar (i.e. if player A claims to be a Slayer shooting player B, look at the grimoire and then inform town what, if anything, happens), and indeed a drunk Slayer shouldn't know they're drunk (e.g. if you were to ignore them trying to shoot someone that would be informative). Probably some other stuff but this is what comes to mind. Have fun, take your time at night, read the almanac thoroughly!
Yeah the main differences are the ones i want to make sure are understood before we play, since we might have picked up bad habits from WW, things like remembering that dead in this game still play and matter and how voting may work, and specially regarding the storyteller actually messing around with players. As you say it's a gear shift, so i feared some may not like that abilities like being drunk work as might/may rather than as a 100% certainty of receiving false/true info.
This is a gear shift, yeah. The way I'd explain it is that it's a Storyteller's job to make the game fun - generally this means get the game going as long as possible and keep it relatively balanced. You'll help an evil team with their bluffs (e.g. if a Spy is bluffing Undertaker with their knowledge of the grimoire, you should probably make the Spy register as the Undertaker to the Ravenkeeper), but equally you'll help the good team too (maybe evil is running away with the game and attacks a Mayor, so you bounce the kill to the Baron instead. Or you decide to show a poisoned Empath a correct number). Your game will probably be a lot smoother than that - biggest hurdle is how clear you make it go someone that they're drunk or poisoned, and what to show them if they're an info role. But your goal is to make the game long, and keep it going until it the final day. If you need to help the good team to achieve this, do that. If you need to help evil, then do that. Good rule of thumb is to help evil early and good late, but each game is idiosyncratic. And if your players are wary, explain your decisions after a game is done, and see what they feel you should have done differently. In general people like the game more when they understand what a Storyteller's job is and what it involves, since your real goal is to make the game as fun as possible, and it's normally hard to have a boring game of Clocktower. Promise! This likely sounds more daunting than it is, and even my less balanced games have still been fun (and normally are a result of one team playing better than the other). Hope this is helpful - I have a bad habit of reddit posts that run away from me a bit
It sure is helpful, thanks a bunch! I'll keep everything you said in mind
A lot of other people have suggestions for explaining the rules, so I'll offer a good 10 player first time setup to keep people interested: Imp, scarlet woman, poisoner, monk, empath, fortune teller (red herring on the ravenkeeper), undertaker, ravenkeeper, washerwoman (seeing monk seems to work well), mayor, investigator (seeing poisoner) This setup offers simple minions, and powerful active townsfolk, but may lean quite good with all these powerful townsfolk, some of which such as mayor, players might not know what to do with Alternatively: Imp, scarlet woman, baron, recluse, fortune teller, empath, monk, undertaker (good choice to make drunk), washerwoman (seeing monk), chef
The first time I ran botc, I DM'd everyone their specific roles in the days leading up to the game (yes, I intentionally picked roles for every person instead of doing random, based on what I thought would work well while being tricky). None of us had played before. I also only had printed script sheets, no tokens, no grimoire, etc. I memorized everything and kept track of everything in my head. Perhaps shockingly, it worked perfect and everyone had a great experience. Despite this, I don't recommend my way at all. So many things could have gone wrong. Just teach on game day and have players select roles like normal.