[Interest Check] Blood on the Clocktower

I don't know if this is even remotely feasible. But we were talking about 'trying new things'. :)

Blood on the Clocktower (https://bloodontheclocktower.com/) is technically a 'board game' (or possible a 'parlour game'). It is a 'Social Deduction' game of 'informed minority against uninformed majority' in the line of Mafia or Werewolf. BotC, though provides stronger Roles that have abilities and can be roleplayed, and has the benefit the dying does put one out of the game.

I stumbled upon the latest video in this ('actual play') series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkpvZggdkEETFDmKALP4ae56UmRqvq1CE and have subsequently lost a fair bit the last week going back and watching them all, and alternately going "I want to play this on GP" and "this will be difficult", and figuring out possible ways around the difficulties with the features GP give us.
(The above playlist lists them is the correct order (unlike the revered playlist on the NRB channel). But rather start with video 2, as the first on that list is actually number 18 (the promotional live-action show).)

Full disclosure: I have not read the rules, only pieced them together from watching the game on youtube. But I was confident I understand them enough to run it as written, and discovered while writing this post that the (32 page) rulebook is available for free on their Kickstarter page (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pandemoniuminstitute/blood-on-the-clocktower)
(I can provide direct links to those google drive shares for any who (wisely) don't trust clicking on shortened links).

As a Social Deduction game, this relies a fair bit on timing and watching who is speaking to whom, and when; and everyone would need to trust that no outside communications are happening (the game can be spoiled by anyone privately messaging another player, for instance).

I am wondering if anyone is interested in trying to make this work. If enough are, I will take the time to find a way to translate the rules to PbP.

---

"Yes, you might well ask me if I am mad, but I will have to assure you:"
"I am the Storyteller. I have always been the Storyteller. Insinuations that I have been made mad by the Cerenovus are 💥..."

...I literally just finish a BoTC game and tabbed on to gp, clicked a new post notification, and saw this out the corner of my eye as my page swapped and got very confused think I was seeing things.


I am unsure how well this would translate this to PBP but I have played a fair few games and watched several, so happy to help out. Alternatively if people want to try it real time at some point over discord I will help facilitate. And/or share some discord links.

Been there, done that. :)
I think I could make it work, but am also unsure.
I would happily run it live if I could arrange the time. It would be so much better live.

I'm an absolute sucker for Mafia/Werewolf and all the varieties they spawned, and I used to run a forum social deduction/puzzle game on another forum. In fact, I've been trying to make my own ruleset for GP too, but it's a slow-going thing so far. Making engaging rules when you don't actually have a social component on the same level as face-to-face or even chat is hard. XD But the point is, I'd love to try it!

...as long as we aren't actually roleplaying it. I don't have time for more proper roleplays right now, but I can certainly play Mafia. :D

I am honestly not such a fan of Mafia, (and only dabbled in it a bit in the early 90s) and never played Werewolf because it suffered from the same lack of actual mechanism to enforce anything and I tended to see the same high-profile players get got first, and there was nothing they could actually do to stop that since everything was made up and purely social.

BotC actually gives one rules to follow, and ways to avoid getting killed. When one says they are the Mayor, that actually means something, is possibly verifiable, and makes a difference. Getting killed also serves a real purpose and you get to keep playing.
I have skimmed the rulebook and found my observation-based understanding of the rules to be pretty accurate. I believe I can make it work with the tools GP provides. There will be a few rough patches, and some of the timing will be wonky due to the asynchronous nature of PbP, but if people are careful to click the right things before posting, I do still think it could be fun, and I would like to try it.
That is my main concern. But I think it could still be fun for a few weeks. The loss of cues from voice and face makes it harder, but need not make it less engaging if approached with the right attitude.
A few more like that and I will formulate some rough rules and set something up.
No, no more than one would in an in-person game. You are given a role, and get to claim the perks of that role, and can have that role confirmed, and technically 'play the part of that role', and get to bluff as any role, but this will not be 'roleplayed' out.

I would be interested in this as well. I like Werewolf (haven't played Mafia, but I think it's very similar) and while I do have fun with it, some of the same things you pointed out frustrate me.
I'm not really trying to join too many games at the moment, but this seems like it could still fit in, especially if it won't last beyond a few weeks (I prefer shorter games to long ongoing ones) and with the slightly more boardgamey than rpg nature, it's probably not as high effort in the post length department

I believe they are the same game, just reskinned with folklore rather than american-style organised crime. There are more advanced versions of Werewolf that try to get around the issues (shorter games like One Night Werewolf) and give roles, but I can not comment on them.
I am thinking about, maybe, a week per 'day'? It will probably speed up as the game progresses. Maybe two days for private chats, then two days for open-only chats, then maybe two days for nominations (which might later merge into open chats), then two days for night phase? This 'a bit more/less than a week' timing helps to avoid the situation of one phase always happening on the same day that one player can not make it to (weekends, for instance, and they might not count depending on the group).

This would mean it will normally run three to six weeks?

We don't want it to run too long (and I would be even happier with one day per phase) because it can be hard to keep all the information in our heads for multiple weeks. It does help that we will have a written record of who spoke to whom and when --even if we don't know what they said-- for all the day phases.
Indeed, I expect most posts to be single sentence chats, with a bit of back and fourth.

I'm not familiar with this game, but so far, a social deduction game with time for role play sounds can be fun. I suppose I can handle the idea of 2 days per phase, with 1 game day being 8 irl days. But maybe 3 days per phase is more safer. What I concern is if any players dropping out might ruin the game.

I'm fine with doing it on discord voice chat, though my timing of GMT +8 may be inconvenient for some players.

I would prefer fewer days per phase, but am open to making each (or some) phase longer if the group decided, especially at the start. Such things are quite adjustable as we play.
Absolutely. If the demon drops the game is over, losing any other role can seriously break things too.
There seem to be plenty of games all over discord (I can not manage that, hence PbP). I believe there is a large Australian following, so maybe one of those groups can fit your timing.