What is Blood on the Clocktower?
Blood on the Clocktower is a social deduction game that focuses on deaths, mystery, lies and logic. Seated in a circle five to twenty players will be split into two teams; good and evil, and will receive unique characters all with special powers. Good players will try to work together with the information they gain to solve the mystery while the evil players will spread lies to sow doubt and distrust among the circle.
Plot of the Game
Welcome to the town of Ravenswood Bluff, a sleepy community with not much going on. One night during a thunderstorm the town is awakened by the sound of screams. As they rush to the town square they find the local storyteller impaled by the hands of the Clocktower, dead. Looking up at this site a wave of fear and dread washes over them as everyone comes to the same conclusion. This must be the work of a demon… and that demon possesses one of the people standing in the square. Find the demon. Drive them out. Even if it means killing your neighbors.
This is the general plot of Blood on the Clocktower. While used to differentiate itself from its other social deduction counterparts such as werewolf and mafia; The plot is more than just flavor text to set the mood for the players this is the source of some of the games biggest forms of symbolism.
The Storyteller (the person who runs the game) dies during a thunderstorm. Thunderstorms have a symbolic connection to divine communication and also represent omens and warnings across mythology and religion (Rivera). The storyteller’s death is in itself an omen for the rest of the community that a demon walks among them. This omen along with the Storyteller also knowing what will happen for the rest of the game and is in charge of the game from that point forward becomes a god like figure communicating to the town providing hidden information. This highlights the close connection of Blood on the Clocktower to death and hidden information as there is no game without the death of the Storyteller.
Witnessing a valued member of the community impaled on the hands of the Clocktower shakes the town to its core, inverting the symbolism of the Clocktower from community to isolation (Jimenez, 2023). This death and the realization a demon walks among them leads to whatever trust and solidarity that existed in this town to unravel into pointing fingers and accusing your neighbors of evil and sin.
All of this symbolism emphasizes the religious and mythological ideas surrounding demons and their use of trickery and deception to cause harm to those it can influence. One of the most famous examples of this is when Lucifer tempts and tricks Eve into eating the apple from the tree of knowledge causing the original sin (Genesis 3:1-24).
StoryTeller
In Blood on the Clocktower, the Storyteller is a character just like the rest of the town in the plot of the game. Mechanically, the Storyteller is the name of the person who runs a game of Blood on the Clocktower. This is a role that exists in many forms across other social deduction games usually referred to as the Game Master. However Game Master’s are normally not included as part of the plot of their games.
Game Master’s and Storyteller’s have similar jobs in running the night phase, providing information, keeping track of deaths, abilities used, voting, answering questions players may have, and announcing when the game is over and which team has won.
The main goals of a Game Master and a Storyteller are similar, ensuring everyone has fun, understands the rules and overall makes sure the game runs smoothly.
However a Storyteller has an extra goal that a Game Master doesn’t; to do their best to get the game to its final day. This is where the key difference between a Game Master and a Storyteller lies mechanically.
Storyteller’s are more involved than initially expected as there are many calls they have to make on how various mechanics playout. Mechanics such as drunkenness and poisonings allow the Storyteller to provide false information, however the Storyteller doesn’t have to provide false information because in some cases the truth can be more misleading. There are characters that register differently than what they’re actual role/alignment is. It’s up to the storyteller to determine when and how these characters register to other character abilities. In some scripts the Storyteller is in charge of determining how deaths occur as some characters have no control over who dies when their ability works. All of this has to be done in a way that doesn’t break the rules of the script and ideally be done in a way to balance out the game.
The Storyteller is the repetition of hidden knowledge in the game by not only being the only one that gets to use the grimoire but by being the only one who truly knows what’s going on in the game, what are the lies and what is the truth. The storyteller, despite starting off as a member of the town before the game starts, acts as a form of god-like figure because of this. The storyteller also has heavy ritualism with the various rules for handling the setup of the game as well as the day and night phases.
Rules
Setup
Setting up a game of Blood on the Clocktower has a lot of symbolism behind it. First when setting a game of Blood on the Clocktower ensuring all players sit in roughly a circle and that no one changes sets as it will prevent issues later down the line. The circle the players sit it in represents a clockface and also is the player perspective of the town square. Some games may be closer to arches and will have a break in the town square, This is fine so long a you remember that the two players at the opposite ends of that break are still considered neighbors in game.
Next would be for the storyteller to start setting up their board known as the Grimoire. The Grimoire has both mythical and occult ideas as a grimoire is normally a spell book that contains symbols, spells and instructions this matches with Blood on the Clocktower as the Grimoire when not in use is also the main storage for all the parts needed for the game to run smoothly (Research by subject: Witchcraft studies: Grimoires and occult revival).
To set up the Grimoire (or Grim for short), the storyteller selects a script to run. Scripts are the character lists that tells both the storyteller and the players what characters are in play, and what abilities those characters have. Blood on the Clocktower provides three starting scripts; Trouble Brewing, Bad Moon Rising and Sects and Violets. After a while experienced players and storytellers can combine characters from different scripts to create new experiences. Having three starting scripts in a game with many religious undertones has some lose connections to the holy trinity.
Once the script and the grim is set up, the storyteller get to pick which characters go into the bag that comes with the game. Leaving some characters out without telling the town what they are will allow for a mystery and more wiggle room for both teams to bluff. The bag is then passed around the circle as each player picks out one token out of it. Telling each player what their character is and what team they are on, if the token is blue, then they are on the good team as a townsfolk (a good character with a useful ability) or an outsider (a good character with an ability that can hinder) or the bad team with a red token as a minion (an evil character design to hinder the good team) or the demon (the primary cause of evil in Ravenswood Bluff).
The last bit to set up before starting the game needs the town to close their eyes so the storyteller can take the tokens and place them in the grim the same way the players are sitting. Once this is done setting up any additional tokens for reminders, bluffs and tracking what information will be told to which players is done away from the eyes of the town. This process is similar to other social deductions games but with the grim being the board, the players giving their tokens back to the storyteller to place into to the grim is like the ritual before the game officially starts, the town adding their symbols (tokens) into the grim to let the storyteller work their magic. Reminder tokens will be added throughout the night and day phases of the game to keep track of the dead, votes and abilities used.
Once everyone is ready the town of Ravenswood Bluff falls asleep and the game starts on night one.
Day
At dawn the storyteller wakes the town and informs everyone of the deaths or revivals that happened in the night. Unlike other social deception games, death isn’t the end in Ravenswood Bluff. Dead players don’t have to sit and be silent, in this game dead players can still talk and interact with the living as normal. the only changes is that dead players can not nominate and they get one vote to use for the rest of the game.
After that, the storyteller is there to answer questions for let characters use their abilities. While players take and share information with the good team trying to put the puzzle together while the evil team tries to hide the pieces through deception and casting doubt on other members of the community. After some time the storyteller will get everyone back in the circle to start the next phase of the day, nominations.
When nominations open any living player can say “I nominate …” and say another players name (living or dead). When a successful nomination occurs the play who nominated gets to state why they believe the player they called on should be executed. Then the nominated player will make a defense. After both cases are made the storyteller gets into the middle of the circle and will announce the number of votes needed for the nomination to go through (this is usually at least have the alive players rounding up). Then the voting ritual starts and the storyteller goes around in a circle starting at the nominated player, mimics the hands on a clock. while the players raise their hands to count as a vote. Now votes are very particular is the storyteller passes a player with their hand up and they didn’t mean to vote, their vote still counts. if enough votes were reached that player is on the block but nominations continue. As a player can be taken off the block if another nominated player gets more votes or both the newly nominated and the player on the block get the same amount of votes meaning no one is one the block. At before dusk, at the end of the day, if someone was on the block, the get executed. The day ends and everyone goes back to sleep.
When the game is over an a team has won, the storyteller will announce the game is over and which team has won. Once the inevitable excitement dies down the storyteller should give a roll call and mention some of the highlights of the game from the outside looking in perspective.
Night
The night phase has two portions night one and every other night. Night one is when the minions and demons learn of each other and when the demon learns three not in play good characters to use as bluffs throughout the game.
When it comes to information/abilities some charters get wake on night one, some will wake after night one, some will wake every night and a few don’t wake up at all. During the wake up process the storyteller will wake a player with a touch on the shoulder, provide information/get player selection and wave their hand over their eyes to tell the player to go back to sleep. Different information required different gestures. As a player that learns a number will be shown the same number of fingers, yes or no information will be a nod or shake of the head, any alignment based abilities will be shown thumbs up for good and thumbs down for evil and the characters that seen roles will be shown the appropriate token(s). If a character needs to selected someone, the storyteller should confirm by also pointing at that player downward as to avoid possible confusion. After the first day, the demon gets a chance to kill every night onwards, requiring the storyteller to update the grim to track the deaths in the night, as well any used abilities from players the previous day or during that night.
Clue Up
Blood on the Clocktower has a overall religious/mythical/occult style theming as seen in the plot, rules and the importance of the Storyteller in the game. But the three starting scripts continue this theming at a fundamental level for a variety of characters which help elevate the experience for players as it creates a consistent theming to the stories that Blood on the Clocktower can tell. This also helps in making the game stand out, preventing it from being a cosmetic repackaging of other social deduction games.