Total Chaos? Sort of…

If you are on the good team during a game of Blood On The Clocktower, the inevitable question comes up: What information is available for us to use? Is this information true? Is the Storyteller lying to me? How do we know?

In every game of Blood On The Clocktower, there is a significant amount of information for the good players to utilize to win. Some Townsfolk gain information passively – they wake each night to learn something, like whether or not the Demon voted today, or how many evil players they are sitting next to. Some Townsfolk gain information as a result of a player’s action – like the Virgin learning if the player that nominated them is a Townsfolk, the Undertaker learning the character of the player that was executed today, or the Slayer learning whether the player they just tried to slay was the Demon or not.

To balance this, there are mechanics in the game to make sure that the evil team is not found out immediately, such as drunkenness and poisoning. If a player is drunk or poisoned, they get false information, and they temporarily lose their ability - but the Storyteller pretends that they still have it. For example, a drunk Empath still wakes at night, and learns false information. A drunk Virgin can not cause a Townsfolk to be executed, even if a Townsfolk nominated them.

The reason that there is not simply a series of facts for the good team to accumulate to solve the puzzle and find out who is evil, is because if they could do so reliably then a good team of sufficient intelligence and co-ordination could win almost every game. And getting found out that you are evil with 100% certainty wouldn’t be the most fun thing for an evil player. Instead, the good team can get 90% of the way to a solution but they will need to apply savvy judgement in executions and proactive cunning in the use of their character abilities in order to win. The evil team can offset this march of logic and reason that threatens their victory by using their abilities to give the good team misinformation with precision and prudence, whilst crafting lies that are finely tuned to the situation at hand.

The evil team’s utilization of false information is crucial to them surviving. Even the Storyteller may give the good players misinformation under certain circumstances. The Storyteller cannot simply lie to players willy-nilly, nor may break the rules of the game unless a character ability says that they can. When a player is drunk or poisoned, it is the Storyteller who decides exactly what kind of false information is given to the player, but the player does not know that they are drunk or poisoned - that’s the rub.

This creates a situation where, in every game, the good players can trust most of their information most of the time… but they will need to put their theories to the test to see if they are correct. However, since the occurrence of drunkenness and poisoning (or other means of false information) is uncommon, it means two things:

1) The good team can trust that most of their information is true. It is impossible for all their information to be wrong. It is impossible for most of their information to be wrong. But, it is possible that one (or sometimes, two or three) pieces of their information is wrong. So, the default position - to trust that your information is correct - is the strategic one. (Unless a Vortox is in play, but we’ll get to that later)

2) If you, as a player, can figure out that your information is actually incorrect, this is a huge boon for your team. If you know (or think you know) that your information is wrong, you will usually know why that information is wrong, because there are limited reasons for this being the case. Once you know why your information is wrong, you can use this to make further deductions. For example, if the good team is certain that there is a Baron in the game, and that the Baron has added a Drunk – each good player knows for certain that one of their number is drunk. If you can figure out that you are the Drunk (by deducing that your information is wrong), then you further confirm that nobody else is the Drunk (so you can trust that all their information is correct), and you can confirm that a Baron is in play. So… that player that is claiming that they are the Undertaker and knows that the Spy has been executed is lying! In this case, there can not be both a Baron and Spy in play. Whatever the situation, figuring out that your information is wrong actually gives you more information you can use.

What this all means is that the question “Is my information true?” is not the most useful question. It is wise to assume it’s true, unless you have a reason to suspect otherwise. A better question is “If my information is true, what should I do?” because that means you also ask the question “If my information is false, why is it false?”

Blood On The Clocktower was designed to incorporate some common elements of deductive reasoning. You can use this reasoning to put whatever information you do have to work. For example:

1) If A then B.

Most of the information that you get in a game of BOTC isn’t certain. But, you know that IF it is correct, then something else must also be correct. For example, if you are the Flowergirl, and you learnt that the Demon voted yesterday, you don’t know for certain that the Demon voted yesterday, because some of the Demons might be mucking around with your information. So, you don’t know that the Demon voted yesterday. But you DO know that IF the Demon voted yesterday, the Demon is not a Vortox (because the Vortox makes all information false). And you know that if the Demon voted yesterday, and the Demon is not a No Dashii, you are not sitting next to the No Dashii (Because the No Dashii poisons their neighbors). So, it’s not so much about you being passive and crossing your fingers that your information is correct, but much more about using that information to figure out what else must be correct.

2) If B then C then D…

This is the same process, but gets you from A to D, by way of B and C. For example, if you are the Flowergirl, and learnt that the Demon voted yesterday, and all players voted yesterday, and the Dreamer is claiming that they learnt false information, then the Dreamer is lying, because the Dreamer must have true information because you know there is no Vortox in play. (That’s a bit convoluted, but you get the gist.) Basically, if you know one thing, there are a whole lot more things you know too.

3) If notB then notA.

Once you’ve examined your information, and seen where it leads in a logical sense, things will often not make sense at all. You’ve reached a point that is called “Reductio ad Absurdum” - a logical inconsistency. If your information is true, and you’ve followed the train of logic - however far - and have ended up with an inconsistency, then you know that your initial assumptions were wrong. And if you know it’s wrong, you probably know WHY it’s wrong… and that is really helpful. For example, you are the Undertaker, and you learnt that the Imp just got executed. Logically, this can only mean that a Scarlet Woman was in play, and has now become the Demon. But, since there is only one Minion in play, and the Investigator is saying that 1 of 2 players is a Baron, and 2 players have claimed to be Outsiders, and there should not be 2 Outsiders in play, that doesn’t add up. Your information that the Minion is a Baron is logically inconsistent with there being a Scarlet Woman in play. So, the assumption that your information was true, is incorrect. What you do with this information is up to you - maybe you talk to the Investigator to find out if they are simply a good player bluffing as the Investigator, maybe you execute the Outsiders upon suspicion of them lying, or maybe you let everyone know that you are drunk… which is great news! Figuring out that you are the Drunk that means that they can not be the drunk, are therefore sober, and anyone with false-sounding information is definitely lying! The pool of suspects just got smaller!

4) Either A or B

This idea crops up in many, many Clocktower characters. You know for a fact that either A is true, or that B is true. Again, you don’t know any one thing for certain, but you know enough to get you talking and deducing. This kind of information was specifically put into the game to avoid the “I know you are evil!” accusations that can be pretty un-fun for a new player when said with certainty. Instead, I opted for “I know that one of you is evil, but not which one!” types of information, because it’s more fun for the player with the information - because they have a puzzle to solve, but also more fun for the players being accused of being evil - they always have an excuse! They can say “I believe you. I believe that either myself or Dave is evil… because I think Dave is evil!” Many characters have this type of information. So, whilst “Nothing is known for certain” is true, that does not mean “You know nothing.” For example, the Librarian may know that one of two players is the Drunk, but not which player. The Savant gets two pieces of information each day, but one is true and one is false.

When you put all this together, you get a complicated and interesting system of logical interactions that fluctuates over time as players gradually reveal their information. It also means that lying is much more than applying body language and social trickery - you’ll need to craft lies that play into the information that is being talked about, as well as the logical leaps that you think the good players are about to make. For example, if you are evil and the good team mistakenly thinks that a Recluse is in-play, do you bluff as the Recluse? Or bluff as a Librarian that knows who the Recluse is, and nudge a fellow evil player to bluff as the Recluse? Or do you bluff as a different character entirely to contradict their information that a Recluse is in play in order to look more trustworthy in the long run because you think that the good team will come to that conclusion eventually? Maybe you’ll bluff as the Recluse, but plan to change your bluff to the Slayer later on, so that the Slayer bluff is more convincing? You’ll have to judge based on the situation at the time. It all depends on what information the good team has figured out 100%, what information they are completely wrong about, and what information you think they’ll figure out soon. Your cunning may prove more important than your character ability.

If players are new and stay quiet for the whole game, not sharing their information, then it can certainly seem like “chaos”. Similarly, if the evil team is on top of their game, and manages to fill the heads of the players with enough expertly crafted misinformation, then it can seem like chaos too. But, with a player or two on the good team who has their wits about them and is willing to put all the information together and encourage other good players to do the same… evil is in serious trouble. In most games, the good team has either figured out (with reasonable certainty) that 1 of 2 players is the Demon by the final day… or they’ve figured out that enough good players are actually good, which leaves only a few players left to execute, and juuuust enough time to do so.

I love puzzles and social games, and I hope you do too. Setting the difficulty when those two worlds collide can be a challenge. For some people, this can be too confusing. For others, too easy to figure out. For others still, it is exactly their cup of tea. The joy of being the Storyteller is that you can craft a game that is the right level of challenge for your players – both before the game begins and as it is happening. The joy of being an evil player is in crafting the perfect lie to confuse and befuddle the good team. The joy of being a good player is to cut through the chaos, to find the necessary truth amidst a sea of possibilities, to separate fact from fiction, and to work together to build a team that agrees with you.

I hope this peek into the design ideas behind Blood On The Clocktower has helped you determine whether Blood On The Clocktower is the game for you and your group. And if it is, I hope that these Behind The Curtain articles will help you really get the most out of the game - whether you are a player looking for strategy and insight, or a Storyteller looking for ways to engineer more fun for your players.

- Steven