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bloodontheclocktower · 6 years ago

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“So, Uh, What Else is New?“ - A General and Completely Fun BOTC News Update

Okay, so it's been a while since we gave you some broad news, so let's do a big catch-up and hit you with some updates from a bunch of different areas that involve no hospitalisations! Yaaaay! (Amy is doing fine, by the way, and is still on the mend. Thank you all for all your messages, good thoughts, and support. It really does make a great difference.)

Blood on the Clocktower continues to shine at conventions and events. Some super awesome Storytellers across the U.S., and one in the U.K., continue to run games of Clocktower for people wanting to play:

January saw Storytellers Ted and Brittany with Clocktower at OrcaCon in Seattle WA and PAX South in San Antonio TX.

In February, it's already been played by Young MENSA North in the U.K. with Ben as Storyteller; had an enormous non-stop long weekend at DeceptaCon in Atlanta GA with Ted, Brittany, and David; and made an appearance at Strategicon in Los Angeles CA with Megan as Storyteller (fun fact - Megan was in that first ever game of Clocktower, way back in 2014).

This weekend it's at Hoop & Stick Con at Columbus OH's Ravenwood Castle, with Ted, David, and Silvana as Storytellers. Ravenswood Bluff goes to Ravenwood Castle. Whoa. And the photos we’re getting from Ted and David are already incredible. (I’ll put a few in at the end of this post.)

March will see BOTC at Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle WA with Brittany as Storyteller; at Con Con in Sydney with most of the Sydney crew there (this city's very first social deduction gaming convention); at CT Gamer Con in Uncasville CT with the indomitable and ceaselessly excellent Ted, and with Eden heading over from Sydney to join him; and then Eden will stick around for freakin' PAX East in Boston MA and a tonne of Boston Storytellers. (Just quickly – Boston has been playing A LOT of Clocktower this past year, so PAX East is going to be massive.)

I’ll put a few photos up at the end of the post, and please follow our Instagram @Bloodontheclocktower if you want to see some of the highlights when these events are on.

Shut Up & Sit Down received their review copy! (And seem to be enjoying it too!) Steven, Brittany, and Meg had such a great time at SHUX Show 2018 that we are 100% planning to be there again in October 2019 (it may be the first thing to get me out of Australia this year), so we're thrilled that they get to be having fun with it in the meantime.

We have a rulebook editor! Joshua Yearsley, who worked on the rulebooks for the asymmetric forest-fight instant-hit Root, is working hard with Steven Medway (designer of BOTC) to get these rulebooks up to snuff and as bulletproof as possible in time for the Kickstarter.

Brisbane and Melbourne have their very own grimoires! After spending so much time travelling in the U.S. last year, it's great to finally get pre-release copies to some other Australian cities. If you're in these cities and want to play, you can join the Facebook groups here:

Melbourne BOTC on Facebook

Brisbane BOTC on Facebook

Melbourne already ran two sessions last weekend and Brisbane is going to get started up soon.

The wiki is on its way. When I first drafted this section I was like “Yeah this bit of the wiki is done,” and then realised that we haven't gone into the wiki in much detail before. So: We've got a wiki! Clocktower is a big, crazy, fun game and we want to get a bunch of the tips, tricks, philosophies, and stories down in one place for anyone who wants to get advice on a particular role or aspect, or just dive deeper overall. This is a fun project that Steven and Amy have been working on behind the scenes for a long time and the first big piece of it is now in place.

A sample from the wiki (and yes I chose the Undertaker because the Undertaker is boss).

The 'Characters' section of the Blood on the Clocktower wiki is finished for all roles in the base editions, being Trouble Brewing, Sects & Violets, and Bad Moon Rising. With the character sections finished, you'll be able to look up any role and get some insights on the next level of strategic options when playing as, bluffing as, or fighting against that character.

One thing in particular that I love about it is that for many pieces of advice it gives, there's often a counter-point showing the strategic merits of the exact opposite option. For example, the section on the Investigator goes into the merits of both revealing your info straight away or keeping it secret for a few days. How you do it is really up to you and there’s no wrong answer. It shows the flexibility of the game, and that there's never just one way to play or one way to win. The wiki, in whatever form it's up to, will be out in time for the Kickstarter.

The advanced roles are taking over the world. Storytellers in Boston, Los Angeles, and Derby (U.K.) are starting to get some of the 'advanced' roles that we've been play-testing in Sydney for quite a while now, so that they can have a crack at them too. Some of them may find their way into the Kickstarter as stretch goals, so we're getting them into more and more games now to see how they do. So far, they've proved a massive hit.

Among them are:

The Lycanthrope – a Townsfolk who means well but has the unfortunate habit of turning rather wolflike at night and tearing people apart. But here’s the catch: they’ll only kill a player they choose if they're on the Good Team too. Sorry, friend! (But for real, werewolves aren't inherently bad. For every Fenrir Greyback out there causing havoc, there's a Remus Lupin trying their best.)

The Lleech – a Demon that cannot be executed, but who has infected and poisoned an unsuspecting member of the town. You defeat the Lleech by killing the one they are leeching off. This one was an instant hit when it first came into play in Sydney, and leads to an amusingly high number of players campaigning for their own executions. “Kill me, I'm pretty sure I'm poisoned – if we kill me, we'll win.”

The General – a Townsfolk that gains one of the greatest insights of all: An insight into the Storyteller's mind. Each night, the Storyteller tells the General who The Storyteller thinks is winning. So if you've just executed that Undertaker because of bad info, prepare to get a big thumbs down from that Storyteller, mwahahahaha. But, maybe you've just killed that pesky minion: Prepare for a big thumbs up and a toothy grin from that Storyteller. (Unless, of course, you’re a Drunk General...)

Legion – A demon where most players are the demon – but players are only executed when a Good player votes. The Legion must work together to make it look like a regular game where everything is normal, whilst working to turn the few unsuspecting Good players against each other. We are Legion.

The Poppy Grower – Can I just say how much I love the Poppy Grower? I friggin' love the Poppy Grower. When the Poppy Grower is around, Evil players don't learn who each other are at the start of the game (presumably because they be gettin' hiiiiiigh). They'll find out if the Poppy Grower dies, but until then it's just chaos – beautiful, beautiful chaos.

Finally, we've been flexing our Kickstarter account and backing some projects. Here are some fun ones:

Black 3.0. The Blackest Black. So, when we started a Kickstarter account to eventually run our campaign through, I said to the team “Okay we've got this Kickstarter account, let's take it for a spin. We can back cool games we find, friends' projects, or anything that'll be good times for the Salisbury Festival of Board Games,” and then last week Steven was like “Hey check this thing out, it's THE BLACKEST BLACK.” It's not a game but I asked “Hey if we back this will you use it?” and then there was some very serious nodding from all around the table. We backed it that night. Prepare for total darkness, motherfuckers.

Parks. Not only is this a fun-looking game with gorgeous art, it's basically the board-game version of the real lives of 'Driving Curiosity', friends of Blood on the Clocktower. They're a couple of great science nerds who spent 2018 driving around North America and going to as many national parks as possible (literally the premise of the game 'Parks') and have a book coming out early in 2020. It'll be the guide to science for the National Parks, as told through the story of two friends having a rad road trip. I think you can still back 'Parks' through the pledge manager, and you can follow the journey of Driving Curiosity, from parks to book, through their Instagram @DrivingCuriosity.

City of the Big Shoulders. When I was living in Ohio last year and trucking Blood on the Clocktower to as many conventions as possible, I ended up making friends with Emily Dearring, who runs Central Ohio Social Deception. Then she surprised the heck out of us by coming out of left field with this project that she’s creative art director on - this heavy Euro-style game about the industrial and commercial history of Chicago, called 'City of the Big Shoulders'. I’m looking forward to getting stuck into this when it arrives and showing it off at the Salisbury Festival of Board Games. Again, the campaign has finished but you can still grab it through the pledge manager.

And before we go, here are just a couple of the coolest photos from the past few months.

An imposing figure at PAX South.

Literally this guy was the Slayer in this game at PAX South, and then after this photo was taken he immediately went on to slay the demon and win the game.

Guess who executed the Saint on the very first day of this game at DeceptaCon. These guys!

A 5am game at DeceptaCon ends in victory for the Good Team.

And of course I can’t resist posting a disproportionate share of these great photos from Ravenwood Castle that Ted and David have been taking:

Every photo from this place is straight fire.

That’s it from us for now. Our next post will delve into a few more details for our plans for the Kickstarter. Hope you’re having a good 2019 and are playing some tops games.

Sincerely,

Evin Donohoe The Pandemonium Institute

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