| Blood on the Clocktower | |
| Designer: | Steven Medway |
| Director: | Evin Donohoe |
| Publisher: | The Pandemonium Institute |
| Players: | 5–20 |
| Playing Time: | 30–120 minutes |
| Ages: | 14+ |
Blood on the Clocktower is a social deduction game created by Steven Medway and published by the Pandemonium Institute.[1] The game was released in 2022 after a successful Kickstarter campaign.
Blood on the Clocktower shares core mechanics with Mafia. The game features a conflict between two teams of players: an evil team and a good team. The evil team is an informed minority, made up of a "demon" with supporting "minions". The good team is an uninformed majority of players. Each player is secretly assigned a good or evil role with a unique ability, and must help their team achieve its win condition.
The game is divided into days and nights. Each day, players can vote to remove one player (known as an "execution") and each night, the demon may choose to remove another player. For the good team to win, they must execute the demon. For the evil team, they must keep the demon alive until only two players remain., there are three "scripts" officially released with different characters. However, new scripts can be made using a combination of these characters.
Before the game begins, the Storyteller selects a script (or cast of characters), featuring 22-25 characters, and determines which character roles will be in play for the game. Good players can either be Townsfolk, players with abilities which benefit the good team, or Outsiders, players with abilities which hinder the good team. Evil players can either be Minions, support for the Demon with abilities which hinder the good team, or the Demon, who has the power to kill during the night, and who must be killed for the good team to win. The number of Minions and Outsiders depends on the number of players.[2]
If a player is uncertain whether they can stay the entire game, or they enter late, they can play as Travellers with special abilities. Travellers can be good or evil.[3]
The game has two alternating phases: a night phase, during which players close their eyes and are woken one at a time by the Storyteller to gather information or perform actions; and a day phase, in which players socialize openly or in private, eventually resulting in a player's execution if a majority suspects them of being evil.[4]
During the night phase, players cannot talk and actions are performed secretly. The Storyteller may give misinformation to players who are "drunk" or "poisoned". On the first night, Minions and the Demon learn who each other are.[5]
During the day phase, players wake and can choose to either speak privately with each other or publicly in the "Town Square". Good players use social deduction and the group's collective information to deduce who the evil players are. Evil players can exchange information and bluffs, as well as spread misinformation among the good players. Dead players are never eliminated and can participate freely in discussions.[6] After an amount of time decided by the Storyteller, all players meet in the Town Square and have the opportunity to nominate players for execution. Execution occurs on a majority vote. Dead players each have one vote they can use for the remainder of the game. In most cases, the game ends when the demon is executed or there are only two living players remaining.
There are currently three official scripts available from The Pandemonium Institute, which each come with their own roles and mechanics: "Trouble Brewing", "Sects & Violets", and "Bad Moon Rising". The Pandemonium Institute is in development of an app version of the Town Square, which is currently in early access.
Funding for Blood on the Clocktower began in 2018 with a Kickstarter campaign that raised more than $570,000 on a $65,000 goal. The game had already been in playtesting for years. During its development, the game was exhibited at various conventions and expos, including PAX 2018 and UK Games Expo 2018, and funds were raised for various "Clockwork Conventions" after its release.[7] [8] It was adapted into a comedy show at the Old Red Lion Theatre in London, England in 2022.[9]
During the Kickstarter campaign, Shut Up & Sit Down released a video review in which Quintin Smith called it his "favorite game".[10] [11] A review for Wargamer described Blood on the Clocktower as the "all-round best social deduction game," stating that it "nails everything a great social deduction game needs, and it fixes many of the major problems the genre has." Vanessa McGinnis and Charlie Hall of Polygon listed it as one of "The best board games we played in 2023," with NPR McGinnis writing that "if the Storyteller plays their cards right, their players will be left with a new, exciting story to share each game. Those stories are what makes Clocktower so special".[12] In a brief review for The Guardian, Alex Hern described Blood on the Clocktower as "the Ulysses of the board games world", concluding that "neither small nor cheap, it’s not an ideal introduction to board games, but it’s the one that will stick with you for the longest."[13]
The game won "Best Party Game" in Tabletop Gamings 2022 awards.[14] Christopher Eggett, editor of Tabletop Gaming, praised it for its enjoyable gameplay and "longevity" due to the many roles and setups.