It had been a while since the last demon invasion in the Bluff. People began growing less weary, and decided that now is the best time to host a long since cancelled game that had been celebrated for many years before the whole demon fiasco. Some would call it “Prisoner’s Dilemma”, yet others would call it Virtue’s Last Hope. Unfortunately for the people of Ravenswood Bluff, as they were finishing the final operations for the game, two mysterious beds of flowers spontaneously grew, one showering energy upon the land, and the others dessicated it.
The last thing heard before all went quiet was simply “Alsukut min dhahab”
Welcome to the newest installment of Blood on the Forums! Hosted by @Amelia and @LadyGaga
Mechanics
Town Composition
This game is designed for between 7 and 15 non-Traveller players. All non-Traveller players are assigned one of the 4 character types, then an character from the possible characters for that type. Players that start as Townsfolk or Outsiders are on the Good team, while players that start as Minions or Demons are on the Evil team. Players cannot change alignments unless explicitly stated.
The number of characters of each type dealt out are as follows:
| Total Players | Townsfolk | Outsiders | Minions | Demons |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 8 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 9 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 10 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| 11 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 12 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| 13 | 9 | 0 | 3 | 1 |
| 14 | 9 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| 15 | 9 | 2 | 3 | 1 |
No two players will have the same ability at the start of the game.
Starting Evil players know each others’ identities and character types, but not characters. They have no method of private communication besides whispers, as described below.
Starting Demons know three not-in-play Good characters.
The abilities of certain characters modify the game setup, by adding or subtracting certain characters or character types. These are denoted in [square brackets], and only have an effect if the character is present at the beginning of the game. Unless otherwise stated, the amount of Townsfolk is modified so that the total number of characters given out matches the total playercount.
Characters
All players start with exactly one of the following abilities, depending on their character type. Townsfolk and Outsiders are Good characters, while Minions and Demons are Evil characters.
Night* (with an asterisk) in all contexts means “Night, except the first.”
| Possible Townsfolk Characters | |
|---|---|
| Clockmaker | You start knowing how many steps from the Demon to nearest Minion. |
| Pixie | You start knowing one in-play Townsfolk character: if you are “mad” you are this character, gain that ability when they die. |
| General | Each night, you learn which team the Storyteller believes is winning; good, evil, or neither. |
| Balloonist | Each night, you learn 1 player for each character type until there are no more types to learn. [+1 Outsider] |
| Fortune Teller | Each night, choose 2 players: you learn if either is a Demon. There is a Good player who registers as a Demon to you. |
| Undertaker | Each night*, you learn which character died by execution today. |
| Nightwatchman | Once per game, at night, choose a player: they learn who you are. |
| Savant | Each day, you may visit the Storyteller to learn 2 things in private: 1 is true & 1 is false. |
| Huntsman | Once per game, at night, choose an alive player; the Damsel, if chosen, becomes a not-in-play Townsfolk. [+the Damsel] |
| Alchemist | You have a not-in-play Minion ability. |
| Farmer | If you die at night, an alive Good player becomes a Farmer. |
| Poppy Grower | Minions and Demons do not know each other. If you die, tonight, they learn who each other are. |
| Amnesiac | You have an ability created by the Storyteller, but do not know what it is. Each day, you may visit the Storyteller to guess what it is: learn how accurate you are. |
| Atheist | The Storyteller can break the game rules, and if executed, Good wins, even if you are dead. [All players are Townsfolk or Outsiders] |
| Possible Outsider Characters | |
|---|---|
| Damsel | All Minions know you are in play. If a Minion publicly guesses who you are (once): your team loses. |
| Drunk | You do not know you are the Drunk; you instead think you are a Townsfolk character; but are not. |
| Golem | You may only nominate once per game. Anyone you nominate who isn’t the Demon, dies. |
| Barber | If you died today or tonight, the Demon may choose 2 players (not another Demon) to swap characters. |
| Puzzlemaster | 1 player malfunctions, even if you die. Once per game, during the day, you may guess who they are; if correct you learn the Demon, but if incorrect you learn false information. |
| Possible Minion Characters | |
|---|---|
| Mezepheles | You start knowing a secret word. The 1st Good player to say this word turns Evil that night. |
| Widow | On your first night, you see the Grimoire, then choose a player: they malfunction. 1 Good player knows a Widow is in play. |
| Godfather | You start knowing which Outsiders are in play. If one died yesterday, choose a player: they die. [-1 or +1 Outsider] |
| Fearmonger | Each night, choose a player: tomorrow, if you nominate them and they are executed as a result of that nomination, their team loses. All players learn when you choose a new player. |
| Goblin | If you publicly claim to be the Goblin when nominated but before receiving enough votes to be executed, and are executed that day: your team wins. |
| Demon | |
|---|---|
| Al-Hadikhia | Each night*, choose 3 players (all players learn who): each chooses whether to be alive or dead, but if all are alive after the choices: all die instead. |
Phase Lengths
Each day phase will last for 48 hours.
| Discussion | 12h | Players may talk. |
| Nomination | 12h | Players who wish to nominate may do so at this time, and votes may begun to be cast during this time as well. |
| Voting | 24h | During this time, votes may be cast freely on any existing nomination, but no new nominations may be made. Once this time ends or all votes have been locked in, the day will resolve. |
Each night phase (except the first), due to the Demon present in this script (the Al-Hadikhia), will be split into two, Early and Late night.
The Early Night will encompass all actions before the Al-Hadikhia acts, and the Al-Hadikhia’s choice itself. Afterwards, the Late Night will begin, and the players selected by Al-Hadikhia make their choices, as well as anyone who acts after Al-Hadikhia.
Players may choose to pre-submit Late Night actions (and by extension, Life/Death choices) during the Early Night.
In total, these will last 24 hours; however, Early Night will end 12 hours into the night, and any choices not made by then will be made by the Storyteller instead (and they probably won’t be helpful…)
Late Night actions lock 2 hours before the start of each day.
Night Action Resolution
All actions are processed in a specific order each night. Natural Action Resolution does not apply. Dead players have no abilities (unless stated otherwise), and if a player is dead during their turn in action resolution, they do not act (unless stated otherwise).
| First Night | Other Nights |
|---|---|
| Travellers | Travellers |
| Alchemist | Poppy Grower |
| Poppy Grower | Fearmonger |
| Minion Info | Mezepheles |
| Demon Info | Al-Hadikhia |
| Widow | Godfather |
| Godfather | Barber |
| Fearmonger | Farmer |
| Mezepheles | Huntsman |
| Pixie | Damsel |
| Huntsman | Fortune Teller |
| Damsel | Undertaker |
| Fortune Teller | Balloonist |
| Clockmaker | Nightwatchman |
| Balloonist | General |
| Nightwatchman | |
| General |
The Amnesiac has a variable night order position, depending on their ability. When guessing your ability, you may ask where your proposed ability would land in the night order.
Storyteller
The Storyteller is the key moderator for the game; All ability uses at night must be sent to the Storyteller via private message, and Storyteller will have the final say on any open-ended ability behaviors. Storyteller’s goal is to keep the game both fun and balanced, and they’ll often be trying to make it last as long as possible; however, the Storyteller may not alter any existing rules to accomplish this.
The Fabled
The Fabled are special modifiers that the Storyteller can put in play to tweak the game. Fabled will always be announced when they are in play, along with their effect upon gamestate. The most likely fabled to be included are the Djinn to resolve certain interactions that all involve the Widow, Hell’s Librarian to prevent night talking, the Fiddler on the off-chance the game gets deadlocked, and finally the Spirit of Ivory, preventing the Demon from spam resurrecting a Mezepheles.
| Djinn | Use the Djinn’s special rule. All players know what it is. |
| Fiddler | Once per game, at night, the Demon secretly chooses a player of an opposing alignment; All players then vote which of these two wins the game. |
| Hell’s Librarian | Something bad might happen to whomever speaks when the Storyteller calls for silence. |
| Revolutionary | Two neighboring players are known to be the same alignment. Once per game, one of them registers falsely. |
| Fibbin | Once per game, 1 good player might get incorrect information. |
| Spirit of Ivory | There may not be more than 1 extra evil player. |
Malfunctions
Malfunctioning is the primary source of interference with abilities. A malfunctioning character is not told that they are malfunctioning and cannot affect the gamestate in any way using their ability. If a malfunctioning character would receive information, then the information they receive is arbitrary (open-ended, Storyteller may resolve at their discretion). The malfunctioning status lasts indefinitely unless stated otherwise.
Nominations and Voting
Once the discussion phase has ended, the Storyteller will formally announce the opening of the nomination phase. Players must be nominated before they may be voted on that day. Each player may only be nominated once per day, and each player may only nominate once per day.
When a nomination is opened, the storyteller begins to track votes for that nomination. The players may precast votes, but the votes will lock in a clockhand format. Starting with the player below the nominee on the list, and working downwards, the votes will be locked if they are cast. As an example, take the following five players;
Alex
Brianna
Cameron
Derek
Ellen
Brianna is nominated. Cameron’s vote will be locked as soon as he places it, because he is the first person below Brianna on the list. Derek may cast his vote before Cameron, and may alter his vote if Cameron has not yet voted, but once Cameron has voted and had his vote locked, Derek’s vote will be the next to lock, and if it is placed when Cameron’s vote locks, then Derek’s vote will lock as the vote cast by Derek at that time.
Any votes that are not cast by EoD will be considered votes to pardon. If the count of votes to execute is more than half of the number of living players (not half+1, that’s an important distinction), and is the highest count of votes against any player that day, the accused will be considered “about to die”. At the end of the day or when all votes on all nominations have been cast, the player who is “about to die” will be executed. If there is a tie between two or more players for the highest count of votes, the day will end with no execution. The Storyteller may only declare an early end to voting if it is no longer possible to tie or exceed the highest nomination.
Whispers
Players may whisper each other in-game through private messages (include only the actual hosts, otherwise I have to remove the host account from every whisper which is a pain). Whispers must be publicly announced, by requesting permission to whisper using a format such as /whisper [Player]. Once a whisper has been declared and accepted, the two players may whisper via private message until one of them speaks publicly in the game chat, at which point the whisper is considered broken and the players must declare whispers again if they wish to whisper. Each player can also only whisper up to 3 other players per day.
In addition, a player may make 1 whisper per day to each neighbor of up to 10 words without announcing this in thread. This is separate from the 3 whisper cap.
Some abilities require you to speak privately to the Storyteller during the day. If you wish to do this, you must declare so publicly using a format such as /whisper [Storyteller]. You may choose to declare this even if you do not have one of these abilities.
Death
When a player dies, nothing is revealed about their character and they are allowed to stay in the game and speak. They may not nominate and they will have only one vote token (this will allow them to cast a vote to execute) for the entire game. Evil players who die may thus continue to help their allies by keeping up their claim and spreading misinformation, and good players may similarly help their allies by retaining relevant info that others may have forgotten in the heat of the game. Once a player dies, their ability stops working, which means that a player killed before they would perform their ability will not perform their ability, and any ability with a persistent effect will end upon the player’s death.
Victory
Good wins if all Demons are dead.
Evil wins if only 2 players (not counting Travellers) live.
In the event of a tie, Good wins.
Alternate routes to victory or defeat may exist as detailed by characters’ abilities. The list of all possible characters is above.
The Djinn's Special Rules
The following jinxes are in play for this round; pay attention as they might change how a character works.
| Characters | Ruling |
|---|---|
| Alchemist + Widow | If the Alchemist has the Widow ability, they do not see the Grimoire. Instead, they learn 1 in-play character every night, and once per game may choose to make a character they’ve learned (not a Demon) malfunction. |
| Poppy Grower + Widow | If the Poppy Grower is in play, the Widow does not start learning the Grimoire. Instead, they learn all in-play characters on their first night, and choose a character to poison rather than a player. Once the Poppy Grower dies, they learn the Grimoire. |
| Damsel + Widow | The Damsel starts knowing 1 Good character, even if the Widow isn’t in play. If the Widow happens to be in-play, this Good character is not in play, and the Damsel registers as this Good character to the Widow. |
Travellers
A Traveller is a player character that can enter or exit a game at any point. Their identity and ability are known to all players, but their alignment may be either good or evil (which is decided by the Storyteller upon their entry to the game).
Unlike standard players, Travellers exist under some special circumstances.
- They may be exiled by majority vote at any time, instead of executed. This vote is independent of the nomination/execution system.
- They do not count as players for any rules, win conditions, or abilities.
- If they are evil, they learn who the Demon is.
| Possible Traveller Characters | |
|---|---|
| Barista | Each night, until dusk, 1) A player becomes sober, healthy & gets true info, or 2) Their ability works twice. They learn which. |
| Bureaucrat | Each night, choose a player: tomorrow, their vote counts as 3. |
| Butcher | Each day, after nominations have closed. you may make a another nomination that resolves alongside the main execution. |
| Bone Collector | Once per game, during the day, choose a dead player; they regain their ability tonight until dusk. |
| Thief | Each night, choose a player: tomorrow, their vote counts negatively. |
| Matron | Players may only whisper their neighbors during the day. 3 times per day, you may choose 2 players: they swap seats. |
| Apprentice | You have a Townsfolk ability (if Good), or a Minion ability (if Evil). |
Character Notes
Now, some of these characters may not make sense to you all at first, or simply have some other quirk that might need explaining. Fear not, for I am willing to explain here. Additionally, should anyone ask, I can add explanations to here.
| Noted Characters | |
|---|---|
| Mezepheles | Now this character likely seems straightforward at first, and well, it is, but what kinds of word will they get? Well, that’s part of the fun! The Mezepheles will most definitely receive a word in which it is vanishingly unlikely to be randomly said. Rather, the Mezepheles will actively have to go out of their way to make a player say that word. Whether it be through trickery or simply just offering them the word, any way will work for them. |
| Damsel/Fearmonger | Now these characters, yeah they’re straightfoward enough. But I know that you people intend to break them somehow, yes I do. And that’s why I’m here. If you all decide for example to force everyone to waste their Damsel guess or force everyone to nominate themself to dodge Fearmonger, I will stop you. In the case of Fearmonger, given I don’t really have the license to prevent people from nominating, I will instead propose that if a Fearmonger is pressured to do this and their self nomination results in their execution, evil will win. So don’t try it, buckaroos. |
| Al-Hadikhia | Ah, the flagship Demon of this game, and the reason I made early and late night in the first place. A short reading of their ability in my opinion doesn’t do the character justice. So basically, each player chosen, literally chooses whether or not they want to be alive or dead after the fact. If they choose death while alive, they die. If they choose life while dead, they are resurrected. However, the check to see if all players chosen die happens after the choices; and a player choosing life while dead is instantly resurrected, so if all 3 players choose life, even if some are dead, they will all be dead again by morning. Should a dead player resurrect then immediately die again, this is not announced (though people might be able to figure it out). Also, due to the public nature of the Demon, they’re probably going to have to choose themself at some point. Just a heads up. |
| Atheist | Oh boy, now we’re hitting the big time. I’m sure lots of you looked at the Atheist and went “why?” Well… the short answer to remember is that despite being able to break the rules, the Storyteller is not evil, and their goal is still to ensure the players have a fun time. With an Atheist in play, I won’t just immediately kill everyone and declare I win, that just sucks. Instead, I will be using my rule breaking powers to falsify the existence of an evil team. Whether it’s faking the Al-Hadikhia choices, a Fearmonger announcement, or whatever, I will do whatever it takes to paint the Atheist as a fraud. Additionally, since I can break any rule, that means I can make anyone just get false info, put duplicate characters into play, mess with the Outsider count, etc, buuuuuuut there are definitely lines I won’t cross. For example, I will not ignore Atheist’s setup ability; that’s just mean. Also, my goal is to make sure you guys have fun, so if Good is really falling off the deep end, I might make the fact it’s an Atheist game slightly more obvious than normal, but generally given the forum format I’ll be a bit more harsh than a normal Atheist game run in real time. One more thing, just because you’re all Good, doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed to win. If you lose via your own means, then you lose. I will not alter the outcome because it’s Atheist. Happy hanging, everyone! |
Players
- Jarek
- CRichard
- eevee
- Kiiruma
- Bellatrix
- YouButWorse
- Wazza
- Eli
