Storytold by @snowe and @Amelia
Art by @snowe
Script by @snowe
OP Formatting by @Magnus and @snowe
Phebe gazed up at the stars from the outcropping surrounding the town. Something about them seemed closer than before, like they were burning the sky.
“How’re ya feeling?” Rosalind asked, putting a hand on Phebe’s shoulder.
“Nervous. What’d you expect?” She leant her head on Rosalind. Tomorrow was the first big day, something they’d only have one chance at. Of course she was nervous, the stakes had never been higher.
“Well… there’s something that I think it’s important for ya to know.”
She sighed. Great, just what she needed, more stress. “Can it wait until tomorrow?” She met Rosalind’s gaze to see her eyes filled with sorrow. Yeah, that’s right. Rosalind wouldn’t tell her if it wasn’t crucial to the mission.
“Liana said that she sensed a strong power vying for the jachelim too, other than Azrael. Tomorrow should still be pretty easy reconnaissance but… don’t let your guard down, alright? We don’t know when they’ll strike and…”
“Heh, don’t think it’s possible for my guard to be any higher.” They giggled nervously for a while, before it died into silence, both of them gazing into the glow of the stars.
“It might just be me, but… the stars feel more dangerous tonight.”
Gameplay
Phase Lengths
Day Phase: 48 hours. (36 hours if 13+ people)
Vote Lock: None.
During these times, players may freely talk and whisper to each other. You may scheme, lie, share information, or stay quiet and try to puzzle out who is who. Then, you vote on who will be executed. This is the main part of the game, mostly handled by the players themselves.
Night Phase: 24 hours. (12 hours if 13+ people)
Action Lock: Last 1 hour.
During the night phase, players may not communicate with one another. Some players will wake to learn information or use powerful abilities. Typically the Demon attacks at night, killing one or more players or otherwise causing havoc.
Nominations and Voting
Nomination — First living vote on a Player.
Voting — Multi-Voting.
Execution — Plurality (No Threshold).
Draws — Result in Random Execution between Tied Players.
Sleep — Valid Vote.
Dead Players: Can only vote on once.
Players may cast votes or nominations using the vote tags described in the Voting Guide.
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. If a player tries to cast an illegal nomination or vote, their input will be discounted.
Living players may vote freely on any nominated players. At the end of the day, the player with the highest counts of vote that day will be executed.
If there is a tie between two or more players for the highest count of votes, the day will end with a random execution between the two. The Storyteller may only declare an early end to voting if it is no longer possible to tie or exceed the highest nomination.
Whispers
Whisper Template — /whisper @Players + /accept [@Player]
- Whispers — Day-Exclusive, Publicly Announced, Mutual Consent
- Whisper Restriction — 5 per day.
- Whisper PMs — Player-Created (Include Hosts)
- Neighbour Whispers — Unannounced, 15 daily words per Neighbour
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.
Death
Rolecard Reveals — Flipless, but flavour is shown upon death.
Dead Interaction — Public Communication, Whispers, One Vote, No Ability (unless otherwise stated).
If a player is killed in the night before they would perform their ability, they will not do so (see “Night Action Resolution”). Any ability with a persistent effect will end upon that player’s death.
Dead players may vote freely until they end the day voting a player. Once this happens, their “vote token” is spent, and they may no longer vote.
Setup
Rolelist
Nightwatch / Sentries — Uninformed Majority
Cultists — Village, Beneficial abilities.
Imperialists — Village, Harmful abilities.
Deathkissed — Informed Minority
Serpents — Mafia, Supportive/Deceptive abilities.
Reaper — Mafia, Flagbearer and Killer.
Players cannot change alignments. There will (almost) always be one living Demon while the game is in progress.
Players Cultists Imperialists Serpents Reapers 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
Duplicates — There will be no duplicate characters at the start of the game.
Deathkissed Setup Info — Deathkissed players learn their teammates and their character types.
Reaper Setup Info — The Reaper learns 3 out-of-play Sentry characters.
Private Chats — Deathkissed players have no method of communication besides whispers.
Setup Modification — Characters with [square brackets] can affect the game if in-play. In this script, the only character that can modify the setup is the Sentinel, which is always in play.
Characters
Night* (with an asterisk) in all contexts means “Night, except the first.”
Fabled Characters (Setup Modifiers) Sentinel [+1, +0, or -1
Possible Cultist Characters Pixie You start knowing 1 in-play Sailor Each night, choose an alive player: either you or they malfunction until dusk. You can’t die. Exorcist Each night*, choose a player (different to last night): the Gambler Each night*, choose a player & guess their character: if you guess wrong, you die. Innkeeper Each night*, choose 2 players: they can’t die tonight, but 1 malfunctions until dusk. Gossip Each day, you may make a public statement. Tonight, if it was true, a player dies. Artist Once per game, during the day, privately ask the Storyteller any yes/no question. Courtier Once per game, at night, choose a character: they malfunction for 3 nights & 3 days. Philosopher Once per game, at night, choose a Sentry character: gain that ability. If this character is in play, they malfunction. Ravenkeeper If you die at night, choose a player: you learn their character. Minstrel When a Cannibal You have the ability of the recently killed executee. If they are Deathkissed, you malfunction until a Sentry dies by execution. Mayor If only 3 players live & no execution occurs, your team wins. If you die at night, another player might die instead.
Possible Imperialist Characters Mutant If you are mad about being an Tinker You might die at any time. Plague Doctor If you die, the Storyteller gains a not-in-play Puzzlemaster 1 player malfunctions, even if you die. If you guess (once) who it is, learn the
Possible Serpent Characters Huli Jing You start knowing 5 out-of-play characters. Each night, choose 1 of them: until dusk, gain its ability & you might register as it would. Assassin Once per game, at night*, choose a player: they die, even if for some reason they could not. Pit Hag Each night*, choose a player & a character they become (if not in play). If a Mastermind If the
Possible Reaper Characters Pukka Each night, choose a player: they malfunction. The previously malfunctioning player dies then becomes healthy. Ojo Each night*, choose a character: they die. If they are not in play, the Storyteller chooses who dies. Imp Each night*, choose a player: they die. If you kill yourself this way, a Po Each night*, you may choose a player: they die. If your last choice was no-one, choose 3 players tonight.
The following custom rulings exist between characters that don’t work well together in order to make their interactions either logistically feasible or more engaging.
Jinxed Characters Special Ruling Exorcist + Pit Hag If a Pit-Hag creates an Exorcist, they do not wake tonight.
Night Action Resolution
All actions are processed in the following order each night. If a player is dead during their turn in action resolution, they do not act (unless stated otherwise).
First Night Other Nights Travellers Travellers Huli Jing Huli Jing Philosopher Philosopher Minion Info Sailor Demon Info Courtier Sailor Innkeeper Courtier Gambler Pukka Pit Hag Pixie Exorcist Ojo Pukka Po Imp Assassin Gossip Tinker Ravenkeeper
Storyteller
The Storyteller is a term used to refer to us, the hosts of this game.
- We will decide what happens with any open-ended ability behaviours, such as deciding which Cultist character a Pixie starts knowing, or who a Puzzlemaster learns if they guess their target incorrectly.
- We will try to keep the game fun and balanced.
- The extent of our ability to effect on the game is outlined above. We cannot break any existing rules, only decide what happens within the bounds of the characters’ abilities and base game rules.
Definitions
Malfunctions
Synonyms: Drunk / Poison
Antonyms: Sober / Healthy
A malfunctioning character cannot affect the gamestate in any way using their ability. If a malfunctioning character would receive feedback, the information they learn is arbitrary (Storytellers decide).
The malfunctioning status lasts indefinitely, unless stated otherwise.
Registration
Synonyms: Misregistration
A player who registers as something else, through their ability, appears and acts as that thing to all character’s abilities. If a player might register as something else, the Storytellers decide whether this registration activates upon each individual character ability.
Madness
A player is mad about a statement when they’re trying to convince the group that that statement is true.
Certain characters reward players for upholding madness, or penalize them for breaking it. The specific instructions, benefits, and penalties of madness are written in the character abilities, under “Characters.”
Victory
- The Nightwatch wins if all Reapers are dead.
- The Deathkissed win if only 2 players live, not including Travellers.
- In the event of a tie (both teams win at the same time), the Nightwatch wins.
- Alternate routes to victory or defeat may exist as detailed by the Mayor or the Mastermind.
Miscellanea
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 alignment (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 win conditions or setup.
- If they are Deathkissed, they learn who the Reaper is.
- Travellers cannot malfunction.
| 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. |
| Bishop | Only the Storyteller can nominate. At least 1 opposing player must be nominated each day. |
| Thief | Each night, choose a player (not yourself): their vote counts negatively tomorrow. |
| Apprentice | On your 1st night, you gain a Cultist ability (if a sentry) or a Minion ability (if deathkissed). |
| Voudon* | Only you & the dead can vote. They don’t need a vote token to do so. |
*I will only be accepting Voudon travels during Day 3 or afterwards.
Flavor Rules
This game’s rolecards will reference characters from the yet-unnamed world that appeared in BotF XII, my first ever storytold BotC game, about a class of self-taught magic students in a smallish town known mainly for housing Duke Blackrose’s palace planning to pull off a heist of a priceless gem from the Duke’s collection before the King arrives to perform a ritual of great power at the cost of many lives.
Players will have their rolecard flavor image and flavor blurb flipped on death. As this image and blurb (but not the character) will be alignment indicative, Deathkissed receive a different image image and blurb that will flip on their death in place of their real rolecard image.
You may claim your flavor character, flavor image, and flavor blurb. This is not alignment indicative.
You may not claim the flavor of your abilities.
Players
- GGhana — Antoine d’Eglesie – Travelled Away Night 2
- Someone — Orlando Seigneur — Died Night 4
- L.una — Aliena Blackrose — Died Night 4
- baker — Jacques Desmalin — Executed Day 2
- tutuu — Cecilia Blackrose
- Kiiruma — Etienne du Malavois – Exiled Day 3
- Bionic — Rowland Seigneur — Executed Day 4
- Jarek — Jean Noir — Died Night 4
- Luka — Duke Frederick Blackrose — Died Night 2
- IcetFeelsPain — Sylvain Destin — Died Night 2
- Artemis — Daniel Bassino
- Silviu200530 — Renee Varaie
- Magnus — Camelia Videnzne
- May — Elise Malheur
- otterpopd — Rosalind Destin — Executed Day 1
- Atlas — Phebe Desmalin — Died Night 2
- Hazardwaste — Oliver Seigneur
Timeline
Day 1 Begins – Palace Reconnaisance
