Compare/Contrast: Werewolf and Blood on the clocktower

  • Similarities
  • Night and day phases
  • Central person who operates the whole game and knows everything
  • Secret things happen at night when everyone has their eyes closed
  • Evil people find out who their partners are in the night (with the exception of the Imp in BOTC)
  • Seer players that can look at other player’s cards or otherwise find out other player’s roles
  • Roles that copy other roles- Doppelgänger in werewolf copies another card they look at, and the Drunk in BOTC believes that they are a different role than they are.
  • The drunk role!!
  • Differences
  • Voting mechanism (pointing vs center person turning and raised hands)
  • BOTC has many more roles, and is more complicated in general.
  • BOTC can, and is supposed to take much longer than Werewolf
  • In werewolf, when you are killed, your card is revealed. In BOTC your role stays hidden even after death
  • When you are dead in werewolf you are essentially no longer in the game. When you are dead in BOTC you are still very much an active player (including dead votes)

I really like both of these games! I like that BOTC has much more fun mechanics, exciting new roles, cool art, and has a lot more different ways it can play out because of all the different roles. Werewolf, on the other hand, is much simpler and easy to manage. I like that it’s a lot more accessible than BOTC, I was very very confused the first time I played BOTC. I have fond memories of playing Werewolf when I was little, and I remember (and still do) thinking that the pointing mechanic is super fun, because in real life people aren’t so fond of the pointing.

I have to say, I think BOTC is my favorite, even if I am still learning the ins and outs of it. I think its much more playable for experienced players, and I think it would get even more fun every time you play. It has so many outcomes without the expansion packs needed for Werewolf! And I think the whole concept of the clocktower and all the clocktower mechanics are much cooler and more mature than Werewolf.

Compare and Contrast: Werewolf & Blood on the Clocktower

As an avid fan of social deduction games, Werewolf and Blood on the Clocktower were two of my favorite games that we played this semester. They’re both similar in some respects, but although some might consider Blood on the Clocktower to be a better version of Werewolf, I think that they both have their strengths and weaknesses. To start off with, they’re both hidden role social deduction games, that both have a day/night cycle, that both have different roles assigned to each player, and that both have a “good” and “evil” team. However, the main differences come from how Blood on the Clocktower’s Storyteller has an active role in keeping things “interesting”, how Blood on the Clocktower has everyone have a role that does something (as opposed to Werewolf’s villagers that don’t have abilities) and there isn’t a hard elimination; dead players in Blood on the Clocktower can still participate and influence the outcome of the game. 

While these elements for Blood on the Clocktower do make it more fun and engaging for the average player, since unlike in Werewolf there aren’t periods where you don’t have an ability and can’t do anything or are just dead and can’t do anything but spectate, I think the additional roles and the role of the Storyteller take away from the pure social deduction aspect. Both games focus a lot on deception and trying to find out people’s real roles, but Werewolf is very pure about this – people are who they claim they are, and there aren’t any neutral or muddy roles to confuse things. Blood on the Clocktower, however, has roles like the Poisoner or the Drunk where they might not even be aware that they’re not who they think they are, and while this element of obfuscation does make games more interesting, it does also put a hard cap on how much social role deduction one can do.

I also think that while the roles being able to interact past death and vote is really fun, it does also make it harder for certain victory conditions to be met because you can’t just eliminate someone who you suspect has problematic information. It causes the game to have less of a hard player elimination than Werewolf, which all comes down to the main difference between the two games: complexity. Werewolf (and Mafia and its derivatives) are really easy to play, and really just require some basic understanding and a bunch of people. Blood on the Clocktower has much more advanced and in-depth mechanics, and thus is more difficult to work through, and also does lean on the Storyteller being good at their jobs. I think they both cater to different audiences in the same niche, and while I think Blood on the Clocktower is the better game because you can do more with its more advanced roles and deeper mechanics, sometimes you do just want to play a quick fun game without having to set a bunch of things up for it.

Reflection on a campus leadership event

Rosalind Wiseman: Respect Is Earned, and Dignity Is a Given

Rosalind Wiseman works with youth for a living, and is deemed an expert on the subject. Youth all over the world inspired her lecture I attended, about mean girl culture, its roots, its effects on our society and all of us individually, and how this all applies to our lives. Rosalind also advises us that youth and children need our own advocation and empathy, especially those in crisis but definitely also every single other kid- every one of us deserves to have a social emotional life, and struggles, and to talk to trusted adults about them!

Something Wiseman said that really stuck out to me was “People learn early that maintaining a relationship is more important than how you are treated in a relationship”. I was definitely sitting in the auditorium thinking about how I’ve lived my whole life thinking this way, to a certain degree. And hey, this might be my conditioning, but I do think maintaining relationships is important in most situations, but I also recognize and absolutely believe that if you are not receiving respect or being treated well in a relationship, you have every right to leave that relationship and maybe you should!!

Another key point in Wiseman’s lecture, talked about as well in the Q&A portion, was conflict resolution. Most of the time, when you’re attempting to maintain a relationship, or you are required to, you need to have conflict resolution skills. You need to be able to “acknowledge that conflicts are difficult, but normal, and can be worked through”. You can’t just walk around hurting your friends, coworkers, family members, any of their feelings, you need to make them feel valued and dignify them even in times of conflict. “Identify key moments to support them” even if you’re not on the same side of the issue yet, or even if you part ways on the opposing side. 

As this was a lecture titled “Mean girls”, a lot of Rosalind Wiseman’s advice mainly applied to how to work with women and girls, and how to deal with issues as a woman or a girl. Something she leveled with us about is that a lot of women act the way they do because they’re scared of what other people will think of them. Specifically other women and girls, their peers. This is a huge problem because “women showing anger and frustration are worried people will label them as mean”, so we are taught to be docile, and bottle all of our frustrations up. This goes hand in hand with the maintaining relationships aspect of Wiseman’s talk. Both of these issues teach people to avoid conflict at all costs, and not how to handle it properly.

The most important thing Wiseman talked about, and mentioned over and over again, was that every person deserves dignity. Young girls, old women, everyone, even the person you might have conflict with. She said “Respect is earned, dignity is a given. Dignity is non-negotiable”. As long as we live according to that principle, we are off to a good start in keeping long, healthy relationships in all aspects of our lives.

TIME Stories Week 2

This week was the second week of TIME Stories and I don’t think I enjoyed it more than last week. To start the game we had a player who wasn’t in class the previous week, so we had to try to catch him up with what we’ve done, what we are currently doing, and what we’re planning to do; I’m not sure we did that good of a job on that. We then reset our time almost immediately after starting the game and started a new round. We were able to get a lot of what we wanted to do accomplished, but we kept running into dead ends or doing things we definitely didn’t need to be doing, like unlocking certain locations twice because we thought it might lead us somewhere else. I also died this round, because I flipped a card that made me immediately lose one health point which was all I had. I think this game would be much more fun if it was played in one sitting (which is obviously almost impossible for our class) because once we forgot what we had done previously and why the game became a little frustrating.

I think there were two equally difficult things we ran into while playing the game this week, deciding we needed to go to every place to finish the story, and not seeing each other’s items. Starting with going to every place, every time a new place was revealed we decided that we needed to go there to solve the puzzle even though at one point we had all the items we needed to solve it. This leads to the problem of not seeing each other’s items. It turns out one of the pieces we needed to solve the puzzle was slightly hidden within another item in the game. This wouldn’t have been so much of a problem except that the person who had the item didn’t notice the puzzle piece, and because we weren’t looking at each other’s items neither did anyone else. Once we were told to look at that item so we could solve the puzzle we still had an issue, or at least I believe it was an issue. The problem was that because there was only one of each puzzle piece and they needed to be examined really closely, the rest of us not solving it (especially me since I was the furthest away from the items) didn’t entirely know what was going on and how to help. For example, there was one phrase we really needed to know to solve the puzzle, and while I remembered it and considered it might help, I didn’t announce it because from my viewpoint it didn’t look like it would help with the puzzle.

While the leadership topic I discussed last week still applies, I think the fact that we had someone who hadn’t been there the week prior allowed for a unique leadership experience; making sure everyone feels included even if it is their first time coming to a club meeting. This idea is somehting that is sometimes really hard to do since people usually have distinct groups already established. But, I feel that to be an effective leader it is something that needs to be done because without it that person may be confused and less likely to attend future meetings. Unfortunately, I think we did a fairly bad job at this, so it is definitely something I’ll need to improve on in the future. However, doing a bad job allowed me to see how that person was a bit confused and flustered, which led to my noticing that this is something I need to improve on. (I do think this was harder in the game than it would be in other settings because the people that were there last week didn’t completely remember what we had done either).

GOTW: TIME Stories

At first, I didn’t understand why someone wanted to change their entire final project because of this game, but now I definitely do. I really enjoyed this game and can’t wait to play it next week. I think the mechanics are super fun as well as the content. I do think the hardest part is working against the clock, which I assume is the point, specifically when you go to areas and can’t unlock certain cards. For example, my group went to the Dormitory too early and couldn’t unlock one of the cards. So, we had planned to go back but ultimately wasted our time on something that ended up not helping us in the slightest. Otherwise, I think our team is doing really well in the game. We’ve been able to unlock a lot of things and had the right items to do so, and were even able to solve a fairly difficult puzzle (like a legit puzzle where you have to put pieces next to each other, not the entire puzzle of the game) in one try at the very very end of class.

I think leadership is fairly obvious in this game, as you’re acting as a team. It tends to be that one person decides where to go and then the rest of the team either agrees or disagrees and the game goes on. I think it’s also important to note that the leadership in this game feels a lot more like a club’s exec team than it has in other games we’ve played. For most of the other games, even if you’re on a team, you end up working alone to achieve the goal. However, this game has a team of four people (ironically the size of a typical exec team in the clubs I attend) working together to meet one goal. Also, it’s pretty representative of each person having their own strengths that need to be drawn on to help the team.

I think I also was able to find a good team that meshed together well, which is also an important part of finding an exec team in clubs. No one necessarily is attempting to take charge (unless they have information that they can’t tell others) and instead, everyone is working together. There have also been no disagreements or fighting among the team members, which works really well for achieving the goal. We also work together super well. I said earlier that we were able to solve a puzzle on the first try and the only way we did that was by listening to each other’s input, working towards the same goal, and using each of our strengths.

Compare and Contrast: Ultimate Werewolf and Blood on the Clocktower

Ultimate Werewolf and Blood on the Clocktower (BOTC) are two social deduction games that we have played over the last semester that share quite a bit in common mechanically. However, both have distinct differences that set them apart in many ways. Both games utilize a day and night cycle in which two teams attempt to meet the necessary criteria to bring their team to victory. For Ultimate Werewolf, the townsfolk try to catch and kill the werewolves before they can kill the whole town. Similarly, BOTC has the town attempting to catch a demon and its minions before they can murder the whole town. During the day, the town votes to execute one person in an attempt to kill a member of the evil team. During the night cycle of both games, the werewolf/demon faction chooses one townsperson to kill. Each game utilizes unique hidden roles to give players an edge for their team.

            While these two games are both similar, each presents itself differently and provides unique experiences for its players. For example, while both Ultimate Werewolf and BOTC use hidden roles, BOTC makes sure that each role is unique and has an ability of its own. In Ultimate Werewolf, many of the players are simply townspeople with no addition abilites. I see this as both a positive and a negative. For one, I believe the lack of an ability could make the game less exciting for players. However, I also think this requires players to then utilize other skills in the game to make up for that. On the flip side, everyone having an ability makes things very interesting in BOTC. This is especially the case because of how BOTC works. What roles are in play is unknown, unlike in Werewolf. It is harder to tell if someone is lying about their role. Not even to mention that the demon gets to see what roles are not in use. Another difference between Ultimate Werewolf and Blood on the Clocktower is that BOTC relies on private conversations before each day’s execution. This feature I really enjoyed. It allowed you to secretly communicate and construct alliances way better than you could in Ultimate Werewolf. For Werewolf, you are largely limited to communicating with those near you, if not to the entire group at large. Another difference that I was particularly fond of in BOTC was how death was handled in the game. Unlike in Ultimate Werewolf, you don’t just sit around once you die. You can still communicate and participate just as you had when you were alive. The only caveat was that you could no longer use your ability. Additionally, you were allowed to vote one more time during the course of the game. A vote beyond the grave. One thing that I also felt made a distinct difference between these two games was the hidden special mechanics that BOTC had (the red herring and the drunk). Both added some nuance and intrigue to roles, making it harder for the townsfolk to win. Ultimate Werewolf does not have special conditions like this. Finally, the biggest difference I noticed in the games was the role of the Gamemaster. While Ultimate Werewolf largely only had the gamemaster playing a passive role, the gamemaster of BOTC was an active participant in the story of the game. They’re role is to make the game as interesting as possible and to try to get it to come down to the wire in the last few rounds. I really liked this, as it made the game feel more alive.

            Overall, I really like both games. The social deduction genre has been a favorite of mine for years, and while my experience with these specific iterations has been limited, I found myself enjoying them both while playing with the class. I like the differing roles, especially those of BOTC. Each time you play will result in a vastly different experience from the last. I feel like this game is good for large groups of people. I did find Werewolf easier to pick up, but that is largely because there are some more complex mechanics in BOTC. From what I have seen, the the game is evenly balanced from round to round, with one side never really being too far above the opposing team just by default. Additionally, I really enjoy games where I can act both cooperatively and competitively. Working as a team in a game is just so satisfying.

I didn’t find many negatives in either game, though I did feel that BOTC had more replayability compared to Ultimate Werewolf. It expanded on and filled in any of the gaps that I felt Werewolf had. Not only did every player get a unique ability with their role, but the game felt a lot more secretive and strategic. Every person had a role to play. I also really liked the role of the GM and dead players. The GM felt more like an active participant who had an effect on the outcome of the game as opposed  to just a neutral party who facilitated it. Additionally, players were still important throughout the game, even after dying. This meant that unlike Ultimate Werewolf, there was still an incentive to remain tuned in to the game. While this didn’t have much of an effect on our gameplay, I also thought I should add that BOTC has additional role sheets to spice things up if it began to feel stale. Overall, both games were a lot of fun – but for me BOTC simply did it better.

GOTW: T.I.M.E. Stories

This week, we played a narrative mystery game called T.I.M.E. Stories. In the game you play the part of a team of time travelers sent by an organization to stop a temporal fault from occurring. Our team consisted of four players, each of which took over a receptacle (a host body) in order to explore a specific moment in time and space to stop the fault from forming. The hosts you can play as all have different strengths and weaknesses as well as abilities that can come in handy throughout a run. As a team you explore several locations across a map, fighting off enemies and solving puzzles. However, time is limited, as the organization that sent you there can only hold the link for so long before you are forced back into reality. Many roles have special abilities that can be used throughout the game to gain the upper hand for a player’s given team. The goal of the game is to successfully complete the mission in as few runs as possible, by solving the many puzzles found throughout the map.

Our story started right before we were to be connected to our hosts, and we were briefed on what we needed to do. Our team is sent back to a mental health asylum in 1921. My character was Marie Bertholet. The other characters we had were Felix Bonnunfant, Edith Jolibois, and Mademoiselle Doume. So, we set out to explore the asylum, finding keys, breaking into lockers, and trying (failing) to steal the key off a doctor in the kitchen. Playing as Marie gave me some advantages, especially when it came to the speech skill. I was able to turn any speech roll I made into a minor success. Using her to speak proved very useful in many situations throughout the asylum. However, there was one scenario with a particular orderly that was not so successful. Overall, our team seemed to move quite well, cooperating with each other, and noting down anything we found important as we went. None of us lost any health during the first part of the game, more so having issues with time as we often rolled high on the time lost dice. Our team actually worked quite well together, collectively coming to decisions, and helping each other out as much as possible. We found the secret passageway after murdering Dr. Hyacinth. By the end of the session, we had gathered two pages of a book. Unfortunately, we are near the end of our time loop, and likely will lose everything next week. However, with the knowledge we gained this week, our team should be able to proceed quite easily. I am excited to see what happens.

The hardest part of the game was deciding which options were important with the time we had remaining. While our group was very good at gathering and using information and items, we often ran into issues that cost us precious time points. Our team actually did really well with working together and sharing authority. Our abilities were actually spread pretty evenly, allowing us to prioritize where each of us should go ahead of time so that we worked as efficiently in a new location as we could. I actually believe that that is a way each of us showed leadership. While each of us took on the Time Captain role at least once, we each collaborated and based our decisions on where our strengths lie. The only time other than that that I saw leadership come into effect was deciding where to travel next. Typically, one person would propose moving locations, and then we would all agree on a location.

I loved this game so far. I love games that dig deep into lore, and this one definitely dug deep. I also thought that the mechanics really complimented it well. I loved the exploration aspect as well as the collaborative play. We all had the same goal, which I have not seen much in games I have played recently. I liked the risks we all took, as we all were curious to discover every little secret in the game. This both lead us to learn a lot in our first run, while also being something that cost us a lot of time (I am looking at you moon step man). This being said, this game definitely feels like a game you can only play once. I know there are other decks out there as well, so that makes me a bit tempted to purchase it for myself and play it with my friends. I think my friends Xavier, Katie, Korben, and Roai would love this type of game. They love narrative based games just as much as I do.

GOTW: Ladies and Gentlemen

This week, our class played a game called Ladies and Gentlemen. It is a team-based game where players are divided into pairs – a lady and a gentleman. Both players play on opposite sides, with different gameplay depending on which role you were. Players on the Gentlemen’s side had to gather money in the form of stocks and make money for their wives. This side was dexterity based and involved very little strategy. On the Ladies side, players had to set up shops and strategically visit other shops to be the best dressed by the end of the game. Each team had seven rounds to collect money and purchase clothes for the ball. It is through the money the Gentlemen earned that the Ladies would be able to purchase their outfits. The Ladies and Gentlemen could not communicate on how their situation on their side of the board was going, so they largely could not strategize between collectively. One just had to trust the other.

         For this game I was playing on the Ladies’ side. My partner actually ended up being a friend of mine despite teams being randomized. There were three other pairs that we were up against. The first round took the longest, as we all were getting set up and gaining an understanding of how each turn was. Being on the ladies’ side, my primary goal was to get the best clothes I could by trying to deduct what other Ladies had in their shops. Unfortunately for me, my shop was usually stuck with servants being sold. I tried my best to strategize where I went for each round, but I definitely found it took me a while to get comfortable with what was the best way to play. I think this game is definitely one you have to play once to understand on the Ladies’ side. Me and my partner did a pretty good job, but I believe we ended up in third place. Each item of clothing had a star rating, and the more stars you had at the end of the game the better you did. One pair absolutely blew the rest of us out of the water. What I really liked about the game was the lack of seriousness we all had around it. We all definitely appeared to have a good time, and many laughs were shared.

           The hardest part of the game was strategizing. I do not play a lot of games that usually require me to strategize, so this took some time for me to pick up. Just getting used to the mechanics took some time as well. However, once everyone understood everything, they needed to do it became a lot easier to play and went a lot smoother. I definitely would like to play it again if given the chance. Besides these difficulties, none of them made me overly frustrated. It just took time to learn.

            Personally, I liked Ladies and Gentlemen. I thought it was a neat concept, especially for a satirical play on the old-timey roles of the European upper class. While playing on the ladies side of the board requires more strategy, something I usually try to avoid, I still had a lot of fun. I did not take the game too seriously and was not necessarily playing to win. I just enjoyed the banter and getting the chance to step into a rather silly role. I particularly liked how the group I played with also seemed to enjoy their roles as well. If I had to name something I disliked, it would be the fact that I was unable to strategize with my partner. This made it harder for me to communicate what I needed. Even though I disliked that aspect, I understood it was an important addition to the game to add another level of challenge.

With that being said, I did not see many forms of leadership beyond those who chose to lead the night and day cycle. They made sure the game was running smoothly while also taking care of what was needed for their roles on each end of the board. I think my parents would like this game quite a bit. They like silly games like this, and I feel it is a game they would enjoy when they have friends over for a game night. Considering they know other couples; I think it would be interesting to see whether those relationships would have an effect on how people played the game. Overall, it was a great experience, and I would love to play it again.

GOTW Reflection: Blood on the Clocktower

Ooooh whee Blood on the clocktower was pretty fun. My first time playing it was at Meeples the Tuesday before we played it in class, and to be honest, I was almost completely lost the first time. Alyssa and I talked about it afterwards and agreed that playing with so many skilled players at hyper speed was definitely a trial by fire and I burnt (I was killed the first night and never even got to use my power- gravedigger lol). It was still fun watching everyone work things out thought!

Playing in class with mostly beginners was a lot more fun. I was the Baron, and while I did not win, I got a lot closer to it! The evil team, ring-lead by Logan (though Logan was not the imp) did a pretty decent job of convincing the villagers of our side, or at least confusing them at times. I think unfortunately our other two red team, as newbies, gave some things away or didn’t have the strategies to employ, which is NOT their fault and I still had a great time! The hardest part of this game was, as the evil team, deciding what narrative you were going to push and what story you need to make come to life, because you have to decide that pretty early on so you can all get your story straight and confuse the good team!

This game is alllll about teamwork and working together cohesively. I think leaders usually emerge, like Logan was a leader for my evil team as the rest of us had less experience, but they’re not necessary- in my Meeples game I think almost everyone was running their own agenda! Blood on the clocktower encourages all styles of teamwork.

I’m 0-2 on this game, but I would absolutely play it again! I think it would get better the more I play it, and gain an understanding on more of the characters and possible situations and everything else. I think it would probably be too complicated to introduce to my family, but maybe some of my friends. Those friends being Logan, Aaron, and Alyssa, and I know already that they like it. But yeah.

GOTW Reflection: Ladies and Gentlemen

Ladies and Gentlemen was very fun! I was a lady, and I had a great time getting into character with my fellow ladies, Logan and Aaron. My gentleman and I kind of blew everyone out of the water with our secret hack: the servants!!! Logan and Aaron at the end were like HOW DID YOU GET SO MANY SERVANTS, Aaron definitely thought he was going to win and was surprised that Charlotte and I came out on top.

I didn’t really find any part of the game “hard” per se, but I suppose the most difficult part was choosing which category was going to be available in my storefront, that was the least straightforward for me.

As for leadership, this game is definitely about teamwork between each lady and their gentleman! Charlotte made it incredibly easy for me from her stock success, she bought almost everything I asked for, and we excelled. I tried to pick and choose which items/servants to ask for to accommodate money, and valued the ones I thought would end up with the most victory points at the end.

I think my family might enjoy this game- I’ll consider bringing it into the foray! The partner mechanic is definitely a favorite of ours, switching up the whole game is easy by just switching partners. I think Alyssa’s comment in class about it maybe getting boring after a few plays is valid- but you can always switch sides and partners to keep it interesting! I liked this game 🙂