This week in class we got to play Blood on the Clocktower. I had been waiting for this one! Clocktower is one of my favorite games and I always love getting to experience playing it with new people. As far as social deduction games go, I prefer the experience Clocktower provides way more than any other game in the genre. I never enjoyed the player elimination aspect of other social deduction games. It felt bad on both sides of the spectrum. If you were good and got out early, you didn’t get to play the game. If you’re evil, you have to pick who you don’t want to play the game anymore. Clocktower’s ruleset, while higher on the scale of complexity, allows everyone to be included at all phases of the game. It also makes being evil easier for some as there is less guilt over eliminating other players.

A special quirk about Clocktower is the hightened importance of the Storyteller (the person running the game). I’ve been the Storyteller many times for my own play group, and I can say that the decision making aspect of the job can be really tricky at times! You are tasked with being the ultimate mediator, balancing both sides of the game to create the most interesting matches. This requires a very specific mindset. You have to learn to be impartial (for the most part) and create the best play environment for everyone.

Very rarely do I get to be the player and I thought that I was making the most of this opportunity… only to inadvertaintly lose the game for my team in both games we played. To anyone that didn’t believe, I apologize! Incorrect social reads got the better of me. A fun part of the puzzle of Clocktower is balancing out the ‘trustworthiness” you’re reading off of the other players and the actual info your character is getting. For example, in my second game, we had a Spy get very comfortable on the Good team because they both appeared to be Good when checked by three other people and read Good socially. When that happens, there’s not much else a player can do to work out that they’re getting duped, especially if they’ve been the Drunk the whole time (which I was)!

Overall, I suggest that everyone give Clocktower a try at least once, especially if you didn’t like other social deduction games for their player elimination aspects. I’d HIGHLY recommend it for people who have already played a fair number of tabletop games and want something that they can keep coming back to over and over.