Author Archives: obrie110

Blood on the Clocktower Reflection

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.

The Crew Reflection (Mechanics Week)

This week, we were given an overview of various types of board game mechanics and then given free reign to choose one of the many different games scattered about the room to play. Initially I gravitated towards Vagrant Song for its very unique art, but a glance at the rules revealed that it would take quite a while to learn. Instead, I ended up playing The Crew with 2 other students.

The Crew is a co-operative trick-taking game which has some campaign elements to it. I was very interested to see how it was possible to make a co-op trick taking game as the concept initially did not seem feasible! I mean, how is it possible to have a game mechanic built on beating all of your opponents mesh nicely into a co-op experience? Well, after playing The Crew, I have to say that they did a pretty phenomenal job.

The Crew solves the issue by giving the players various goals that they either must complete or avoid completing, such as winning a trick using a specific card or not winning any cards of a specific suit. From here, it is up to the players to work together to play their cards in such a specific sequence as to complete all of the goals assigned to them. Winning each individual trick has little purpose; it’s all about those GOALS!

One player is assigned the role of Captain and gets to choose the first goal as well as play the first hand of the game. The Captain typically ends up setting the pace for the round by nature of choosing that first goal, as every other player must then work around that choice. The game prevents most forms of communication so a lot of the time you are working off gut feelings and card counting. In my opinion, a smart captain will choose a goal that will be difficult for the other members of the team to complete rather than a goal that is easiest for them to complete.

Overall I would say that the game isn’t for many people. While I enjoyed the mechanics presented, it felt like a novelty after a few rounds. The limited communication aspects really soured the experience for me, as I wanted to coordinate more with my team than I actually could. Without being able to talk, sometimes it felt like some goals were completely unachievable.

Ultimate Werewolf Reflection

In week 1 of class, we played Ultimate Werewolf. I had previously played the One Night variant of the game and had played Mafia in the past, but playing the longer form of Werewolf was a new experience for me, especially with the size of the group we played with! I believe that we had around 25 people if my memory is correct, so the game ended up taking a very long time to complete. As someone who had only previously played the One Night version, the sheer length of the game surprised me! We were even being timed at only 1-2 minutes per day, which meant that discussions had to be very short. Now, there usually isn’t too much going on in a single night of Werewolf besides the nightly death, so this timer ended up being not too bad to deal with.

For this game, I was assigned the role of Bodyguard. This, from what I came to understand via play, was an EXTREMELY powerful role. I held within my hands an ability which could completely stop the evil team in their tracks, provided I was smart about it. In the beginning of the game, this was a very difficult task. There were so many people and so many unknowns that I was basically shooting in the dark. I decided that the best course of action was to stay quiet and let the more vocal members of the group draw attention to themselves, at which point I could start trying to protect them. After the first couple of days, the “leaders” of the game were firmly established from a Cupid confirmation chain. They stayed vocal and directed most of the discussions. This let me stay protected for a very long time.

Late into the game, the good team became more clear and I was finally able to start getting a couple of saves. That first save started a powerful chain reaction as I was able to prove one of my neighbors as well as myself as good due to nobody dying. We very nearly pulled out a win but a sneaky Wolf Cub death sealed our fate, as it left me with a 2 in 3 shot of picking a correct person to save, which I unfortunately did not get. Pretty much at all points of the game I felt like I was taking risks. I was always choosing between whether to save myself to ensure my power was safe or to take a chance trying to save someone else to prove that they were on the good team.

All in all, I think Werewolf is a game that has a very broad audience. The basic concept is very easy to understand and the mechanics of the game are not very complex besides remembering different character roles. This issue could be solved by giving players reference sheets. One thing that I don’t like about Werewolf is the player elimination aspect. While I didn’t experience it in this game because I made it all the way to the end, I think I would have been very bored sitting on the sidelines for the rest of the game, especially if I got out very early.