GOTW: Blood on the Clocktower

This week we played a game called Blood on the Clocktower. It is a social deduction game that is very similar to a previous game we played called Ultimate Werewolf. It is a hidden roles game where individuals are given a token by the storyteller (the one controlling the game flow) at the beginning of the game. There are two sides: the townspeople and the Demon. The townspeople are trying to survive the night while also attempting to find and kill the Demon and their minions during the day. The Demon attempts to stay hidden while slowly killing off all of the townspeople. Each role has a specific ability that can either come into effect once a round, or once throughout the game. The game ends either when the Demon is killed, or when the Demon kills all of the townspeople. During the day, everyone could talk to each other either privately or in groups in an attempt to share and spread information. One part of the game that I particularly liked was the role of the storyteller. Their role is to make a good story, thus meaning they aren’t taking any sides and simply want the game to end as dramatically as possible.

           For the round we played in class, I got the role of Mayor. The mayor’s ability makes it so that if they are attacked at night, there is a chance someone else dies in their place. There is a second ability of the mayor that does not really come into effect until the latter end of the game. It states that if there are three people at the end of the day cycle, and no execution is made, then the townspeople win. In the beginning, I did not move around much since I did not have any information. I mostly just stuck with the group that sat near me. I spent most of the game this way, as the individuals around me one by one claimed their roles. Near the beginning of the game, we almost immediately were able to take out the poisoner due to the Ravenkeeper dying. The washerwoman revealed himself and corroborated the information. With a bit of assistance from the cook, we took out the demon during the second day. Unfortunately for the townspeople, there was a scarlet woman in play, so the game did not end there. Throughout this time individuals would exchange information and talk to one another, seeking to form trust. I shared my role with the washerwoman, in an attempt to create trust. I did not want to share my role too early, knowing it could result in me being targeted early on. Looking back, however, that might have been a better idea. With a little bit more digging, and a couple more deaths, the townspeople successfully took out the Baron that was in play. I ended up being executed when the fortune teller pinged that I could potentially be the demon. This was because I had the status of being a Red Herring. The game ended up coming down to the wire, with the final execution occurring when only three players remained. It was during this vote that I used my ghost vote (the single final vote someone has once they die). The townspeople won once the scarlet lady was executed.

            The hardest part of the game was knowing who to trust and defending myself with a role that was hard to prove. It was hard to know who to trust as you did not know who could be telling the truth. Not all the roles were in play, so people could bluff which role they were. However, I also found it really hard to defend my role in particular because the mayor’s ability neither provides information nor can be controlled. I felt largely like I had to rely on connections I made with individuals who were proven to be the role they claimed to be. Even then, I still ended up being executed. Despite these difficulties, I still really enjoyed the game. I really like games like Blood on the Clocktower. I used to play Town of Salem (a similar online version) all the time with my friends. I would recommend this game to anyone. It is a great game to play when you are at a party or have a lot of people over. I do not necessarily think you have to know everyone to have a good time. If anything, it is a good icebreaker. I feel like I could play this game with a good variety of people.

            I saw leadership in a couple of ways while playing Blood on the Clocktower. The first way was how people would often take the initiative to engage others in conversations. Be it to get information or to solidify their own role, they were taking action to make connections and find answers. A second way I saw leadership was during voting. Many people took strong stances and stepped forward with the evidence they had. They used this information to sway the group one way or the other for a vote. While a little bit obvious, I also believe that the role of the storyteller itself was a leadership role, as the storyteller controls the game cycle while also providing information to players based on their roles. One person I felt showed a lot of leadership skills was Alyssa. I felt like her role in the game resulted in a lot more chaos, and yet she also seemed to be the most outspoken player. I thought it was very neat how she played. All in all, I had a really good time playing, and I certainly wouldn’t mind playing it again if given the chance.

GOTW: Blood on the Clocktower

I really enjoyed playing Blood on the Clocktower, and it might be my favorite game we’ve played so far this semester. I think I enjoyed it because it was a social deduction game, which I’ve come to enjoy, but unlike Werewolf or Two Rooms and a Boom, for the most part, you can freely talk to anyone you want to. I also really enjoyed the part of the game where if you die you can still participate and don’t have to just stop playing like in Werewolf. In our playing of the game, I was the Undertaker which meant that I knew which character was executed the day before. I enjoyed this role, which is maybe why I liked the game so much, because I was on the good team (being on the evil team stresses me out) and because I gained information each night.

I think the hardest part of this game is knowing who to trust. Obviously, this is a part of all social deduction games, but it didn’t appear as much in Two Rooms and a Boom because we always showed everyone our team or in our specific playing of Werewolf both because I didn’t know many people yet and because I was on the werewolf team. But I think because I have made connections with people at this point in the semester I was more inclined to trust them. For example, I completely trusted the four people I was sitting near to be on the good team, so I was surprised when one of them turned out to be the demon. I think this problem of trusting people is also exacerbated by the fact that you can have private conversations with anyone in the game. In order for me to get people to trust me in these conversations I chose to tell them what my role was and what I learned during the night. So, because I wasn’t killed for telling someone on the evil team this information, I trusted them to be on the good team.

This relates to leadership in a similar way to the other social deduction games with the idea that people on a leadership team might have different goals with their organization. It was shown that not knowing those goals could lead to a worse outcome for either person and that the group in the majority may get what they want despite not being entirely right (if the evil team had the majority at the end the good team wouldn’t have stood a chance). I think this game also shows how much you have to trust other members of your team. Without that initial trust, the team may not get anything done and could end up destroying themselves in the process (if I had not trusted those people around me I wouldn’t have told them what I knew and some of the connections we drew that helped us win the game wouldn’t have happened).

GOTW: Ladies and Gentlemen

I enjoyed Ladies and Gentlemen, but I’m not sure how many more times I would play it because I think it is very repetitive. However, I think I also played the easier of the two sides (gentlemen) so maybe switching to the ladies’ side would allow for more plays. I don’t think anything was really difficult on my side of the game, it was just grabbing pieces you wanted and then buying my teammate the clothing with the most stars (I assumed this was the determining factor of winning the game). I guess if I had to pick a part of the game that was difficult it would be finding a number tile each round. I tended to not find one until the very end and either got stuck with #3 or #4.

While it’s a bit hard to find a leadership topic in this game I think the teamwork with your partner, despite not knowing exactly what they are doing, to reach the goal of winning is a good representation of leadership. In leadership settings, you often have a lot of people working with you to achieve one goal, but you might not know exactly what it is they’re doing behind the scenes to achieve that. For example, in student organizations the President might not completely understand the Treasurer’s role and vice versa. However, they both do know that the other is doing their best to achieve the goal of the club (of course assuming everyone has the same goal).

I think the subject matter of the game is a very interesting topic to discuss. While I completely understood that the game was satirical in manner, I can understand why other people may not see it this way. The women’s game seemed to be all about buying clothing and they were significantly limited in what they could do; they were only able to buy certain things if their husbands agreed to it and were not told why they did or didn’t purchase something. I do think, however, that this is slightly remedied in the game by the women owning shops and having control over what is placed in them. Assuming it was more accurate, although I haven’t researched this time period so this may be incorrect, it would probably be the men who were in charge of the financial decisions of the shop and therefore would determine what could and could not be placed in the shop.

Ladies & Gentlemen

This week in class we played “Ladies & Gentlemen”, this was my first time playing this game and it was a very good experience. This game is designed for 4-10 players and was designed around high society where players will be a couple with their teammates. The game is very straightforward and strategic as you try and collect the most stars at the end of the game.
The hardest part about this game was collecting the correct tokens if you played the role of a gentleman. You had to be quick and notice what tokens you need in order to gather money and resources to buy items for your significant other. Another flaw in the game was picking a token with a number on it. If you did not receive a low number then other players will purchase resources before you had the chance.
“Ladies & Gentlemen” showcases a variety of leadership skills such as persuasion, influence, and making important decisions under pressure. Leaders in the game have to make crucial decisions each round on what clothing to buy for their significant other and what pieces will allow them to gather the most stars. Overall, this game was very fun to play and I think my friend Jake would love this game as he is very interested in competitive games and environments.

GOTW #6 Reflection: Voices in My Head

In week 6 we played the game Voices in My Head. This is a strategy-based hidden roles game. In this game, you either play as the prosecutor or one of the voices in Guy (the defendant)’s head. The prosecutor is trying to convince the jury that Guy has robbed a bank, whereas the voices in Guy’s head have their own objectives. Some voices want to get a guilty verdict too, while others want Guy to get an innocent verdict. The only issue is – no one knows which is which. There are two acts, each with four rounds. Each round, the prosecutor would reveal a new piece of evidence. Each piece of evidence has two regions of the brain that can influence the card. The players must push their tokens into the different regions, attempting to have the highest score in the region so that they can be the ones to decide how to resolve the card. The game ends after the two acts are completed, and the verdict is determined based on the number of guilty and innocent tiles on the jury.

               I played this game with the same group I played Fiasco with, which was super fun. It seemed we were all a lot more comfortable playing this game, and everyone got a chance to have their own fun. I played the role of prosecutor, which was the role I had hoped to get. I really liked being able to see the evidence and to choose which pieces to throw at the other players. I often found myself picking the funniest options rather than the most optimal choices. It was different from how I find myself usually playing, but I honestly think I had more fun that way. We all had some good laughs and enjoyed the silliness of each new piece of evidence. I did end up losing, but I wasn’t even mad about it. This is definitely a game I would love to play again.

The hardest part about this game for me was trying to figure out what the other players’ goals were. Figuring out the mechanics and how the game was played was more important during the first half. Even when I got it down, my focus was mostly on having fun with the game rather than winning. I didn’t figure out people’s objectives until near the end. I feel like I would have played much differently if it wasn’t my first time playing this game. So, I feel like the hardest part of this game was born from my inexperience. Usually, I play games a bit more strategically, but this time I played it fairly loosely. I just wanted to have a good time, and I did – despite the fact that I lost.

Voices in My Head shows leadership through the role of the prosecutor as well as through who controls the different regions of Guy’s brain. To take control of the situation, and lead the game in a particular direction, players had to place their tokens in specific regions of the brain. Whoever had the most tokens in a region would be able to respond to the prompt given by the prosecutor. I believe this was a form of leadership, as it often took being persuasive and often aggressive in certain ways to take charge of the outcome. I believe the prosecutor also played a leadership role, as they had to guide the other players through each scenario. They act as game master in a way. They put forward the scenarios which the other players had to face. In particular, I also found myself being the one who was asked questions regarding rulings.

I believe my friends Katie and Xavier would like this game. I’ve been playing board games with them more often, and this seems like the goofy game they would enjoy. I think this game really should be played with a light heart and shouldn’t be taken too seriously. I think these two would fit that bill perfectly.

While I feel like I have shared my opinion on this game throughout this post, I think I could elaborate further on what I liked and didn’t like. I liked the goofiness of the cards, the art, and the game mechanics. I also liked how all the different roles interacted, and how a lot of the actions taken during my session were often a mystery until the final reveal at the end. I didn’t have much I disliked. Perhaps it was just a bit difficult to understand at the beginning. However, I feel like that could be a gripe for any game with complex rules. I liked the group I played with, and I had a good time. What more could you ask for?

Two Rooms and a Boom

This week we played “Two Rooms and a Boom”, this was my first time playing this game and I enjoyed it. This game is focused on challenging your communication skills, strategic thinking, and reading others’ minds. This game is focused primarily on two teams, the Red and Blue teams each team has a president and a bomber. As the Red team tries to get the president and the bomber in the same room, the Blue team must prevent this.
The hardest part about this game was reading people’s minds and strategic thinking throughout every round. Switching rooms throughout each round made it very hard as information was shared in each room in a secretive manner. The limited time clock also made this game very difficult as you have to be quick with your actions and what clues to find in each round.
“Two Rooms and a Boom” showcases a variety of leadership skills such as persuasion, influence, and making important decisions under pressure. Leaders in the game have to make crucial decisions each round on who to send into the other room to gather important information. Leaders are different each round which makes the focus of leadership very important in this game, adapting each round is very important. Overall, this game was very fun to play and I think my friend Jack would love this game as he is very interested in competitive games and environments.

Ultimate Werewolf

In the first week of class, we played Ultimate Werewolf. I have never played this board game so it was a very difficult experience at first. The majority of my classmates knew how to play the game and seemed very experienced. There were a lot of ups and downs to this game but I finally got the hang of it.
The hardest part about this game was how much people and characters had a role in the game. There were a lot of scenarios where there were so many different scenarios to choose from so we had to just arbitrarily choose people to “kill”. My first time playing the game I didn’t know what roles were more important to others so I was very confused about why there were so many different characters.
This game ties into leadership in a way where the Werewolves can control most of the game if played correctly. The werewolves are always seeking to take people out of the game so having that authority and leadership is a key part for them.
I think my little cousins would love this game as it is a game that many people can play together and team up against each other to make it a better experience. Our gameplay as a class was very quick as we didn’t have much time to take our time. Overall, I am not the biggest fan of this game as I prefer different style of board games but it was still a fun experience.

GOTW Reflection: Two Rooms and a Boom

Two Rooms and a Boom was a very fun party game! I really enjoyed how many different roles there were and how much the game changed for each player based on their role. For example, when I was the bomber, I took much more of a backseat on the strategizing as I was an important role, and I let my team make all the decisions for me.

I don’t always enjoy being in a leadership role, though I have been in multiple facets of my life and I will step in if I need to, but I enjoy the teamwork element much more. In this game, as we discussed in class, even though there is a literal ‘leader’ role, we decided that the leader doesn’t actually have all of the power, and it’s very much a team game, making team decisions and coming to team consensus. It was more about making sure that your team was in power, not a specific leader as a dictator. I think the hardest part of the game, for me, was remembering who was which team/role between the rounds. After 2 or 3 everything started to blur together, and trying to remember who’s on my team this round, even if they weren’t last round. The worst part was when they were on your team last round but this round they are an enemy.

I thought it was weird how there is almost no incentive NOT to share your color/card with the gray roles. Unless you have a personal vendetta against that person, of course. I was then informed that there are some gray roles that we weren’t playing with, where you definitely DON’T want to share your role with them, because they could kill you or otherwise screw with your team. I found that the ambassador roles played a huge role in communication between rooms within a team, specifically to share between rooms which team is in power in each room, which absolutely influences your team decisions. Also, they are very helpful in connecting the Doctor-President and Engineer-Bomber. I can see how they would be helpful with all of the other role cards we didn’t play with as well.

I enjoyed playing with 12 or 13 people as we did in class, I feel like if you added much more the game would change and involve less teamwork. Which could be fun to play an almost entirely different game, but I think I would prefer to keep the numbers around what we had. I definitely enjoyed connecting with and learning more about some of my classmates that I hadn’t interacted with before!

GOTW: Two Rooms and a Boom

I had heard of Two Rooms and a Boom before we played it, although I’m not sure where, so I was looking forward to the game despite never playing it before. I think the first couple of rounds were confusing because I wasn’t sure what exactly to do, but once I got the hang of it I enjoyed the game. I also thought it was more fun once different roles were added to the game. Specifically, I got to be the ambassador during the last round and I found that to be a lot of fun, and fulfilling as the previous round I was “kept hostage” in one of the rooms and not allowed to go to the other.

Obviously, the main leadership concept in this game was the leaders themselves. In the early rounds, I think this leader did have more of a traditional leadership role because they mostly had to make the decision alone; however, when the leaders were able to find more people on their team they scarcely made decisions by themselves; this teamwork is a component of leadership as well, so I think this also represents leadership well.

I think being the Ambassador was also a good representation of being a leader. During the game, I was on the blue team and quickly discovered who the President and the Bomb were. This allowed me to share with the president who to watch out for, which was helpful. However, my main task was trying to get the Doctor and the President in the same room. This was really difficult because I had to find a way to communicate with both parties, while not knowing their exact plans. This led to the president and doctor being switched in the same round and the game ended in a tie. This shows that even if you have plans with certain people, you don’t always know what the other is going to do and it may lead to unexpected results.

I think the hardest part of the game was the time limit. Thinking back on it now I know what should’ve been done to win the last game, but in the moment there isn’t enough time to think your decisions through. For example, in the 1 minute round, I had to run down the hallway with 20 seconds left and hope I made it on time to inform people of what was happening and make a decision based on that. Another difficult aspect was who the leader was. During the game I mentioned previously, there was a situation where I had to stay in the room for the blue team to remain leader, because as soon as I left the room the red team took charge. This led to me being forced to stay in the room and not being able to communicate with the Doctor in the other room.

GOTW: Voices in my Head

I enjoyed Voices in my Head a lot, but this may be because it wasn’t the most complex game for me. During the game, I was able to immediately take control of the planning section, and it wasn’t taken away from me, so I was able to pick up a strategy card every round. Because of this, I knew what every influence token on the board was, and therefore knew which way the jurors were leaning. I also got fairly lucky when controlling different parts of Guy’s brain in that I almost always got to do something with the innocent/guilty tokens or the influence tokens at the end of the round.

However, I think the hardest part of this game was not knowing exactly what everyone wanted to do, even when I knew how the game was playing out. This showed specifically in the very last round of our game where a guilty token was placed on one of the jurors and instead of completely winning the game I tied with another person. I think this ties into leadership really well because even if you know everything that is going on, one person could do something that goes against your goals and completely change what is happening. Likewise, during the game, I had the selfish role and therefore was completely alone in wanting the jury to vote more innocent than guilty. This is what leadership can feel like, everyone else may want to achieve a certain goal or do something completely different than what they are meant to be doing, and you are left alone to try to achieve your goal.

In the end, I really enjoyed this game, possibly because I enjoy social deduction games, but I’m not sure if I would’ve enjoyed it as much if I didn’t know what way each juror was voting the whole time. I think that element of not knowing is a bit scary and the idea that someone else could be doing things to the game that would make you lose, without you knowing, could make you feel helpless. I think this game would be more fun with more people playing, because it would allow for all sides, those wanting a guilty decision and those wanting an innocent decision, to have more people working together to achieve their goal.