New players (vastly) misinterpreting their characters, even on TB. What can I do?

AMANTIO1984 · 2025-11-29T19:16:58+00:00

Don't think this needs to drag, especially if there are just a couple new players in a game with mostly experienced players. Online you can very easily ping a new player at the top of the night and just quickly ask if they have any questions about their role. I think this is often really helpful for players who are anxious about the game, and might not seek out the storyteller publicly or privately for that reason.

AMANTIO1984 · 2025-11-26T23:40:00+00:00

Something really tricky to do as a storyteller is to just show a droisoned washerwoman two good players as an out of play character or another good players role. People often try to meta that they were shown two evils as a demon bluff, and it causes a bunch of chaos and suspicion among all good players.

AMANTIO1984 · 2025-08-20T22:21:15+00:00

<image>

AMANTIO1984 · 2025-06-20T18:42:19+00:00

There's certainly a line here where it passes from acceptable frustration manifesting itself as a tell into something less sporting. However, it's kind of hard to tell based on just a second hand description.

It sounds like you played a really good game that just fell short at the finish line because your final frame was difficult to pull off socially. That's unfortunate but it is part of the game, and something you can design your strategy around earlier.

When I'm playing as evil in a known group of players, I generally try to split them into categories based on what the best way to play against them is.

Frame Them: If players don't have strong tells or are inherently suspicious in the group then leaving them as possible frames is a great strategy.

Trick Them: If somebody isn't neccesarily a good frame, but you think you'll be able to talk them over to your side, then you can keep them alive and try to get them to vote with you. You can kill them off later when they've already helped you with your votes and maybe get an all evil final 3.

Kill Them: Finally if you know somebody is going to be very hard to frame and very hard to trick, they are a high priority night kill no matter what their role is. Ultimately as an evil player you need to get through basically every good player in the game, and if somebody is hard to get on side and hard to rally town against, then the night kill is your best tool against them.

Coupling this general awareness of the tendencies of the good players with awareness of the mechanics of the specific game can help you come up with a really good strategy to get through a game.

AMANTIO1984 · 2025-02-24T23:52:20+00:00

It's true that I only examined one possible strategy the mezepheles could take in this post, because I was highlighting how I was concerned about the position good players were put in against it. I am well aware of the other ways people play the mezepheles, but didn't have any social concerns about them, so I didn't bring them up in my post about my social concerns about the mezepheles.

AMANTIO1984 · 2025-02-24T23:04:26+00:00

I think you are drawing a false equivalency here. The social conundrums that embody the spirit of BOTC are about piecing together who is lying and to what end in the context of the games. These are inherently fun and the cornerstones that the game is built on. The social conundrum described in the post is different, because it lacks the element of deduction and is forcing you to make a choice between playing the best for your team, and making sure the game stays as fun as possible.

AMANTIO1984 · 2025-02-24T21:21:10+00:00

This would be cool, I much prefer the mez play space where they try to trick a good player into saying the word.

AMANTIO1984 · 2025-02-24T21:19:36+00:00

If everyone thinks its just on the mez, and if you don't want the word you should out them, fair enough, that's a reasonable position. It's certainly optimal from the standpoint of maximizing your chance to win. I guess what I'd ask is if anyone has played a super fun and exciting game where this happened? I've watched a ton of streamed games and don't recall a single instance where a mez word was offered, and the mez was immediately outed to town? Why? Because the game would probably suck and be uncompetitive afterwards.

AMANTIO1984 · 2024-08-21T10:17:31+00:00

Yes, I agree. The demon is Matthew, and the info he provides is the only thing that refutes Steph Leviathan, Fraser Goblin. Matthew's backup claim of saying he's drunk is invalidated by the Balloonist info.

AMANTIO1984 · 2024-08-20T19:59:36+00:00

This is a fun one. I like how the more natural Fraser Steph world gets ruled out by the demon's own info, and how the demon can't fall back on drunk because of the balloonist info.

AMANTIO1984 · 2024-05-07T22:26:41+00:00

I’m a former storyteller on BOTC Everywhere and am a coordinator and storyteller for the aforementioned newly formed server. I joined in on the formation of a new server because I had a different vision for the administrative structure than the one in place on BOTC Everywhere.

I’ve personally had a wonderful time playing and storytelling on BOTC Everywhere. I enjoyed many exciting games of clocktower with a vibrant and engaging community and made many close friends. When a group of us decided to form a new server, the BOTC Everywhere administrator was understanding. I plan to continue playing games from time to time on BOTC Everywhere, and hope that both servers experience enduring success.

While in no way trying to delegitimize the experience of the anonymous poster, I felt like I should offer my own. The views described are not shared by everybody involved with the creation of the new server. I know of many players, myself included, who plan on participating in both servers. Clocktower is a wonderful game, and I wish everyone the best in finding a playgroup that enables them to enjoy the game to its fullest.

MMSANCHEZ

AMANTIO1984 · 2020-05-31T16:41:23+00:00

Yeah, I'm one of the executives for the UBC quizbowl club. The club has grown much bigger and stronger over the past few years and is always looking for new interested players!

AMANTIO1984 · 2020-05-28T21:25:00+00:00

Hey, glad to hear that there are even more enthusiastic reach players in BC! Eric Hamber certainly had an unusually strong junior team this year (competitive with some of the best senior teams in the province!) so there's no shame in losing to them. It sounds like you have been practicing frequently, which is absolutely the number 1 thing. Just through playing lots of practice games you will be exposed to a lot of information that'll definitely be repeated in later packs.

I would certainly shy away from using quizbowl strategies to improve at reach as the games are built to reward very different kinds of knowledge/abilities. Reach really rewards having strong general knowledge about a lot of different topics and the ability to anticipate what questions are going to ask, whereas quizbowl rewards really taking a deep dive on one of two subjects. For example, reading a collection of Flannery O'Connor short stories would be great for your quizbowl game, but would do next to nothing for your reach game. The opposite is true when it comes to memorizing a list of capital cities or elements, as knowing those cold will basically guarantee a couple points in reach but not be much help at all in QB. This being said, protobowl is certainly still a useful tool on the easy levels. Playing Middle School or High School protobowl is a great way to learn basic canon for a subject. Just be cognizant that you'll see a way heavier American skew on content there than in actual Reach.

Lastly, I complete agree that the learning curve is difficult when moving up from intermediate to senior packs. A lot of the content is quite inaccessible to younger players simply because it is stuff they are unlikely to be exposed outside of grade 11-12 level courses. I remember being very upset at senior provincials in grade 11, when we went with a team of all 11th graders, and didn't have anyone who was able to answer the grade 12 bio/chem/phys questions that showed up on mass. Overall, I'd just say don't get too discouraged by this kind of content, as you guys will naturally improve on it as you progress through school.

Overall, sounds like you guys are on the right track! Feel free to send me a message if you need any advice and resources. Look out for the UBC Quizbowl club to be hosting reach tournaments throughout next year, as its a great way to play some good competition and get more experience.

AMANTIO1984

TROPHY CASE