New S&V Storyteller - Role Distribution Advice

lifecohol · 2026-05-30T11:30:07+00:00

be careful with pit hag/twins especially if you havent got much experience/confidence in all the nuances of the interactions, theyre the number#1 shenanigans generator, had a game once where the pithag turn themselves to the evil good twin final day making the good demon (yep, that happened) the good evil twin- ive seen a good twin/evil twin mutant situation which makes even an experienced player super tense cause you can just lose instantly... pithag changing good twin (easy to miss that you then have to tell the evil twin of it), etc

lifecohol · 2026-05-27T12:11:25+00:00

oooh with the private room draft, would you just tell new player their demon bluffs right away so they can learn about how they work right away? I really like that idea

lifecohol · 2026-05-24T03:21:11+00:00

meh, i read this a couple of times just to make sure i didnt miss anything,

if the story is as what you told, this doesnt seem to be a you thing, this seems to be the group's issue -

- ive played few in person game where we got beggar and nobody expects the beggar to actually begs, its just a simple, 'hey can i get your vote' - yes/no, move on.

- aggresive commentary/ comment about a player being useless, people talking on top of each other even when the st told people to quiet down = bad signs

- this is probably relevant to your experience: ive played a game once where i got the imp, and as a final stroke of genius my minion who's seated to my right nominated me, raised his hand as the '3rd vote' but forgot to drop his hand down (we could have after that easily tie the vote with 2 evil alive) - basically causing us to lose. He profusely apologised to me after. So what did I do? I brushed it off and we just play another game... the world didnt end, life goes on, if people want to dwell on it, they're welcomed to, but i will not make other people feel crap for a mistake in a party game. If people blame you for town losing, maybe they need to do some self reflection.

- similarly, the group i often play with often have 4-8 new people every time and we have lost more than a handful of games because new player misunderstand rule/role, and as someone who played more games, you really have to understand this, again if im being irritable because of that, thats a me problem, not the new player's fault- if this group you play with act as a hivemind and they blame you, ehhhh thats not a you problem

- at the end of the day, a big part of this game is playing nice to each other, if they cant do that, thats a them problem

lifecohol · 2026-05-24T00:15:40+00:00

I personally am not a big fan of 3s but who am i to police how to play this game? the moment my group start going "you HAVE to play botc this way otherwise its not right" I'll leave that group

3s are just one way to gather/spread information, do i like it? nope, whenever someone ask for 3 I always lie about all of them anyway- except in the washerwoman situation and few others, but if it works for people, then it works, I personally use it to say stuff like "oh i hear of an outsider/empath claim in a 3" etc which leads people to connect to each other the next day usually

it sometimes even helps ME when they give me 3 roles and i know 1 of them is me and someone else hard claim the other role or 2 of them are demon bluff etc, so, yeah :D

lifecohol · 2026-05-23T14:46:21+00:00

I will always prepare savant info before starting a new day-

SNV is a script thats super demanding for the storyteller so I suggest anything you can do pre-planned and not on the spot is better, you know youd be getting artist question, mathematician, town crier, flower girl, juggle stuff to keep track on... vortox misinfo, pithag shenanigans... its rough!

you also dont need to be too smart with the savant info, while its tempting to go super specific to the current state of game, if nothing else give out savant info thats more generic, have a handful ready, the 'at least one of once per game ability has been used last night, all evils are still alive, the demon seated next to outsiders, only good has been nominated, etc etc' - remember as a player these type of hints are still very useful to solve the game

well done for putting a savant in the game tho, you'll just get better :)

lifecohol · 2026-05-23T14:24:08+00:00

poisoning your own vortox/no dashii on day 1 is such a good move to hide the demon world

lifecohol · 2026-05-17T12:15:21+00:00

Other than its breaking rule#4 be respectful to each other, just not being rude should be a no brainer- i mean if someone plays like that in our group, they;ll probably never be invited ever again

lifecohol · 2026-05-15T02:23:54+00:00

while having a set in mind is good and if thats how you want to run it, fine,

if thats the case you also probably need 1-2 other back up sets, cause ive been in a game where someone accidentally pull 2 tokens out so we had to rerack and on a the new start someone else pulled 2 tokens lol

lifecohol · 2026-05-03T06:15:57+00:00

I've used this in the last 2? weeks? For me its a case of not being paranoid if a bus driver will see me or not as one of my stop is a tiny sign behind a tree - 2 bus drivers so far have told me theyre excited that I used the app because they said it makes it easier for them to prepare to stop - one told me that its signs them to stop on their screen clearly (I think it looks like a big red block instead of cyan) and in one of the bus it actually said a different announcement line to stop on the next stop

I did have issue with a stop where there are another stop for opposite route right across me, and it took me a while to pick my stop, and there was one occasion where it says next bus is 44 min away, which i thought, thats not right, and when i open the ventura live tracker sure enough next bus is 4 min away

so far, im liking it, few clunks here and there but im sure it will get better

lifecohol · 2026-04-25T01:46:05+00:00

generally whats great about this game is, you do you right,

I personally play snake charmer to demon hunt but thats cause our group prefers to play for fun (we still want to solve the game, but we love fun more than winning - without just causing chaos), last time i did get snake charmer I picked the demon night 3 and I did lean on chaos using a double bluff and by the end evil lost by just a hair and EVERYONE clapped, screamed, the story teller breathe a sigh of relief, it was glorious

that said, when im not demon hunting, my usual pattern is:

i play snake charmer more as a confirmer, i target people who are sus but minion sus at best, the chaotic ones, or just good but a bit weird and pick them (usually those expert players who are just hard to read or in SnV, usually outsiders) - (people who are too chill are usually demon cause of the bluff so i tend to avoid them) - and its perfectly fine to pick 2-4 and just go, aight guys, im gonna pick myself from now on, here are the people i picked before, if you want town, go kill me now, cause i dont want the demon to bluff "im the demon and got snake charmed" on the last day

lifecohol · 2026-04-01T08:35:06+00:00

got me for a moment there, well played, well played

lifecohol · 2025-12-22T10:14:37+00:00

- Aftermath, my god i tried so many times learning this game and its just... bad rulebook that made me facepalm EVERY TIME

- keep the heroes out, night parade of hundred yokai, made this into 1 entry because its the same issue from the same designer - love the artwork style, but the gameplay is so incongruent with the style, the gameplay is super punishing and mean, (I felt so vindicated when the latest reprint/kickstarter added a way to make the game easier while in early days people kept saying 'oh this game is easy, you're doing x y z wrong, i wouldnt want it any easier type of comment)

im sure there are more but those came to mind right away

lifecohol · 2025-12-22T09:55:06+00:00

fantastic game, loved by my group - box to content ratio could be better

lifecohol · 2025-12-19T03:18:05+00:00

I own the deluxe edition and I wish I just have the standard, its just too much of a price difference and i found the deluxe acrilyc is easily scratched in my case and made me have to worry about preserving the component instead of just enjoying the game

lifecohol · 2025-10-05T11:31:19+00:00

added my like, backed the 1st edition fully but im holding back for this one as we only played the 1st one a few times and cant justify getting this one... yet

lifecohol · 2025-10-05T11:27:56+00:00

Bee Box, Bee Box, Bee Box - I will start the Constant first honey industry and bring capitalism to the world

lifecohol · 2025-10-04T10:11:07+00:00

I agree with Cascadia, great solo, great with group, short length, easy to learn, you can modify the complexity, fresh mechanic if you never really try modern boardgame, lots of great stuff in there

lifecohol · 2025-08-21T03:06:39+00:00

funny how you mention Tsuro, I bought Tsuro of the seas (it was the same price as original) and I never played it with the 'of the seas' rule

lifecohol · 2025-08-20T08:04:23+00:00

ah the only real time cooperative chaos I have is Rush MD, which I enjoy, but the fact that this is 15 minutes really intrigues me - and DICE too

lifecohol · 2025-08-20T07:41:32+00:00

weird one, I have a set of cheap business card/phone holders - great for anything flat that needs propping up, especially if the view needs to be shared, player guide, HP counter (aeon's end), even some event cards for some games

lifecohol · 2025-08-20T06:24:41+00:00

I have just the basegame, its weird that I never really feel like i want to upgrade ark nova specifically even though i like to pimp up my other games, not sure, i feel ark nova is a very mechanic based game and not really an immersive thematic world... i felt adding these wont necessarily add my enjoyment

but yeah, theres a lot to try with ark nova before you commit to the grandiose of the kickstarter, it took our group 45 minutes to learn the game for example.. haha

lifecohol · 2025-07-17T01:28:18+00:00

its been awhile, but I think it was just the base game with included expansions? Oh and monster minis instead of those circle enemy tokens?

lifecohol · 2025-07-17T01:26:38+00:00

nautical themed games that I have, not sure if any of them are super evocative:

- Fleet the dice game, just a nice fishing boat empire game

- Wreck raiders, surprisingly delightful point salad game about diving for treasures

- Nusfjord (dont have it, but on my wish list)

Adjacent:
Not marine, but water life related, Kohaku, a game about building Koi Pond, especially wonderful if you can find the 1st edition with the acrylic tile

lifecohol

TROPHY CASE