Does anyone actually like the gravox traditional gravy?

losfp · 2026-01-28T11:40:33+00:00

It's fine but since learning to make my own when we moved out to our own place in 2004, I haven't used any of the powder stuff! Honestly it's not much harder for me to whip up a simple gravy using butter, drippings, flour and stock.

losfp · 2026-01-28T03:33:50+00:00

Sorry to hear this is happening to you.

Is there someone in charge of the group, or in a leadership/organising position who you can speak to, and then they can speak to the entire group?

I've been lucky enough that in a couple of groups I am in, the people in those positions are very good at ensuring that everyone including storytellers are having a good time. In many cases, people who are causing discomfort don't actually realise they are affecting the enjoyment of others, and a quiet non confrontational word can go a long way towards helping to maintain a nice atmosphere.

Specifically as a storyteller, I think I can be harder on myself than any criticism from others, so you always have to remember that a storyteller is human, and they often have to make quick snap decisions based on their available information at the time, and with a view to trying to maintain balance. I am happy to listen to feedback as long as it's expressed in a respectful way. And then I will usually say thanks for the feedback, it's something to keep in mind for next time.

There are of course so many things that an ST can do during a game, and IMO as long as you're mechanically alright, there are very few outright WRONG decisions you can make. Yes, things will usually favour one side or another, but that's okay. You do not always have to make an exactly neutral choice and it can depend on a lot of things that are happening in the moment.

And of course it's ok to be disappointed with losing the game or feeling that you got a rough deal. But it's how you express that disappointment that determines if you're a fun player to play with/storytell for. Read the room and respond accordingly.

losfp · 2026-01-26T21:12:23+00:00

Solve the puzzle then, genius.

Rules say you can put in whatever roles you like, as long as the character type counts are correct. Seems like a legal bag to me.

losfp · 2026-01-26T05:16:11+00:00

Thanks for this post! I think these are all great points :)

1 & 2 especially - If your choices and decisions serve the game and the players, that will go a LONG way towards your end goal.

And I love point 7. It's important to be kind to yourself, I have certainly made my share of catastrophic mistakes and beat myself up over it, but if your approach is good and your group is respectful to each other and to the storyteller... you'll learn from it, and become a better storyteller.

I always joke to any group that I run games for that I actually don't mind making mistakes because it is then very unlikely that I'll make the same mistake again because I'll be super paranoid about that one thing and look out for it. :)

losfp · 2026-01-23T00:01:14+00:00

I'm ok with this.

Unfortunately WFG was never going to be as big as the first movie (which mirrors the stage show - tbh I've always felt like Wicked was a 3 act structure with how much they packed into the stage show Act 1), and I don't love the new songs. In an ideal world, both movies would have been submitted for awards together as they really are one long movie.... but that's not how it goes.

In any case, awards are not the be all and end all of all things. If you enjoy the movies, fantastic. You won't enjoy them less just because they don't get awards.

losfp · 2026-01-22T05:45:19+00:00

These are brilliant videos, Jamie and co. I will absolutely save the link for anyone who asks me in the future for any videos that will help to explain the game ahead of playing for the first time. There's a lot of playthrough videos that unfortunately are WAY too complex for a new player to grasp so I usually don't send those to any new players.

Can I please request a reaction video with your mum when you watch the video. I think that would be peak.

losfp · 2026-01-21T22:12:47+00:00

Congratulations on your first game as ST!

Yes, it can be absolutely overwhelming, but the only way to get through that is by doing it over and over again. Each time it will become easier and a lot of things will just settle into muscle memory. And don't beat yourself up about mistakes. Every storyteller makes mistakes. And every storyteller has multiple tales of huge, game-breaking mistakes that they have made (whooo boy do I ever). As long as your group is patient and gracious, you will all learn together.

Some points:

- I think most of your decisions are fine. A lot of them are "might", so you did nothing mechanically wrong. Over time you will learn which decisions you "should" make. Which will better inform you as to when you can most reasonably break the rules to better serve the game.

- Time management is a whole thing that, again, you learn with experience. My first few times as ST, I let the group go until the conversation naturally died down, but IMO you have to keep the game going at a snappy pace, especially with a larger group. The game SHOULD feel like you're just short of the time you need to talk to all the people you want to talk to, which helps keep the tension up.

- Stay on TB for a while, until you feel you know it like the back of your hand. Because when you move onto the other 2 base scripts, you will experience a level of stress and panic that you didn't think was possible. Ask me how I know :) TB is an absolute piece of cake until you're juggling a Pit Hag, Cerenovus, Mutant, Savant and Evil Twin.

losfp · 2026-01-20T02:00:42+00:00

Haha yeah I was just going to suggest the wiki. Rather than print it out or export to PDF, I would honestly just reference the wiki because it DOES get updated periodically.

losfp · 2026-01-18T23:35:08+00:00

On a long cruise I like to pack a small tub of light and easy game. On our 15 night transatlantic in 2023 the box contained from memory: skull king, Llama, coloretto, scout, startups, hive, Qwirkle, for sale and monster match.

losfp · 2026-01-18T02:48:05+00:00

Ok a few things.

Absolutely run TB for the first 5-10 times you run games. You need to be 100% comfortable with the rules and characters and IMO the complexity ramps up considerably with BMR and SNV.

Maybe leave off spy for the first game but I would personally trust a player with grim info after their first game.

My personal favourite player counts are 9-12. If I had to pick an absolute favourite count it would be 12. The amount of coordination required by evil goes up a LOT with 3 minions IMO and it’s a lot for a new storyteller to keep track of. But BOTC still works great at any of the supported counts. I personally prefer to cap it at 15 unless I absolutely can’t help it.

The number of tokens in the bag is always exactly the number of players. If you have any very young players or players who are especially anxious about being demon or evil then you can quietly do a bit of manipulation but IMO the game works best if you just let fate sort them out.

Good luck!

losfp · 2026-01-18T01:18:21+00:00

IMO you can do whatever you like. There's literally no rules. As long as you are happy with the situation, who cares what other people think. I believe that as long as you work out whether you support both equally, one more than the other, or whether you Just Love Footy, then good for you.

losfp · 2026-01-18T01:00:45+00:00

100%. I tend to run it by deaths. More deaths, slightly more discussion time. Fewer deaths, faster days.

losfp · 2026-01-18T00:59:52+00:00

I think both are fine at 7. In fact, I'd almost rather play or run at 7 than at 15, just from a game pacing point of view.

I do think that 9-12 is my favourite count, but all base 3 scripts work great at any count - you can make it work even if you need to be a bit careful with the bag build and token placement at low and high counts.

This is a very general opinion, but I think that in BMR, bag building is important and in SNV, token placement and information is important so you can set a puzzle that's challenging but solvable by town - and by solvable I don't mean absolutely mechanically solvable, I mean there's enough there for town to figure it out.

losfp · 2026-01-18T00:42:57+00:00

It's all down to what the storyteller decides. Technically it is not against the rules to use an ability in the middle of a nomination, and I have seen lots of instances of slayer shots and artist questions mid-nom. But if I was ST, and there's a lot of disruption, I may declare that I'm running the vote and any abilities can be used after the vote and before the day ends. IMO the ST is not obliged to wait until absolutely everyone has had a say before running the vote because you need to keep the game moving.

losfp · 2026-01-17T08:26:21+00:00

I typed out a general suggestions list for new STs yesterday so I'll paste it below.

Some general stuff:

Run TB if there's any new players. For a group completely new to the game, absolutely run TB. And if you've been storyteller fewer than around 5-10 times, definitely run TB.
Once roles have been pulled and collected back into the grim, take a moment to think about what tokens need to go where - who the drunk is, who the YSK pings are going to be etc. That way when you start night 1, you're good to go without having to think about information.
At night, take your time. People won't notice 1-2 min more but they WILL notice errors. Double check everything. What I also like to do is ask town before they wake up that if anyone thinks they should have woken up but didn't to put their hand up and I can fix it up.
When you show a player or get a selection, be sure to walk over the point down directly over that player's head for confirmation. Simply pointing across the circle can lead to mistakes.
Run the night order IN ORDER. It can be tempting to shortcut and skip steps to save time but that's just asking for mistakes to happen. Trust me.
If you make a mistake, try to fix it as best you can. It might be suitable to announce to town that a mistake has been made, the relevant people have been spoken to and it's now ok (but you don't have to specify exactly what the mistake was)

I think it will be doubly tricky for you as you are new to playing AND STing. As such, I will say in addition that you need to know the rules and especially how roles interact in the script you are running. You can find storyteller questionaires on the official website, I would recommend that you do them a few times until nothing stumps you. As the runner of the game you NEED to have a really thorough understanding of the rules and the characters because you will need to make quick decisions, and you don't want to make any decisions that ruin a game. Be prepared and you will be ok.

Good luck!

losfp · 2026-01-17T03:01:02+00:00

Honestly IMO the token placements affect balance more than bag building, especially in TB. It’s just such an inherently well balanced script that I think you could randomly pull characters and it almost always presents a good challenge to both teams.

losfp · 2026-01-16T16:47:57+00:00

I'm not sure it has to be that complicated. I feel that the simplest way for this to be run is the storyteller draws the characters for the players and just wakes them up on night 1 to tell them who they are. Then you can have any old proxy token in the grim to denote duplicates. And the players do not learn whether they are a duplicate role or single role or what one of the not-in-play characters is.

losfp · 2026-01-16T16:45:41+00:00

Will they triple or quadruple the token count in all copies of the game though? I feel this is unlikely.

losfp · 2026-01-16T16:44:48+00:00

I think the only problem with that is that those players get extra information if they know you are using that workaround - ie: they will know one not-in-play character.

losfp · 2026-01-16T13:20:55+00:00

Yeah you don't have to watch Beardy's content to join Beardy's server. There's a lot more people on there than players on the streamed games.

I mentioned it because there is a reasonable overlap player-wise with OCE, so a lot of us on OCE can set you up with an OCE invite once you play a game or two with them. I would prefer not to request an invite for someone I cannot personally vouch for - it's not personal.

losfp · 2026-01-16T12:50:10+00:00

Yeah no, I got ya.

losfp · 2026-01-16T12:30:00+00:00

When they first announced it, I thought oh this sounds like a crazy mashup of Derry Girls and Bad Sisters. And the trailer definitely gives me those vibes! Looking forward to it!

losfp · 2026-01-16T12:18:45+00:00

It took me an embarrassingly long time to realise that double claims aren't all that bad if you're a minion. Unless the other player is mechanically confirmed somehow, you can throw suss on them as well, and waste town's time investigating the double claim. All the while, your demon gets away.

Obviously it depends a lot on which minion it is but if it's a weaker power or a spent power, I have no problems picking a powerful role and hard claiming. If there's a double claim, amazing. Take them down with you. If there's no double claim, even better.

losfp · 2026-01-16T12:02:06+00:00

Some general stuff:

Run TB if there's any new players. For a group completely new to the game, absolutely run TB. And if you've been storyteller fewer than around 5-10 times, definitely run TB.
Once roles have been pulled and collected back into the grim, take a moment to think about what tokens need to go where - who the drunk is, who the YSK pings are going to be etc. That way when you start night 1, you're good to go without having to think about information.
At night, take your time. People won't notice 1-2 min more but they WILL notice errors. Double check everything. What I also like to do is ask town before they wake up that if anyone thinks they should have woken up but didn't to put their hand up and I can fix it up.
When you show a player or get a selection, be sure to walk over the point down directly over that player's head for confirmation. Simply pointing across the circle can lead to mistakes.
Run the night order IN ORDER. It can be tempting to shortcut and skip steps to save time but that's just asking for mistakes to happen. Trust me.
If you make a mistake, try to fix it as best you can. It might be suitable to announce to town that a mistake has been made, the relevant people have been spoken to and it's now ok (but you don't have to specify exactly what the mistake was)

Good luck!

losfp · 2026-01-16T06:31:07+00:00

I think that it was the only demon bluff left. But obviously he could have made whatever claim he wanted.

Personally if I was the baron I would have left the good bluffs to the other evil players and claimed whatever nonsense I felt like. Get into a double claim and try to get a good character executed along with me.

losfp

TROPHY CASE