Perspective from Ben Burns 

"....

• When I try to balance the bag, using my own definition/philosophy on what that means, it's about so, so much more than what characters go into the bag. It's about the players I'm running for, what their levels of experience are, what kind of attitudes to play they have, what kind of games they like to play. Hell, when I'm running for No Rolls Barred or some other group of content creators, a lot of that goes out of the window and it becomes more about what will be entertaining to watch.

• This game is inherently unbalanced and that is by design. One team starts off tiny while the other is huge. One team knows each other and the other one doesn't. Everyone has super powerful characters.

• Your opportunities to balance are more likely to come along after the game has begun. While it is absolutely sensible and very important to think about what goes in the bag, the truth is that half of those characters will be gone by the start of day 3.

All of this amounts to a simple truth. Taking all of the above and coalescing it into something usable can only really happen as a result of experience. You'll get there eventually. It's great that you're already seeking that knowledge, but don't be afraid to experiment and find out what works and what doesn't. And yes, TB is already very well balanced. So pay attention to what works and what doesn't in that script and apply that knowledge when it actually matters, in SnV and BMR."

Source: Reddit | r/BloodOnTheClocktower | Tool to check for a game balance setup?

by The Pandemonium Institute & Ben Burns
editorial by LivFreeOrPie

Almanac Perspective

"Listen to the bluffs of the evil players and run your game accordingly. If the Imp is claiming to be the Slayer and wants to “use their Slayer ability”, make sure it looks like that ability just didn’t work. Put in the same effort as if they were actually the Slayer! If the Spy is claiming to be the Fortune Teller, and is chosen by the Ravenkeeper, then choose the Fortune Teller to be the good character that the Spy registers as. 

Evil players rely on you every so often to help make their lies sound like the truth. Help them out wherever you can. 

For example, if an evil player is claiming to be the Virgin and is nominated, nothing will happen. To make it look like the evil player was actually the Virgin, you can move your hands around the Grimoire to make it look like you are putting the Virgin’s NO ABILITY reminder token by the character token. After all, if the real Virgin was nominated, this is what you would be doing. Beginner players won’t pick up on this subtlety, but veterans might."

Source: BASE Almanac, page 32
Links: https://botclinks.page/MainRulebook | BGG | Base Rulebook Almanac

Perspective from Ben Burns 

by Ben Burns

"Evil start every game losing and will continue to lose if the ST doesn't back their plays.

To some degree, I've been a victim of my own success in this regard. Every YouTube video I'm in has someone asking this same question (often much less tactfully and nicely than here, so thanks OP). But the simple truth is, you don't see any of the games where I don't back evil plays because they don't make it past day 3 due to evil getting curbstomped.

As long as you've built a balanced game by putting the right tokens in the bag, the good team always has the tools they need to solve the game. That game where you saw me lie to a poisoned Empath who somehow convinced everyone to believe them, making you wonder if I should have been 'nicer' to them, likely also had five or six other Townsfolk getting game-solving info that you've overlooked.

So no, you should always back evil plays. But don't take my word for it, go out there and test it in your games. I'm confident you'll find it to be true.

edit: I think there are exceptions for sure, of course. For example, if there's 4 players left in a Lil' Monsta game and 3 of them are evil, kill an evil player at night. You shouldn't be literally winning the game for them. But you should be backing their plays because, without your backing, they have no plays."

Source: Reddit | r/BloodOnTheClocktower | Is helping evil all the time fair storytelling?

Editorial

• Encourage all of your players to speak with you privately as the Storyteller. This allows the evil team will have an opportunity to tell you how they intend to make their next plays without having to declare what they would like you to do in public.

• You can always wake an evil player at night, in advance of a role check, and silently ask them "What are you bluffing as?" 

• Extra help given to evil team can be dialed down as the game progresses. 

• Extra help given to the good team is significantly more difficult to dial back as the game progresses and may snowball into a checkmate against evil.

• In absence of clear intent from the Evil Team, Storytellers may need to make educated guesses as to which characters evil is bluffing as to support misinformation.

derived from the Greater BotC Community
influenced by Discord discussions with Capital Clocktower and elsewhere
editorial by LivFreeOrPie

Editorial

One extremely useful trick for the Storyteller after a very complex night phase is to ask the players if they feel like they've been skipped over at night:

• "If you feel like you should have woken up tonight and you didn't, please raise your hand."

  • Dead players who didn't get woken up to learn information will raise their hands.

  • If you confirm that you forgot to wake someone, take this opportunity to fix your oversights.

• "Please lower your hands..." 

  • Pause for a few moments to allow hands to go down.

• Wake the town.

editorial by LivFreeOrPie

Perspective from Baron Ted

"Night Order is not intended to be a critical part of the game and is a soft rule. The game is designed to focus on what’s fun, especially for casual players, and memorizing the order of night actions is not very fun. I don’t recommend ever deliberately messing with night order, but if you skip a step, don’t worry too much about it. It’s helpful to generally keep in mind that the night order usually sticks with:

• Poisoners 

• Protectors

• Demons 

• Everyone else"

Source: Drive Thru RPG | Baron's Storyteller Roundtable

Editorial

This succinct 4-step summary of how the night order works is usually enough to answer player questions. I only offer this answer if asked. It's intentionally not part of the rules explanation. I'm sharing this paywalled advice here with attribution.  It's been shared and repeated openly in the community enough to become conventional wisdom.

I use this slightly modified list of 4 when disclosing it to players:

• Poison

• Protection

• Killing (evil before good)

• Information

editorial by LivFreeOrPie

Editorial

It's a good idea for Storytellers to prepare to deploy the Doomsayer Fabled quickly and clearly to move the game to a swift conclusion. Here is the script I use to introduce the character:

• Announce that the Doomsayer Fabled has joined the game.

• “The Doomsayer allows players to sacrifice their allies in order to gain information, which shortens the game.”

• "If 4 or more players live, each living player may publicly choose (once per game) that a player of their own alignment dies."

• “The Storyteller determines who dies”

• “Please clearly declare that you are using the Doomsayer ability. I will acknowledge it, pause the game, and then decide on the kill.” 

• “Players get one Doomsayer call during game. If you’ve used your Doomsayer ability, please remember and do not use it a second time.”

• When the town reaches three players alive, announce that the Doomsayer Fabled has left the game. 

Assessing Execution Votes with the Doomsayer in Play

It’s possible that the Doomsayer will cause deaths between nominations and execution votes.

Past execution votes are not reassessed or re-voted as a result of the Doomsayer kills. The outcome declared directly after the vote stands for the rest of the day.

Vote totals persist throughout the day. If two or more players tie for the most votes in the day, there is no execution.

If a player fails to reach the “half the living players” threshold to get on the block at the time of the execution vote, then they are safe for the day, even if the town population later drops to the point where they would have had enough votes to get on the block.

editorial by LivFreeOrPie

Editorial

It's a good idea for Storytellers to prepare to deploy the Fiddler Fabled quickly and clearly. Exigent circumstances may require everyone to leave the gameplay area immediately.

Fiddler Fabled requires a counter-intuitive, heads-up, binary vote and voting pattern to conclude the game. Players are voting for a win and not an execution or exile. If the rules explanation is not clear enough or if a player is not paying attention, there's a possibility that someone might botch a win for their team.

To end the game quickly and fairly, I recommend the Storyteller take command of the room and follow this pattern, which intentionally repeats the objective to "pick a winner:"

• Gather the town into their seats.

• Announce that the Fiddler Fabled has joined the game.

• Put the town to sleep.

• "The Demon and a good player will now face off in a Fiddle Contest and town will pick a winner to decide the game."

• "Demon, wake up and pick the most suspicious player on the good team as your Fiddle Contest opponent."

• Put the Demon to sleep

• "The rules of the game have now changed, all abilities have been deactivated, all players will now vote for a player to win the contest, and the game on behalf of their team."

•  Wake all players and announce contestants

• "Contestants, convince players to vote for you to win."

• Brief discussion period

• "I will now count down. Please pick a contest winner by pointing at them. Point to the Fiddle Contest winner in 3...2..1... PICK AND FREEZE"

• Announce the winning player and team.

  • Assume that each contestant picks themselves to win, even if they forgot to point to themselves.

  • If there is a tie, evil team wins the Fiddle Contest