editorial by LivFreeOrPie

Almanac Perspective

see Base Almanac pages 24-25 for TPI advice for handling Travelers

Storytellers May Say "No" to Adding Players & Travelers

Dealing a player in as a Traveler is a courtesy to players. Storytellers are under no obligation to expend effort to accommodate Travelers in their game if they feel it will negatively impact their ability to run a fun game or slow the game down.  If the Storyteller is able and willing to take Travelers in the service of maximizing fun, that is a gift to the joining Traveler and all of the players.

The Storyteller should intentionally exercise discretion and have the final say over which specific Travelers enter their game. Arbitrarily adding an inappropriate Traveler to a game may drastically swing the game against one team or create a suboptimal experience for players. 

Travelers on the Base 3 scripts are extensively play tested for compatibility on their home scripts. When leaving that space by mixing base 3 editions, or especially when playing in the experimental space, specific Travelers may have negative interactions with other specific characters. 

If a player is adamant about joining as a specific Traveler that the Storyteller feels will negatively impact the game, then the Storyteller may tell a player to join as one to three other Travelers or sit out from the game. 

Examples of instances where Travelers may not be appropriate for specific games:

• A game with a totally new Storyteller or all totally new players [credit: baru_monkey]

• Any Traveler a Storyteller is not prepared to run well

• There are 6 or fewer players left in the game

• And Judge with any execution-triggered abilities on the script (Saint, Vortox, Goblin, or Fearmonger)

  • • Judges may end a game unilaterally by forcing an execution.

• Any killing Travelers with Saint on the script

  • • This is an intended feature in Trouble Brewing, but there's no incentive for a Gunslinger to spare a Saint when it's claimed, absent homebrew rules to make the good Gunslinger killing a Saint count as an execution.

• Any killing Travelers in a Leviathan game

  • • Dying by Traveler rules out Demon candidates  without contributing to the Leviathan win condition.

Accommodating Early Departures

Before a game begins, it's a good idea to set time commitment expectations and ask if any pkayers intend to leave the game early. You can offer early exiting players a Traveler role. Travelers can exit the game freely without breaking the game state.

If a player vacates their seat in a BotC game before the end of the game, then the game state breaks. The game may not be able to be resolved without either disclosing unearned free information to the good team or implementing a situational homebrew fix outside the scope of the rules. If the vacating player was evil or the Demon, it will either negatively impact the evil team's voting power, their ability usage, or end the game prematurely without determining a winner with the Fiddler Fabled.  

Accommodating Late Arrivals

If a player arrives shortly after the game has been dealt, adding them as a Traveler may be more fun for them than having them wait for the next game.

If the latecomer arrives while the game is wrapping up, focus on bringing the current game to a close and including them in the next game. The Almanac recommends dealing Travelers in only when 7 or more players are alive. Having a Traveler join late in the game and decisively swing the game may not make for an enjoyable outcome.

If a late arrival comes into the space during the night phase, have them look away to preserve the game state and bring them in at dawn. If they've seen any night actions, ask them to "forget" what they've seen, make them evil, or recommend that they sit out if you think they've seen too much.

If a player is "on their way" and will arrive imminently, consider pre-selecting a Traveler and a seat for them to keep the game moving.

If possible, consider deliberately and subtlety inserting a player into the circle of a game that has already launched mitigate (or create) adjacency disruption. Character abilities that rely on player adjacency when the game is set up or for ongoing abilities may have their intended effects disrupted if an incoming Traveler sits next to them or near them. If your seating space and circumstances permit, consider making a private recommendation to the joining Traveler to sit in a place of your choosing.

Telling a Traveler "no, don't sit there, please sit over there" publicly after they're seated may tip your players off that adjacency might matter in the game, which is a free information leak which both teams can exploit. If the Traveler has already pulled up a seat, roll with it.

Accommodating Overflow Player Counts

Sometimes, event circumstances will require a game "overflow" beyond 15 players to accommodate everyone. When selecting who will be Travelers, you can mix the Traveler tokens in the bag for random selection or ask for volunteers to join as Travelers. Consider choosing Travelers that will accelerate the game to its conclusion when setting up an overflow game or implementing the Doomsayer Fabled. 

Consider splitting games that reach 17 or more players into two games of 8+ players. If there are experienced Storytellers at the venue with their equipment, time to set up, and space to accommodate more circles, then 4x 1-hour games could be conducted in the time it takes to deal, manage, and conclude 1x long game and 1x rushed abbreviated game in a 15+ player circle.

Accommodating Requests from New-to-BotC Players

If a player is new to Blood on the Clocktower, they will need to receive the full game rules onboarding plus to the special rules for Travelers all at once. This might overwhelm a new player and create a negative first impression of the game. If possible, consider handing the new player a script and having them observe the rest of the game in progress. Then, onboard them in a standard game.

If a player is not sure if they will like the game or voices concern about being the Demon, joining as a Traveler may be an accommodating solution. This ensures that they will not be a Demon for their first game and withdraw if they decide that the game is not for them. 

Accommodating Requests from Unfamiliar & Unknown Players

Dealing a player in as a Traveler is a discretionary Storyteller decision. Players that show up to a circle while a game is in progress or over capacity are not entitled to join games. This is especially true if a few in-game days have elapsed.

In a convention or large group setting, it's a good idea to request that players who join late commit to participate for the rest of the game. This specifically discourages targeted "pranking" or "disrupt and depart" game vandalism. For example, joining as the Gunslinger with the out-of-game intent of killing a specific player and leaving is no fun for the rest of the group.

Time Considerations

Travelers always take time to deal into the game and almost always prolong the game. Overhead time is required for each Storyteller onboarding decision, situational rule reminder, ability action, nomination, and exile vote made to accommodate to each Traveler which would not get spent if the Traveler was absent. This is an important consideration if your venue has a hard stopping point when you need to leave and you think a game may require a Fiddler.

There's no universal rule for estimating the time needed to bring in Travelers, it's a subjective Storyteller event management judgement call which should be exercised to maximize fun for all participants.

You can minimize the time spent working Travelers into the game by preparing to swiftly conduct three key administrative tasks:

• Selecting the Traveler. Give 3 workable options to the player or just assign them a Traveler that fits into your game. Minimize dwell time in making the selection decision.

• Announcing the Traveler. Say when the Traveler entered the game, what their role is, remind town that they may be good or evil, and evil travelers only get told the Demon. Keep the announcement comprehensive and brief.

• Explaining exile votes. Wait until the first exile vote is called to explain why the exile vote is different. Or, wait until the player count reaches 7. Keep the announcement comprehensive and brief.  

This is how I handle Traveler introductions:

"[Player name] has joined the game as a Traveler. 

[If they will join at a future time, disclose that future time]

Please introduce yourself and share your ability… 

Travelers are roles that can enter or leave the game at any time.

Everyone will learn the Traveler’s character and ability. They cannot be the Demon.

They may be good or evil. The Storyteller chooses their alignment. If they’re good, they learn that they’re good. If they are evil, they will learn that they are evil and learn who the Demon is.

Travelers may nominate and vote on executions like any other player.

Travelers do not count when determining whether the evil team wins from just two players remaining alive.

Once per day, anyone in town, even dead players, can call for the exile of a Traveler. The whole town will then decide if they support the exile. If half the town supports exile, the Traveler will be exiled and die. Calling for an exile is not a nomination. Supporting the exile of a Traveler is not a vote for execution, so everyone may raise their hand freely to support exile, including dead players without a vote token. It does not use up the town’s daily execution."

If a player is familiar to you and knowledgeable enough to insert themselves quickly, you can save time by deputizing them to seat themselves and propose Travelers to you for consideration. If your group is experienced, you can skip the rules reminders for alignment and exile.

Travelers that add votes or death opportunities usually add minimal time to the game and might end the game early. 

Travelers that add protection, new abilities or new rules usually, but not always, prolong the game.

If in doubt, prioritize moving the game in progress to its conclusion and make a latecomer wait. Time spent dealing them into the game and accommodating them as Travelers could instead be spent on including them as a full participant in the next game, assuming there is time for another game. 

Prepare to Address the "Traveler Alignment Hustle" Strategy

Having a good-aligned Traveler approach each player and say "I'm an evil Traveler and I was told that you're the Demon" is a legal player strategy. I call it the "Traveler Alignment Hustle." If the Demon is inexperienced or otherwise not prepared to deal with this tactic, then the game could end early and abruptly on an anti-climactic note due to a critical unforced error. 

Even though the "Traveler Alignment Hustle" is a legitimate option for players, consider addressing it and discouraging it for the sake of fun in future games. If the practice of Traveler alignment hustling calcifies in a play group, then evil Travelers will permanently lose their ability to coordinate and have fun with their Demon and the evil team.

I like to address this with a private side conversation when onboarding a Traveler:

"As a good Traveler, you could go up to everyone you meet and say 'I’m evil and you’re my Demon' to trick them into outing themselves. This strategy is not technically cheating. However, in practice, it’s not fun at all for good to win this way, or for evil to lose this way."

This is especially applicable for newer players who have not played with experimental characters or Teensyville. There are no instances in the Base 3 scripts where a Demon could anticipate being hustled into freely admitting that they're the Demon to the good team. (Aside from perhaps a Demon thinking that they're the Lunatic in Bad Moon Rising or unwise Recluse misregistration shenanigans facilitated by Storyteller in Trouble Brewing.)

Leaks may happen in a Teensyville game where evil does not know each other, however, the Demon will know that they don't learn their Minion at the start of a Teensyville game and will play accordingly. Also, Travelers are expressly not recommended for Teensyville games.

Having the Demon not know their evil team is an intended game mechanic in advanced experimental scripts that feature characters such as the Magician & Poppy Grower.

Prepare to Address Immediate Traveler Exile Calls

If a Traveler joins the game and is immediately considered for exile by the other players, the Traveler will likely not have a good time. This could come about from a dislike for how a specific Traveler affects the game, concern about the impact of an evil Traveler, or a personal grudge (serious or joking) between players. It's a good idea to remind players that exiles "turns Travelers off" and they will still participate with their ghost vote. 

Consider asking players if they will accept a Traveler before adding a new Traveler to the game. This suggestion will preempt same-day exiles by baking it into the social contract. [Credit to Amy/Thomas04 on the Unofficial BotC Discord for this suggestion.]

At minimum, a Traveler should be given a chance to make a consequential move in the game after joining. This could come from either a few days of full agency or an opportunity to make use of their ability. If the Traveler exercises their agency and makes a move that's overtly suspicious, then they've made their contribution to the game and should accept the consequences.  

Calling for the immediate exile for a player is a legal move which requires a response. If you encounter this as a Storyteller, you have a few options to address this to preserve fun for everyone:

• Overrule: Do not accept a same-day or early and frivolous exile call for newly dealt Travelers. Tell the players that you will not run a vote for Travelers that join same day.

• Light Nudge: Recommend that players let the newly joined Traveler live for a few days use their ability and play the game.  Then, give the nominator a chance to reconsider.

• Strong Nudge: Suggest that players let the newly joined Traveler who hasn't used their ability play the game until the town population hits 7 or fewer. Remind them that Good Travelers can prevent the evil team winning by good team annihilation at 5, 4, or 3 alive. There will likely be two or more opportunities to decide to keep or exile a Traveler with 7 town players alive.

• Consequences: Deploy the Angel Fabled on the new Traveler and make the immediate exile decision consequential to the town. Then, remove it after a few days or the Traveler uses their ability once. 

  • • (Credit to TPI's Evin Donahoe for this suggestion: Reddit | r/BloodOnTheClocktower | Why Not Exile Travelers Immediately?) 

Traveler Alignment Selection

The Storyteller should intentionally exercise discretion when determining the alignment of Travelers. Arbitrarily adding an excessive amount of evil Travelers to a game when evil already has an advantage may drastically swing the game against the good team or create a suboptimal experience for players.

This is a nuanced topic which is covered in a separate writeup, see Two Extra Evil in a Game is Usually Too Many.

content by The Pandemonium Institute
with editorial by LivFreeOrPie

Traveler Alignment Selection

Almanac Perspective on Traveler Alignment Selection

"Make Travellers good most of the time. You want to keep the game balanced, so Travellers should be evil only about a third of the time, since an evil Traveller gives the evil team an extra vote, which is very powerful. Adding multiple evil Travellers can be devastating. Adding multiple good Travellers does give the good team some extra votes, but the good Travellers do not know who is good or evil, unlike the evil Travellers.

So, if just one Traveller joins the game, they should almost always be good. If two Travellers join your game, they can both be good, but it is usually most interesting to make one of them evil. If three, four, or five Travellers enter the game, making one or sometimes two of them evil is usually about right.

However, this is totally up to you. If you are running a game with fifteen players, and eight players are still alive, but all the Minions are dead, feel free to make more Travellers evil than usual. Or if the good team is getting hammered, make all the Travellers good. Every so often, though, make the only Traveller in a game evil, just to keep the players guessing about what you are up to!"

Source: BASE Almanac, page 23

Perspective from Evin Donahoe on Traveler Alignment Selection

"As has been said elsewhere, Travellers are supposed to on the good team about two times out of three. It's up to the Storyteller to keep track with their own internal counting across multiple games, but I've known most to be pretty good at sticking to this ratio.

Personally, I think I'm probably making Travellers good even more often than this. In a two-Traveller game, I'll make sure at least one of them is good about 99.9% of the time. It's not uncommon for me to make them both good. A month ago, I ran an 18-player game with three Travellers. I made all the Travellers good and evil still won. The suspicion that one or more of the Travellers might be evil was almost as devastating as actually making them evil.

The evil team typically tends to do a bit better at higher player counts. With three minions in addition to the demon, the good team typically needs to be executing at least two of them in order to stand a decent chance at at least getting to the final day, and if they miss those opportunities early on then things can snowball away from them. For this reason, in a 20-player game, I'll often have just one Traveller evil out of the five. Sometimes I'll go for a second one, if the setup merits it, but I'll pretty much never go for a majority of evil Travellers."

Reddit post: Reddit | r/BloodOnTheClocktower | Why Not Exile Travelers Immediately? 

Editorial on Traveler Alignment Selection in 15+ Player Overflow Games

When a game extends beyond the "full" 15 players, the evil team's headcount does not reliably scale with the player count. Fortunately for the town, they have a chance to exile and evil Traveler every day without exhausting their daily execution. So, adding 2 evil Travelers into a 15+ overflow game will have less of an impact than a -1 good & +1 evil 2-vote swing would have at 15 or fewer players. 

However, a full-strength coordinated evil team dead vote bloc will create a massive obstacle for the good team to overcome before they approach the default good team annihilation elimination tipping point of 4 living evil (or 5 if a town player can be turned good-to-evil) or arrive the final 3 players with most or all evil dead votes banked. 

Even though good will almost always have a majority to exile a Traveler, coordinated evil dead votes spent in one stroke may lock out the good team from a win. This is especially true if the good team elects to spend their dead votes before an clear and obvious final day. However, when there are few players alive, evil typically must expend dead votes and only gets one full-strength "lift" off of the Demon target for the rest of the game.

Traveler-extended game vote whip counts:

• Variable good team votes may work in service of the evil bloc if they are passed over, dead-spent, or spent supporting evil's preferred execution candidate. 

• Evil bloc votes may not be counted if they are passed over, dead-spent, or intentionally put on the Demon to mislead good.

• Good-to-evil conversions in town shift the fundamentals.

  • At 16 players w/ 0 evil traveler, 5/12 good votes beat a 4-vote evil bloc, 7x variable good team votes

  • At 16 players w/ 1 evil traveler, 6/11 good votes beat a 5-vote evil bloc, 5x variable good team votes

  • At 17 players w/ 0 evil traveler, 5/13 good votes beat a 4-vote evil bloc, 8x variable good team votes

  • At 17 players w/ 1 evil traveler, 6/12 good votes beat a 5-vote evil bloc, 6x variable good team votes

  • At 17 players w/ 2 evil travelers, 7/11 good votes beat a 6-vote evil bloc, 4x variable good team votes (high evil bloc)

  • At 18 players w/ 1 evil traveler, 6/13 good votes beat a 5-vote evil bloc, 7x variable good team votes

  • At 18 players w/ 2 evil travelers, 7/12 good votes beat a 6-vote evil bloc, 5x variable good team votes (high evil bloc)

  • At 19 players w/ 1 evil traveler, 6/14 good votes beat a 5-vote evil bloc, 8x variable good team votes

  • At 19 players w/ 2 evil travelers, 7/13 good votes beat a 6-vote evil bloc, 6x variable good team votes (high evil bloc)

  • At 20 players w/ 1 evil traveler, 6/15 good votes beat a 5-vote evil bloc, 9x variable good team votes

  • At 20 players w/ 2 evil travelers,  7/14 good votes beat a 6-vote evil bloc, 7x variable good team votes (high evil bloc)

  • At 20 players w/ 3 evil travelers, 8/13 good votes beat a 7-vote evil bloc, 5x variable good team votes (very high evil bloc)

Good-to-Evil Turns

Almanac Perspective on Good-to-Evil Turns

"ADD THE SPIRIT OF IVORY to your script to keep the number of evil players fair and balanced.

• When creating character lists using the Script Tool, it is a good idea to include no more than one character that adds evil characters. If two or more players turn evil, then the evil team can win simply by revealing who they are and winning due to their voting majority. Adding the Spirit of Ivory prevents too many players turning evil, creating a more fun and fair game for the good players.

• With a Spirit of Ivory in play, only one more player than normal can ever be evil. If a second player would become evil, they stay good instead.

• The normal number of evil players is printed on the Traveller sheet and on the Setup sheet." [Emphasis added]

Source: T&F Almanac, page 23 | BotC Wiki | Spirit of Ivory

Editorial on Good-to-Evil Turns

Turning one player from the good team to the evil team is a consistently tremendous benefit in favor of evil. 

Turning more than one player from good to evil unbalances the game.

Note that nearly every character that turns a good player into an evil player comes with conditions to balance the game:

• The Goon turns evil only when picked, does not reliably know the evil team, and may switch back the next night.

• The Fang Gu requires the original Demon to select an Outsider and die to gain an evil player.

• The Bounty Hunter starts the game with an immediate repeating evil detector on the board and requires that the extra evil player to find their team. 

• The Cult Leader may switch between teams at night.

• The Politician turns conditionally, after the game is over, at the Storyteller's discretion.

• The Mezepheles has to risk exposure and survive to get a turn in the night.

• The Ogre does not directly know their alignment and must learn the evil team.

• The Lord of Typhon seats all of the evil players in a row, putting evil into a solvable positioning disadvantage.

Spirit of Ivory is almost always requirement if there is any possibility that more than one player could convert from good to evil on a script. 

Assume that all turned evil will find each other and/or consciously serve evil by the end of the game. If they come to know each other, they will vote together as a bloc to lift or re-direct execution votes away from the Demon. Even if the evil team does not know or believe a good-turned-evil player, the evil turned player will likely use their own agency to play for evil, including:

• voting to "catch" the final execution of the game themselves

• voting in service of a tie at final 3

• withholding a vote to execute a believed Demon candidate

• directing execution vote onto likely good players or known minions

Coordinated evil dead votes spent in one stroke may lock out the good team from a win. This is especially true if the good team elects to spend their dead votes before an clear and obvious final day. However, when there are few players alive, evil typically must expend dead votes and only gets one full-strength "lift" off of the Demon target for the rest of the game.

Updated cumulative good team annihilation scenarios with 1x good-to-evil turned player aware and cooperating (assume no Travelers):

• At 7 or more players: 3 living evil now ends the game if town executes a good team player at 5 alive and/or sleeps at 4 alive.

  • Under the standard role distribution, this is mechanically impossible at 9 or fewer players.

• At 10 or more players: 4 living evil now ends the game if town executes a good team player at 6 alive and/or sleeps at 5 alive.

• At 13 or more players: 5 living evil now ends the game if the town executes a good team player at 7 alive and/or sleeps at 6 alive. 

Updated vote whip counts with 1x good-to-evil turned player aware and cooperating:

• Variable good team votes may work in service of the evil bloc if they are passed over, dead-spent, or spent supporting evil's preferred execution candidate. 

• Evil bloc votes may not be counted if they are passed over, dead-spent, or intentionally put on the Demon to mislead good.

• Travelers shift the fundamentals

  • At 5 or 6 players, 3 evil votes will always tie or defeat a unanimous good team vote. 

  • At 7 players, all 4/4 good votes must be unanimous to beat a 3-vote evil bloc

  • At 8 players, 4/5 good vote beat a 3-vote evil bloc, 1x variable good team vote

  • At 9 players, 4/6 good votes beat a 3-vote evil bloc, 2x variable good team votes

  • At 10 players, 5/6 good votes beat a 4-vote evil bloc, 1x variable good team vote

  • At 11 players, 5/7 good votes beat a 4-vote evil bloc, 2x variable good team votes

  • At 12 players, 5/8 good votes beat a 4-vote evil bloc, 3x variable good team votes

  • At 13 players, 6/8 good votes beat a 5-vote evil bloc, 2x variable good team votes

  • At 14 players, 6/9 good votes beat a 5-vote evil bloc, 3x variable good team votes

  • At 15 players, 6/10 good votes beat a 5-vote evil bloc, 4x variable good team votes