Mechanics
Town Composition
This game is designed for between 7 and 15 non-Traveller players. All non-Traveller players are assigned one of the 4 character types, then an character from the possible characters for that type. Players that start as Townsfolk or Outsiders are on the Loyal team, while players that start as Minions or Demons are on the Cultist team. Players cannot change alignments unless explicitly stated.
The number of characters of each type dealt out are as follows:
| Total Players | Townsfolk | Outsiders | Minions | Demons |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 8 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 9 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 10 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| 11 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 12 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| 13 | 9 | 0 | 3 | 1 |
| 14 | 9 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| 15 | 9 | 2 | 3 | 1 |
No two players will have the same ability at the start of the game.
Starting Cultists know each others’ identities and character types, but not characters. They have no method of private communication besides whispers, as described below.
Starting Demons know three not-in-play Loyal characters.
The abilities of certain characters modify the game setup, by adding or subtracting certain characters or character types. These are denoted in [square brackets], and only have an effect if the character is present at the beginning of the game. Unless otherwise stated, the amount of Townsfolk is modified so that the total number of characters given out matches the total playercount.
Characters
All players start with exactly one of the following abilities, depending on their character type. Townsfolk and Outsiders are Loyal characters, while Minions and Demons are Cultist characters.
Night* (with an asterisk) in all contexts means “Night, except the first.”
| Possible Townsfolk Characters | |
|---|---|
| Clockmaker | You start knowing how many steps from the Demon to nearest Minion. |
| Dreamer | Each night, choose a player (not yourself, not Travellers); you learn 1 good character & 1 evil character, 1 of which is correct. |
| Snake Charmer | Each night, choose an alive player: a chosen Demon swaps characters & alignments with you & then malfunctions. |
| Mathematician | Each night, you learn how many players’ abilities worked abnormally (since dawn) due to another character’s ability. |
| Flowergirl | Each night*, you learn if the Demon voted today. |
| Town Crier | Each night*, you learn if a Minion nominated today. |
| Oracle | Each night*, you learn how many dead players are Cultists. |
| Savant | Each day, you may visit the Storyteller to learn 2 things in private: 1 is true & 1 is false. |
| Seamstress | Once per game, at night, choose 2 players (not yourself): you learn if they are the same alignment. |
| Philosopher | Once per game, at night, choose a Loyal character: gain that ability. If this character is in play, they malfunction. |
| Artist | Once per game, during the day, privately ask the Storyteller any yes/no question. |
| Juggler | On your 1st day, publicly guess up to 5 player’s characters. That night, you learn how many you got correct. |
| Sage | If the Demon kills you, you learn that it is 1 of 2 players. |
| Possible Outsider Characters | |
|---|---|
| Mutant | If you are “mad” about being an Outsider, you might be executed. |
| Sweetheart | If you die, 1 player malfunctions from now on. |
| Barber | If you died today or tonight, the Demon may choose 2 players (not another Demon) to swap characters. |
| Klutz* | When you learn that you died, publicly choose a living player within 6 hours. If they are a Cultist, your team loses. |
*If the Klutz dies, they will be publicly declared to be claiming Klutz (as not doing so will result in their loss). All players may choose privately whether or not they wish to claim Klutz upon their death. Do not abuse this.
| Possible Minion Characters | |
|---|---|
| Doppelgänger | You & an opposing player know each other. If the Loyal player is executed, Cultists win. Loyals can’t win if you both live. |
| Witch | Each night, choose a player: if they nominate tomorrow, they die. If just 3 players live, you lose this ability. |
| Cerenovus | Each night, choose a player & a Loyal character: they are “mad” they are this character tomorrow, or might be executed. |
| Pit Hag | Each night*, choose a player & a character they become (if not-in-play). If a Demon is made, deaths tonight are arbitrary. |
| Possible Demon Characters | |
|---|---|
| Fang Gu | Each night*, choose a player: they die. The 1st Outsider this kills becomes an Cultist Fang Gu & you die instead. [+1 Outsider] |
| No Dashii | Each night*, choose a player: they die. Your 2 Townsfolk neighbours malfunction. |
| Vigormortis | Each night*, choose a player: they die. Minions you kill keep their ability & 1 of their Townsfolk neighbours malfunction. [-1 Outsider] |
| Vortox | Each night*, choose a player; they die. Townsfolk abilities yield false info. Each day, if no-one was executed, Cultists win. |
Phase Lengths
Each day phase will last for 48 hours.
| Discussion | 12h | Players may talk. |
| Nomination | 12h | Players who wish to nominate may do so at this time, and votes may begun to be cast during this time as well. |
| Voting | 24h | During this time, votes may be cast freely on any existing nomination, but no new nominations may be made. Once this time ends or all votes have been locked in, the day will resolve. |
Each night phase will last for 24 hours. The game begins on a night phase.
Night actions are locked 2 hours before the start of each day.
Night Action Resolution
All actions are processed in a specific order each night. Natural Actin Resolution does not apply. Dead players have no abilities (unless stated otherwise), and if a player is dead during their turn in action resolution, they do not act (unless stated otherwise).
| First Night | Other Nights |
|---|---|
| Travellers | Travellers |
| Philosopher | Philosopher |
| Minion Info | Snake Charmer |
| Demon Info | Witch |
| Snake Charmer | Cerenovus |
| Doppelgänger | Pit Hag |
| Witch | Fang Gu |
| Cerenovus | No Dashii |
| Clockmaker | Vigormortis |
| Dreamer | Vortox |
| Seamstress | Barber |
| Mathematician | Sweetheart |
| Sage | |
| Dreamer | |
| Flowergirl | |
| Town Crier | |
| Oracle | |
| Seamstress | |
| Juggler | |
| Mathematician |
Storyteller
The Storyteller is the key moderator for the game; All ability uses at night must be sent to the Storyteller via private message, and Storyteller will have the final say on any open-ended ability behaviors. Storyteller’s goal is to keep the game both fun and balanced, and they’ll often be trying to make it last as long as possible; however, the Storyteller may not alter any existing rules to accomplish this.
The Fabled
The Fabled are special modifiers that the Storyteller can put in play to tweak the game. Fabled will always be announced when they are in play, along with their effect upon gamestate. The most likely fabled to be included are the Djinn to resolve weird interactions on longform, Hell’s Librarian to prevent night talking, and the Fiddler on the off-chance the game gets deadlocked.
The Revolutionary is in play, the two neighboring players being Trochilidae and AbbyPeriwinkle.
| Djinn | Use the Djinn’s special rule. All players know what it is. |
| Fiddler | Once per game, at night, the Demon secretly chooses a player of an opposing alignment; All players then vote which of these two wins the game. |
| Hell’s Librarian | Something bad might happen to whomever speaks when the Storyteller calls for silence. |
| Revolutionary | Two neighboring players are known to be the same alignment. Once per game, one of them registers falsely. |
| Fibbin | Once per game, 1 good player might get incorrect information. |
Malfunctions
Malfunctioning is the primary source of interference with abilities. A malfunctioning character is not told that they are malfunctioning and cannot affect the gamestate in any way using their ability. If a malfunctioning character would receive information, then the information they receive is arbitrary (open-ended, Storyteller may resolve at their discretion). The malfunctioning status lasts indefinitely unless stated otherwise.
Nominations and Voting
Once the discussion phase has ended, the Storyteller will formally announce the opening of the nomination phase. Players must be nominated before they may be voted on that day. Each player may only be nominated once per day, and each player may only nominate once per day.
When a nomination is opened, the storyteller begins to track votes for that nomination. The players may precast votes, but the votes will lock in a clockhand format. Starting with the player below the nominee on the list, and working downwards, the votes will be locked if they are cast. As an example, take the following five players;
Alex
Brianna
Cameron
Derek
Ellen
Brianna is nominated. Cameron’s vote will be locked as soon as he places it, because he is the first person below Brianna on the list. Derek may cast his vote before Cameron, and may alter his vote if Cameron has not yet voted, but once Cameron has voted and had his vote locked, Derek’s vote will be the next to lock, and if it is placed when Cameron’s vote locks, then Derek’s vote will lock as the vote cast by Derek at that time.
Any votes that are not cast by EoD will be considered votes to pardon. If the count of votes to execute is more than half of the number of living players (not half+1, that’s an important distinction), and is the highest count of votes against any player that day, the accused will be considered “about to die”. At the end of the day or when all votes on all nominations have been cast, the player who is “about to die” will be executed. If there is a tie between two or more players for the highest count of votes, the day will end with no execution. The Storyteller may only declare an early end to voting if it is no longer possible to tie or exceed the highest nomination.
Whispers
Players may whisper each other in-game through private messages (including both this account and @nightingale). Whispers must be publicly announced, by requesting permission to whisper using a format such as /whisper [Player]. Once a whisper has been declared and accepted, the two players may whisper via private message until one of them speaks publicly in the game chat, at which point the whisper is considered broken and the players must declare whispers again if they wish to whisper.
In addition, a player may make 1 whisper per day to each neighbor of up to 10 words without announcing this in thread.
Some abilities require you to speak privately to the Storyteller during the day. If you wish to do this, you must declare so publicly using a format such as /whisper [Storyteller]. You may choose to declare this even if you do not have one of these abilities.
Death
When a player dies, nothing is revealed about their character and they are allowed to stay in the game and speak. They may not nominate and they will have only one vote token (this will allow them to cast a vote to execute) for the entire game. Evil players who die may thus continue to help their allies by keeping up their claim and spreading misinformation, and good players may similarly help their allies by retaining relevant info that others may have forgotten in the heat of the game. Once a player dies, their ability stops working, which means that a player killed before they would perform their ability will not perform their ability, and any ability with a persistent effect will end upon the player’s death.
Victory
Loyals win if all Demons are dead.
Cultists win if only 2 players (not counting Travellers) live.
In the event of a tie, Loyals win.
Alternate routes to victory or defeat may exist as detailed by characters’ abilities. The list of all possible characters is above.
The Djinn's Special Rules
The following jinxes are in play for longform BotF.
| Characters | Ruling |
|---|---|
| Dreamer + Pit Hag | If the Pit Hag creates a Dreamer and the Dreamer player has not submitted a contingency action in the case that they become the Dreamer, they do not wake tonight. |
| Seamstress + Pit Hag | If the Pit Hag creates a Seamstress and the Seamstress player has not submitted a contingency action in the case that they become the Seamstress, they do not wake tonight. |
Travellers
A Traveller is a player character that can enter or exit a game at any point. Their identity and ability are known to all players, but their alignment may be either good or evil (which is decided by the Storyteller upon their entry to the game).
Unlike standard players, Travellers exist under some special circumstances.
- They may be exiled by majority vote at any time, instead of executed. This vote is independent of the nomination/execution system.
- They do not count as players for any rules, win conditions, or abilities.
- If they are evil, they learn who the Demon is.
| Possible Traveller Characters | |
|---|---|
| Barista | Each night, until dusk, 1) A player becomes sober, healthy & gets true info, or 2) Their ability works twice. They learn which. |
| Hostess | Each day, choose a player; if they agree tonight, you learn their character, but both of you might die. |
| Butcher | Each day, after nominations have closed. you may make a another nomination that resolves alongside the main execution. |
| Bone Collector | Once per game, during the day, choose a dead player; they regain their ability tonight until dusk. |
| Deviant | If you were funny today, you cannot be exiled. |
Flavor Rules
This game has flavor, for which I have drawn art over the past week for most of the rolecards.
Loyals have a flavor image that that is in their rolecard. They will flip with this image.
Cultists have a stylistically different flavor image that is in their rolecard. They have access to and will flip with an image that is stylistically the same as the Loyals.
Lore exists, and I (nightingale) might write flavor text.
You may claim your flavor name. This is not alignment indicative.
You may not post your flavor image, nor may you claim any part of it in any way.
You may not claim the flavor of your abilities.
Changelog
General
- Cleaned up some blocks of text in the OP to be more concise.
- Added table formatting to spots in the OP.
- Added Flavor Rules section.
Characters
- Bone Collector and Hostess submit actions during the day instead of at the very start of the night.
- Reworked Butcher to streamline day phases.
- Added Pit Hag jinxes to account for the fact that we cannot wake people to give them info in the middle of the night.
- Renamed Harlot → Hostess because of the original name’s meaning.
- Renamed Evil Twin → Doppelgänger to avoid host (and player) confusion about good Evil Twins and evil good twins.
Mechanics
- Formalised Storyteller consults.
- Whisper Private Messages must include both @nightingale and this account.
Players
- CRichard – Saxon Rossby
- Wazza – Maria Trujillo
- Gorta
- Kiiruma
- Ruby
-
Daeron– Orlando Seigneur – Executed D1 - Amelia
- Trochilidae → Zone_Q11 – Revolutionary
- AbbyPeriwinkle – Revolutionary
- Jarek
-
Sharklifter– Jacques Desmalin – Died D1 - Whysper – Hermione Vandestarn
- Aelin
-
EliThePsycho– Emil Malheur – Died N2 -
Leafia– Aliena Blackrose – Executed D2, ending the game - Firekitten
- Atläs – Arï Broökë
Backups
- Arete
