Blood on the Clocktower
Blood on the Clocktower Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Understanding the Basics
The Storyteller
One person is the Storyteller. You are the boss. You read the rules, referee the game, and create the chaotic and fun situations in which the players play. The players you guide do not need to read any of the rulebook or almanacs—part of your role is to familiarize them with the basic rules at the start of their first game.
To prepare for your first game: read "Understanding the Basics" and "Running the Game", then read the Trouble Brewing character almanac. Trouble Brewing is the most basic edition and is the recommended starting point.
What Is This Game?
Blood on the Clocktower is a social game of deduction for 5 to 20 players, similar in spirit to Werewolf or Mafia. Each player is a unique character with a powerful ability to use or a troublesome penalty to avoid. The good players do not know each other and are trying to figure out who is good and who is evil. The evil players know each other and spread lies. Clocktower is mostly a talking game—players win or lose by their wits, their insight, and their ability to convince others about who should live and who should die.
There are never any neutral players. One team wins, and the other team loses.
What Is the Town Square?
The Town Square board sits on the floor in the center of the chairs. It holds a life token for each player (parchment side = alive, black side = dead) and a pile of vote tokens. The Traveler sheet is placed partially under the Town Square, showing the number of Townsfolk, Outsiders, and Minions in the current game.
What Is the Grimoire?
The Grimoire is the game box, clipped and stood upright, that the Storyteller holds and updates. It secretly shows the actual state of every character—who is alive or dead, poisoned, drunk, who acts at night, and so on. Players may never look inside the Grimoire. Character tokens are arranged inside to match the players' seating positions.
What Else Is in the Box?
The box includes: 1 Grimoire (2 pieces) and stand, 1 Town Square board, plastic sleeves, a setup sheet (rules sheet on the back), a Traveler sheet (rules sheet on the back), a bag, 18 shroud tokens, 30 night tokens, 4 info tokens, 2 metal clips, 20 life tokens, 18 vote tokens, plus the Travelers & Fabled almanac and tokens, and three editions—Trouble Brewing, Bad Moon Rising, and Sects & Violets—each with its own almanac, edition box, night sheet, character sheets, character tokens, and reminder tokens.
Running the Game — Setup
Set up a game by following the setup sheet:
- Gather your players. Arrange chairs facing each other in a rough circle or square, in a definite clockwise or counterclockwise order. Leave a gap between two chairs so you can enter and exit the circle. Keep the center empty of tables or hazards.
- Prepare the Grimoire. Clip and stand the Grimoire, and place it where players walking around cannot see its contents. Collect supplies of info, night, and shroud tokens inside it (the bottom-left corner of the right side is recommended).
- Choose an edition (Trouble Brewing, Bad Moon Rising, or Sects & Violets). Add its edition box to the bottom-left of the Grimoire. Trouble Brewing needs 5+ players; all other editions need 7+ players. Start with Trouble Brewing.
- Prepare the Town Square. Place it in the center. Add life tokens equal to the number of players, a pile of vote tokens, and slide the Traveler sheet partially under it so it shows the number of Townsfolk, Outsiders, and Minions.
- Read the rules to any new players from the rules sheet (or let them read it privately). Demonstrate the hand signals as you go.
- Secretly choose characters. Take the Townsfolk tokens from the edition box and choose the number listed for your player count on the setup sheet; put them in the left side of the Grimoire and return the rest. Do the same for Outsiders, Minions, and the Demon. Players do not know which characters are in the game. If there are more than 15 players, excess players must be Travelers. (For a first game, don't include Travelers.)
- Add and remove characters. If a chosen character token shows an orange leaf, alter the character line-up as its almanac entry / the text in square brackets
[like this]describes. This happens once, during setup. (Example: the Baron adds two Outsiders but removes two Townsfolk.) After this, the number of character tokens always equals the number of players. - Add reminder tokens to the Grimoire. For each chosen token with green leaves at the top, add that many reminder tokens next to it. Return the rest to the edition box.
- Pass out character tokens. Shuffle the tokens into the bag; each player draws one in secret and reveals it to no one.
- Add the character tokens to the Grimoire, matching the players' seating positions (keeping the same clockwise/counterclockwise order).
Running the Game — The Night
During the night phase, players keep their eyes closed. Some players wake to learn information or use abilities. Typically the Demon attacks at night, killing one or more players.
Prepare the night sheet first: use the "First Night" side on the first night, the "Other Nights" side thereafter. Place night tokens by each character who acts tonight and by the "Dawn" line. A leaf on the left of a token means the character acts on the first night; a leaf on the right means the character acts on all other nights.
To start the night, tell the players to close their eyes ("All players, eyes closed"). Then work down the night sheet from top to bottom.
First night, 7+ players: do two extra steps.
- Wake all the Minions and show them the Demon. Let the Minions make eye contact, show each the "This Is the Demon" info token, and point at the Demon. Then put the Minions to sleep.
- Wake the Demon and show all Minions, then show the Demon the "These characters are not in play" info token and three good character tokens not in play (usually two Townsfolk and one Outsider) to help them bluff.
Then wake each acting player one at a time from top to bottom. Resolve their ability, place any reminder tokens (a yellow circle by a character on the night sheet is a hint that a reminder may be needed), and put the player back to sleep. When you reach dawn, wait five to ten seconds, then declare "All players, eyes open." Immediately declare which players (if any) died at night.
Hand signals
Communicate silently at night with one hand:
- Eyes Open: tap the player twice on the shoulder or knee.
- Eyes Closed: put your hand over your eyes.
- Yes: nod. No: shake your head.
- Good: thumbs-up. Evil: thumbs-down.
- A Number: hold up that many fingers (a "0" is thumb touching fingertips).
- Indicate a Specific Player: point to them.
- Indicate a Specific Character: show the character token or point to the icon on the character sheet, held close to the player.
Confirm players' night choices with a downward finger point: walk to the player you think they chose and point down at them so both of you understand the target.
Running the Game — The Day
During the day, players talk, scheme, lie, share information, or stay silent, then vote on who to execute. This is the main part of the game and is mostly handled by the players themselves. Players may talk to the group, whisper, or leave their seats to talk in secret.
Nominations
Call for nominations when you feel it is appropriate (usually after 5–10 minutes of chit-chat). A player nominates by saying "I nominate Bob"; repeat it back to the group so everyone knows it is accepted. Limitations:
- Only one player may be nominated at a time.
- Only alive players may nominate (dead players can be nominated, but rarely wisely).
- Each player may nominate only once per day, and each player may be nominated only once per day.
Give the nominated player a chance (10–30 seconds) to defend themself.
Voting
Tally the votes: stand in the center holding your hand out toward the nominee, then slowly spin clockwise counting votes aloud until you return to the nominee (who votes last). A raised hand is a vote.
- Each alive player may vote for as many players as they wish per day.
- Each dead player may vote only once for the rest of the game (they remove their vote token when they do; without a vote token, they cannot vote).
The vote succeeds if the nominated player got more votes than any other nominee today and the number of votes equals or exceeds half the number of alive players.
If the vote succeeds, the nominee is "about to die"—but call again for nominations, because a later nominee who gets even more votes replaces them. If a vote ties with an earlier nominee, neither is executed; a later nominee must exceed the tied number. Give a "Last call for nominations! Three…two…one…" before closing nominations.
Execution and Death
Execute the player who was about to die. There is a maximum of one execution per day, but an execution is not required. When a player dies, place a shroud token on their character token, remove their night token, and flip their life token to black with a vote token on it. Dead players:
- Immediately lose their ability (and its persistent effects); they are not woken at night.
- Cannot nominate, and may only vote once more for the rest of the game.
- Still close their eyes at night and may talk as much as they want. Because the dead keep a voice and a vote, they often decide the final fate of the town. Dead players win or lose with their team.
When a player dies, their identity is not revealed.
Running the Game — Ending the Game
Repeat day and night until one team wins. Death is not the end—if a team wins, all its players win, whether alive or dead.
- Good wins if the Demon dies.
- Evil wins if only two players are left alive (Travelers and Fabled do not count toward this).
- If both teams would win at the same time, good wins.
Some characters (e.g. the Scarlet Woman) keep the game going after the Demon dies. In some editions multiple Demons can be alive at once—all must die for good to win. You may end the game early when victory is certain for one team (e.g. all remaining players are evil, so good cannot nominate the Demon), but use your best judgment: if there is any way for the losing team to win, keep the game going.
The Nitty-Gritty — Abilities
You don't need this chapter until you've run a game or two or hit a thorny rules question.
- If the rulebook doesn't say you can't do something, you can do it. Players can nominate or vote for themselves; the Demon can attack dead players; good players can lie; "any player" can include yourself or a dead player; the dead can talk. Dead players cannot nominate and may only vote if they have a vote token.
- Your word is law. If a rule or ability is unclear, you (the Storyteller) are the final judge—make a call, tell the players, and play on.
- Character abilities break the core rules. If a character's ability contradicts a core rule, follow the ability. The one exception: abilities cannot affect the exiling of Travelers.
- The definitive wording of an ability is in its character almanac entry; the token/sheet versions are plain-language.
- Abilities work immediately when used. If the Demon attacks the Fortune Teller, she dies at once and does not wake later that night.
- Only tell the player what their ability says they learn. Secrets stay secret—players don't learn who was protected, whether the Slayer's shot did nothing, or how a player died.
- Abilities are lost immediately on death, poisoning, or drunkenness, and persistent effects end. If an ability says "even if dead" (or implies it, like the Ravenkeeper), it still works while dead—but is still lost when drunk or poisoned.
- If an ability does not say "choose," the Storyteller decides. "Choose a player: they are poisoned" means the player chooses; "a player is poisoned" means the Storyteller chooses.
The Nitty-Gritty — States
A player is always in one of each pair of states: alive or dead, good or evil, sober or drunk, healthy or poisoned, sane or mad. States are independent (you can be drunk and poisoned; changing your character keeps your states).
Alive & Dead
Players generally die by execution during the day and by characters' abilities at night. Execution is different from death—a player may be executed but survive (and even dead players can be "executed" again; this still uses the one execution for the day). A dead player cannot die again.
Good & Evil (Alignment)
A player is either good or evil. A character usually starts good or evil but alignment may change; sometimes a Townsfolk is evil or a Demon is good. If a player's alignment is opposite to their token's color, turn the token upside-down as a reminder. Character is independent of alignment—changing one keeps the other. Players learn of alignment/character changes at the earliest opportunity, in secret (usually via the "You are" info token)—with exceptions like the Drunk and Lunatic, who are designed not to know who they really are.
Sober & Drunk / Healthy & Poisoned
Being drunk and being poisoned work the same way. A drunk or poisoned player loses their ability but thinks they still have it, and you act as though they do:
- Do not tell them they are drunk or poisoned.
- You may give them false information.
- A "once per game" ability used while drunk or poisoned is gone—it cannot be used again later. But if they become sober/healthy again, they otherwise regain their ability.
- Drunkenness and poisoning do not cancel out.
- Abilities used on a drunk or poisoned player still work normally (an Empath still correctly reads a drunk neighbor's alignment).
- Always give correct information about the rules, even to drunk or poisoned players.
Sane & Mad (Madness)
Madness is introduced in Sects & Violets. When a player is "mad" about something, they are trying to convince the group that it is true. Some characters are instructed to be mad about something (and risk a penalty—often execution—if the Storyteller judges they didn't genuinely try to convince the group); some are instructed not to be mad about something (and risk a penalty if they do try to convince the group). Players are never forced to be mad—they may take the penalty instead. Once no longer mad, a player can talk about it freely. You are the final judge of whether behavior is mad; give beginners more leeway than veterans.
Traveler Characters
Travelers are for players who arrive late or must leave early. They have extremely effective abilities but gain little information—maximum power, minimum responsibility.
To include a Traveler: (1) let the player choose a Traveler from the Traveler sheet; (2) choose their alignment and tell them privately (an evil Traveler learns the Demon, but not the Minions); (3) put their token in the Grimoire (evil upside-down); (4) place their grey life token on the Town Square; (5) declare to the group which player and Traveler it is and what their ability is—but not their alignment.
Travelers may enter at any time (for 15+ player games they start with everyone else). Make Travelers good most of the time (evil only about a third of the time), since an evil Traveler gives evil an extra vote. Consider adding one only when 7+ players are alive.
Travelers work like normal characters (they nominate, vote, act at night, can be killed, register normally, lose abilities when dead/drunk/poisoned) except:
- Travelers do not count toward evil's "two players remain alive" victory.
- Travelers are exiled, not executed. Any player (even the dead) may call for an exile at any time during the day; this is a group decision like a vote but is not a vote and is not affected by abilities. Dead players who support an exile do not lose their vote token. If at least half of all players (not just the alive ones) support it, the exile succeeds and the Traveler dies. Any number of exiles may happen per day, and an exile does not use up the day's execution. Each Traveler can be called to exile only once per day.
Fabled Characters
The Fabled are for you, the Storyteller—more a special rule than a character. They let players join who otherwise couldn't, or help a game run smoothly when a real-world issue arises. To include one, choose it, tell the group it is in play, and put its token in the center of the Grimoire. The Fabled cannot die or lose their ability (they are immune to all game effects) and, like Travelers, do not count toward evil's "two players remain alive" victory. Use the Fabled only when you need them.
How to Be a Great Storyteller
Some tips for running things smoothly and making things fun:
- Move quietly and unpredictably at night so your footsteps and token-shuffling don't reveal who acted. Pretend to move tokens even when a bluffing player claims a night action, so veterans can't read your hands.
- Keep the Grimoire level and hidden, held by its strong center pillar so a hand stays free.
- Step into the circle when doing important things like running a vote or the last call for nominations.
- If you make a mistake, just play on—don't try to "balance" it by favoring the other team. It's usually best to tell the group you made a mistake without telling them what it was. If you forgot to wake a player, resolve their ability privately or briefly put everyone back to sleep.
- Answer questions privately where possible, and never reveal excess information (refer to players by name, not character).
- Don't break the rules, even when it seems exciting—good players rely on accurate information, and an unfairly won or lost game isn't fun. With 200+ characters, one of them can do the wild thing you want, fairly.
- Let players make their own decisions, even odd-looking ones.
- Deal with negative behavior (bullying, shouting, feigned offense) by taking the player aside privately; the problem is the behavior, not the person. Keep an upbeat, respectful mood—more important than either team winning.
- Give shy players the floor occasionally (especially when nominated); silence the whole group, not just a chatterbox, if you must quiet someone.
- Help the weaker team with invisible strokes of luck (e.g. the information you give drunk/poisoned Townsfolk), so games last to the tense final day—but never flat-out decide the winner by exploiting a rule.
- Listen to the bluffs of evil players and run the game so their lies look like the truth.
- Declare the victory with flair so the winning team can celebrate.
- Allow creative, unexpected strategies (texting between evil players, elaborate bluffs, photographing the Grimoire)—so long as they make the game more interesting and aren't bullying.
Going Further
The Script Tool
Once familiar with the three core editions, create your own character lists ("scripts") at BloodOnTheClocktower.com/script from any combination of characters you own; the tool also generates a matching night sheet. Teensyville games use only a few characters, good for 5–6 players. Handling strange character interactions is more art than science—use your best guess and make a clear ruling.
Growing Your Clocktower Group
The larger your group, the more fun and varied the games. Join or start a local Facebook/Meetup group, encourage your players to learn to Storytell, use Travelers to welcome latecomers, and use the Fabled to include all types of players. Above all, take care of new players: keep it simple, help them find their own strategies rather than telling them what they "should" do, and make sure they know it's okay to die.
The Editions
The box comes with three editions—get comfortable with Trouble Brewing before moving on:
- Trouble Brewing (Beginner): a relatively straightforward Demon-hunt with plenty of information, but evil has misinformation tricks.
- Bad Moon Rising (Intermediate): a "death extravaganza"—Demons and Minions kill multiple times; good takes great risks for reliable information.
- Sects & Violets (Intermediate): the craziest core edition—great nightly information, but characters and alignments change, and madness is introduced.
Additional editions (Garden of Sin, The Tomb, Midnight in the House of the Damned, The Greatest Show on Earth, and more) each add 25-ish new characters with drastically different strategies. All characters appear in the Script Tool for mixing and matching.
Glossary
The Glossary is more than definitions—all the important game rules are listed here alphabetically.
- Ability: The special power or penalty of a character. Characters have no ability when dead, drunk, or poisoned. The definitive text is in the character almanac.
- About to die: The player who has enough votes to be executed and more votes than any other player today.
- Alignment: The team a player is currently on—good or evil. Changing alignment keeps the character; changing character keeps the alignment. Players know their own alignment.
- Alive: A player who has not died. Alive players have their ability, may vote as many times as they wish, and may nominate. As long as 3+ players are alive, the game continues.
- Alive neighbors: The two closest alive players (one clockwise, one counter-clockwise), not counting any dead players between them.
- Ally: A player of the same alignment.
- Character: The role a player plays. Characters may be in play or not in play.
- Choose: In an ability, means the player decides. If absent, the Storyteller decides.
- Day: The phase in which players have eyes open, talk, and vote for an execution. Each day is followed by a night.
- Dawn: The end of a night, just before the day. Characters acting "at dawn" act after almost all others.
- Dead: A player who is not alive. Dead players may vote only once more; when a player dies their life token flips, they gain a vote token and a shroud, they lose their ability, and its persistent effects end.
- Declare: State to the group so everyone can hear.
- Demon: A character type that begins evil. If the Demon dies, good wins. Demons usually kill at night.
- Demon info: First-night information (7+ players) telling the Demon which players are Minions and 3 good characters not in play, to help bluff.
- Drunk: A drunk player has no ability but thinks they do; the Storyteller acts like they do and may give false information. Drunk players don't know they're drunk.
- Dusk: The start of a night, just after players close their eyes. Abilities lasting "until dusk" end as soon as players sleep.
- Each night*: Every night phase except the first.
- Edition: A scenario with its own tokens, character sheets, and almanac (e.g. Trouble Brewing).
- Evil: Minions and Demons start evil. Evil wins when just 2 players are alive (not counting Travelers).
- Execution: The group decision to kill a non-Traveler during the day. Maximum one per day; a nominee is executed if they got votes ≥ half the alive players and more than any other nominee.
- Exile: The group decision to kill a Traveler during the day. Any number per day; any player (even dead, even without a vote token) may support; abilities cannot affect it; it is not a vote and not an execution.
- Fabled: A neutral character type for the Storyteller, chosen publicly, that usually makes the game fairer in strange situations.
- False info / True info: Information the Storyteller gives; false info is only given when an ability malfunctions (drunk/poisoned). The Storyteller must always give true information about the rules.
- First night: The night that begins the game. Players may talk about their characters only after the first night.
- Good: Townsfolk and Outsiders start good. Good wins if the Demon dies.
- Grimoire: The box that stores the pieces and shows the true state of all characters. Players cannot look inside.
- Healthy: Not poisoned. Sober: Not drunk.
- In play / Not in play: Whether a character exists in the current game.
- Leaf: Symbols on tokens that guide the Storyteller—green leaves on top = number of reminder tokens; left green leaf = needs a first-night token; right green leaf = needs a night token each other night; orange leaf = altered setup.
- Mad: A player trying to convince the group something is true. Penalties may apply for failing to be mad when instructed, or for being mad when instructed not to be.
- Might: Something that "might" happen means the Storyteller chooses whether it happens.
- Minion: A character type that begins evil, with abilities that help evil (usually 1–3 per game).
- Minion info: First-night information (7+ players) telling the Minions who the other Minions and the Demon are.
- Neighbors: The two players (dead or alive) sitting one seat each side of a player.
- Night: The phase in which players close their eyes and certain characters act. The game begins with the night phase.
- Nomination: Declaring a group vote to execute a player (echoed by the Storyteller). Once per day per nominator and per nominee; only alive players may nominate.
- Once per game: An ability usable only once—used up even if used while drunk or poisoned, and lost if the player dies without using it.
- Outsider: A character type that begins good but has abilities unhelpful to good.
- Player: Anyone with an in-play character, not the Storyteller.
- Poisoned: Like drunk—no ability, but thinks they have one; the Storyteller may give false information.
- Private / Public: Whispered vs. heard by most players.
- Register: A player who "registers as" a character or alignment counts as that for rules and other players' abilities (e.g. a good player registering as evil is still good but detected as evil). Registering does not grant that character's ability.
- Reminder token: Small tokens that help the Storyteller remember effects; specific to a character.
- Rules sheet: Read out at the start so new players learn the important rules.
- Script / Script Tool: A custom character list built at BloodOnTheClocktower.com/script.
- Shroud: The token placed in the Grimoire to mark a dead player.
- Starts knowing: Gains knowledge on the first night (or, if created mid-game, at that point).
- State: A current property of a player—always either drunk/sober, poisoned/healthy, alive/dead, mad/sane.
- Storyteller: The person who runs the game, keeps the Grimoire, and makes final adjudications.
- Team: All players sharing an alignment.
- Think: A player who "thinks" they are a different character has a token that doesn't match their true character in the Grimoire.
- Tomorrow: The day and night following the current night.
- Townsfolk: A good character type with abilities that help good; usually most in-play characters.
- Town Square: The board in the center holding life and vote tokens, with the Traveler sheet under it.
- Traveler: A character type for players who join late or leave early. The player chooses their character; the Storyteller chooses their alignment. Great power, but may be exiled.
- Type: A class of character—Townsfolk, Outsider, Minion, Demon, Traveler, or Fabled.
- Vote: Raising a hand while the Storyteller counts support for an execution; tallied clockwise, ending with the nominee. A dead player may vote only once for the rest of the game.
- Vote token: Placed on a player's life token when they die; removed (and gone) when that dead player votes.
- Wake: A player opening their eyes at night (tapped twice by the Storyteller); all players wake at dawn.
- Win: Good wins when the Demon dies; evil wins when only two players are alive (not counting Travelers). Alive and dead players win or lose together as a team.