This is where I post about Blood on the Clocktower! Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you enjoy your stay.
I run a series called Script-A-Day here, where I highlight custom BotC scripts I think are novel and interesting! You can find the introduction post Script-A-Day #0 here, and a collection of all the scripts I've highlighted that are in the BotC Scripts database here. It used to update daily, but you run out of good scripts quickly that way. It updates weekly on Fridays!
Update: check out a masterpost of every single one of my Script-A-Day writeups here!
I'm pretty new to the whole tumblr thing, all things considered, so this is also something of an experiment. My inbox is open: if you've got a question or request, please go ahead and shoot me a message! I haven't seen a lot of dedicated Clocktower posts here on tumblr, so I'm doing my part to interface with a community of people who enjoy the greatest social deduction game ever.
Other bio information:
Call me Axolator! Any (reasonable) shortening of my name's also fine. Just don't take the piss.
I use she/her/hers pronouns.
My profile picture was drawn by Sunquill, and I'd highly encourage you to check out her website and commision her if you're interested. She's incredibly skilled; you won't regret it!
I've been in the BotC community since April of 2023 after getting introduced by a friend who brought the game back with him from college over spring break. I've been hooked since then!
Online, I mainly haunt the Unofficial BotC Discord Server, where I've attained the status of Community-Endorsed Storyteller for both live voice and asynchronous text games.
In-person, I'm involved with running a couple of IRL groups of friends that I helped introduce to Clocktower. We get up to shenanigans: if I ever mention the Philo-Steward incident, that's where it originated.
I play a lot of non-Clocktower games, too, and might post/rb posts about them:
Board games: Spirit Island and Power Grid are among my favorites, but I generally enjoy strategy games!
Video games: The Binding of Isaac (duh), Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling, and Baba Is You are all up there. I really just enjoy anything with a good soundtrack. Well, and Pokémon Showdown.
Tag guide:
#blood on the clocktower: Posts about BotC
#scriptaday: Posts in my Script-A-Day series!
#axowall of text: Longer text posts that aren't Script-A-Day, like my character analyses
#scriptbuilding: Posts about building custom scripts
#storytelling: Posts about STing Clocktower: both mechanical posts (like running discretionary characters well) but also thoughts about running Clocktower across various different mediums (IRL, live voice, livetext, async text) and making sure everyone has fun
#askbox: Posts responding to, well, my askbox!
#silly: Memes and other non-serious posts
#nonbotc: Posts not about BotC (I'll usually tag what they are about)
If I come up with more tags, I'll update this post with them!
I don't actually know what else tends to go on people's pinned posts. Uhh, thanks for reading all the way, I guess?? I'll see you around!
Featured characters: Alchemist, Mutant, Organ Grinder
Jinxes:
Alchemist / Organ Grinder: If the Alchemist has the Organ Grinder ability, the Organ Grinder is in play. If both are sober, both are drunk.
Cannibal / Juggler: If the Juggler guesses on their first day and dies by execution, tonight the living Cannibal learns how many guesses the Juggler got correct.
Complexity: Advanced-Expert. Recommended for players who enjoy navigating high-info, high-shenanigans environments, and for Storytellers who can pilot characters like the Amnesiac, Wizard, and Alchemist in a fun way.
Database link (find the PDF and JSON for running it there!)
Writeup under the cut!
Before I say my piece, a word from Amy, the creator of the script!
One of these days I'll polish a script that isn't focused on the Alchemist.
The Parade Infernal is an entry to Final 3 Con '26's script competition that, in my opinion, got totally slept on. Though it's seen some changes since its submission version, it maintains its core of having powerful Townsfolk come face-to-face with tempo-manipulating evil characters.
This script is defined by its Minions. Lil' Monsta, Vigormortis, and the Plague Doctor all serve to explain why loud, terrifying Minion abilities can stick around all the way to final 3, and the Cerenovus and Organ Grinder can steal executions from town and put them into players they really didn't want to execute. Meanwhile, the Witch manipulates nominations and the Wizard... the Wizard does whatever the hell they want, honestly. All combined, though it might be easy to figure out which Minions are in-play, that doesn't mean it'll be easy to fight them!
On the other side of the character sheet, the Townsfolk mostly house incredibly powerful information. With only the Recluse and Puzzlemaster to explain misinformation on N1, the Chef is surprisingly powerful when it comes to identifying where starting evil players are. Meanwhile, the ongoing information narrows worlds a ton: the Balloonist, FT, Town Crier, and Cannibal can slowly generate potent evil pings over time, and the Philosopher and Cannibal can duplicate powerful good abilities. The Alchemist is the real star of the show here — an Alch-Witch or OG can swing tempo back in the good team, an Alch-Cerenovus can get evil players to suddenly pivot or risk execution, and an Alch-Wizard can fill whatever gaps the good team feels like they have.
Bagbuilding Parade Infernal is, for the most part, relatively straightforward. The main note I'll make is that a lot of the misinformation (especially the N1 misinfo) comes from the Outsiders on this script, so be mindful with how you bagbuild games with base-0 Outsiders. Since the space for a Recluse or Puzzlemaster claim is limited, too much frontloaded information without evil having resources to play around it (Cerenovus to get them to shut up, Fang Gu to jump out of it, Wizard to wish for a solution) can corner an evil team very quickly if you aren't careful!
Some notes:
Both 5-star and 3-star General work really well here, in my experience. Use whichever gradation you personally find matches your STing style.
Remember that the Monk protects from all harmful Demon effects — this includes Vigor-poison, but also blocks Minion abilities coming from Lil' Monsta's babysitter, so a Witch or Cerenovus can't kill the Monk-protected player while they're holding the baby.
If your group would find it fun, this is probably one of the better environments to try Amnesiac abilities with more public or mechanical elements. A Wizard could be using their wish to bluff that, after all! Of course, not all playgroups will find this type of ability enjoyable, so keep that in mind — remember your job as the Storyteller is to ensure the players have fun, not to make something for your own amusement!
The Alchemist can be a little tricky to run here, so use discretion with the ability you grant them. If your playgroup seems to be the kind to pressure players to nominate when Alch-Witch cursed, maybe lean away from that (and remember that you're allowed to veto things as the Storyteller — Amy suggests having a couple good players you won't let the Alchemist curse, alongside the Demon).
That's honestly about it from me! This script is really fun, and if you and your group is comfortable with these characters, I cannot recommend trying this script enough. See you soon!
anyway hi gamers! sorry for the long hiatus. Here's what's happening with this blog:
- Script-A-Day #59 is well underway! Basically just needs finishing touches, and for me to send it to the script author to get her thoughts.
- Script-A-Day #60 and #61 have been decided, and are actively being drafted.
- I'm working on a longer-form essay about Blood on the Clocktower (like the rest of my axowalls of text), so be on the lookout for when I finally write about the thought budget! Turns out that formalizing a concept that actually underpins all of game design as a whole is harder than you'd think.
- I'm also also thinking about starting up Scriptbuilding Seminar again, or otherwise doing more character focuses. If you have any characters you'd like to see me talk about in regards to how to Storytell them well or scriptbuild them in an interesting way, don't hesitate to let me know!
- Oh, and be on the lookout for when the scripting panel from Final 3 Con drops! I'll post about it here, too.
"No CREDIT TO CHEESE!!! Bro kept distracting me by lying down on my desk from the mission of this essay. Evil" - Delta, post-Atheist essay
Featured characters: Atheist, Hermit, Drunk, Boomdandy
Jinxes:
Mathematician / Drunk: The Mathematician must learn if the Drunk's ability yielded false info or failed to work properly.
Plague Doctor / Spy: If the Storyteller would gain the Spy ability, a Minion gains it, and learns this.
Plague Doctor / Boomdandy: If the Storyteller would gain the Boomdandy, a player becomes the Boomdandy.
You should interpret this jinx the old way (before the jinx update) such that the Plague Doctor being executed & turning itself into a Boomdandy may immediately trigger the Boomdandy ability, causing them to explode.
Complexity: Advanced-Expert. Recommeded for groups familiar with custom scripts that want a high-puzzle, low-shenanigans intro to the Atheist, and for Storytellers keen to try out the character.
Database link (find the PDF and JSON for running it there!)
Writeup under the cut!
This Script-A-Day has been a long time coming, and has been constantly delayed for reasons. However, this version's stable enough to where both Delta and I are okay releasing it. Here's what he has to say before the writeup proper!
This script is what made me convinced that Atheist is my favourite character in the game. Seeing a truly intense 15p Atheist game where every player is deeply invested and arguing about something and advocating for what they think is truly something special when you first see it as a Storyteller. Atheist scripts have a unique vibe to them when puzzlely that no other character can replicate. I'm a fan of oddball characters, but Atheist is by far the best.
Star's Edge is the premier script for featuring the Atheist as a puzzle. With a very open town and several ways for evil players to get bluffs, it positions itself as a stellar environment for Storytellers and players to experience Atheist at its best. The Townsfolk focus on forging confirmation and on character-checking to help combat the terrifying Hermit-Drunk onscript, one of the few sources of mechanical misinformation.
The Hermit is very deliberately placed on this script: a Hermit has the Drunk, Plague Doctor, and Snitch abilities on this script. A Hermit who sees the Atheist token, then, is both positioned in a way that makes it much harder to answer whether it's an Atheist game, by giving Minions Snitch-bluffs to remove doubleclaims from the equation and disincentivizing executing them, because the Hermit-Drunk-Atheist could gain the Plague Doctor-Boomdandy ability and explode, ending the game! This threat extends to real Atheists and Drunks seeing the Atheist token, and the Boomdandy might just take an Atheist bluff, too, making executing the Atheist claim — something which is normally a policy execution on other Atheist scripts — very dangerous on Star's Edge.
Rounding everything out is the evil team, with Minions that capitalize on the strengths of the on-script Townsfolk and work against them and Demons which perfectly blend in with the misinfoscape. The Godfather is the big source of Outsider modification, and both it and the Witch can accelerate games such that town has less information to work with. The on-script Yaggababble can simulate both of these effects, too, and Lil' Monsta adds an extra Minion, meaning that Spy and Boomdandy worlds can stay open to throw shade on confirmation chains and make executing suspicious players scary.
Bagbuilding Star's Edge isn't simple, but it's also less complex than one might expect. Definitely start building the bag with your evil team — or, if you're running an Atheist game, the composition of evil characters you want to frame as being in play. Craft town so that they can fight those specific threats — for example, if a lot of town can get fooled by Spy-misregistration, a Chambermaid or a Mathematician can help swing things back toward good. If you have multiple Drunks due to a Godfather allowing a Hermit and a Drunk, having character-checkers like the Librarian, Dreamer, Undertaker, and Savant can really help town disambiguate.
The big throughline to remember here is that the existence of an Atheist claim drastically complicates things for the good team. If you're bagging a Hermit (Drunk (Atheist)) or Drunk (Atheist), stack up the good team a little to compensate — a good player will sincerely be pushing Atheist worlds and forcing town to consider possible frame worlds where they themselves are evil. It also gives Boomdandy explosions an extra option, and can take heat off the only Demon candidate in a final 3 if town wants to execute the Storyteller.
Some notes:
Mathematician! This one's a little bit of a doozy, so bulleted list for the stuff that pings the Math:
If a player gets false information or their ability malfunctions due to Spy misregistration or Vigormortis-poisoning, it pings the Math.
If the Drunk or Hermit's ability yields false information or malfunctions due to being the Drunk/Hermit, it pings the Math as per the jinx.
IMPORTANT EDGECASE: A Drunk (Atheist) or Hermit (Atheist) pings the Math once on the first night (and only the first night), because their setup condition failed to trigger.
If a Minion gets preached, then they ping the Math each night that the Preacher ability prevents them from waking to their Minion ability. (If a preached Boomdandy fails to explode, it also pings the Math the following night.)
As a general rule of thumb, here's how I handle the Outsider modification characters on this script, after talking to Delta:
Hermit: Almost always remove an Outsider, unless it would result in the Hermit removing itself from the bag.
Godfather: There are three other sources of negative Outsider modification onscript (Hermit/Drunk/Vigormortis) — basically always add an Outsider with the GF's ability.
In a game with both a Hermit and a Snitch, only one set of Snitch-bluffs goes out, because the first Snitch ability satisfies the condition of the other one.
Not quite the same thing, but show your Minions the Atheist token in the Snitch bluffs if the token isn't in play! Letting them know Atheist is a safe bluff can be incredible for helping evil frame Atheist worlds without having to coordinate safe bluffs first.
The Hermit being able to explode like a Boomdandy mainly serves as a deterrent for executing the Atheist claim. If a Hermit who saw a non-Atheist token gets executed, it's usually more fun to gain a different Minion ability.
If the Spy dies during the day, you may choose to register the Spy as an Outsider to the Godfather, allowing a kill. This is an evil-sided decision, but if the Spy is bluffing as an Outsider or planning to back into one, or if evil's really on the back foot, you should strongly consider giving the Godfather a kill.
Know how to run a Boomdandy explosion (or Atheist-simulated Boomdandy explosion) here. Make sure your players know they can point to you, the Storyteller, if they think it's an Atheist game!
Be sparing and be deliberate with extra nightkills from the Yaggababble ability. The maximum number of deaths that can normally happen in a night is 3 (one from the Demon, one from the Godfather, and one from a Plague Doctor-given ST Godfather ability) — and 3 kills are extremely rare. Much more common is 1–2 kills, and double deaths only happen when an Outsider dies during the day. To that end, only multikill when it could plausibly also be a Godfather kill because an Outsider died during the day. Keeping the fact that it's a Yaggababble game hidden is typically vital for evil to succeed.
Ooh, and remember that you can use the Yaggababble ability to simulate a Witch-kill during the day. Don't do this if there's already an active Witch ability in-play (unless a dead evil is, like, bluffing Plague Doctor or Hermit?), because it outs that it's a Yaggababble game if multiple daykills happen.
Lil' Monsta and Spy can be tricky to run together, since it's not very fun to have a Spy who's only registered as good end up as the Demon in final 3 with no way to find them. Use the Spy misregistration less often than you otherwise would to make sure the good team has a chance of identifying them as a possible babysitter, and don't be afraid to kill them at night if they aren't babysitting. (Remember that you should be killing LM-Minions at night such that only one is in final 3!)
You should know that in a base-0 Outsider game, rule that the Godfather can resolve their setup modification after the Vigormortis, such that there can be 1 Outsider in a Vig/GF game.
I'm saving this for last — run puzzle Atheist. I cannot stress this enough. Atheist games of Star's Edge are at their best when they are layered puzzles with slight mechanical cracks in them, not when the ST heavily clues that it's an Atheist game with outlandish mechanical happenings. Check out Delta's essay on puzzle Atheist for more — it is an incredible read.
(This was an Atheist loss! All players were good.)
An exercise in changing what an execution really means
Featured Characters: Mastermind, Lleech, Vortox, Lord of Typhon
Jinxes:
Mathematician / Chambermaid: The Chambermaid can detect if the Mathematician will wake tonight.
Mastermind / Vigormortis: A Mastermind that has their ability keeps it if the Vigormortis dies.
Lleech / Mastermind: If the Mastermind is alive and the Lleech host dies by execution, the Lleech lives but loses their ability.
The day following the host’s execution is a Mastermind day, after which the game ends.
Complexity: Advanced. Recommended for players who are familiar with S&V-like high-info environments and don't fear a no-death night, and for Storytellers who can keep worlds open for a while with their discretion.
Database link (find the PDF and JSON for running it there!)
Writeup under the cut!
I can't believe it's been about a year since I last covered a script featuring the Minuit engine — and that script was its originator, :Minuit a Fond La Caisse! For those unfamiliar, the trio of Mastermind, Vortox, and Lleech sparks intense paranoia on a zero-death night. If the Lleech host got executed, doubletapping could lose on a Mastermind day. If the Vortox just sank, not executing anyone could lose to the Vortox's win condition!
Executionology's spin on the engine is something completely different from how Minuit does it. Every Townsfolk is incredibly powerful in its own right, but the evil team specs harder into confirmation mimicry with characters like the Vigormortis and Boffin, making it much easier and much more rewarding for evil to bluff insanely gamewarping information. There will often be several chains of incredibly strong information running around, and a game's outcome is usually decided by whether or not the right players are trusted as someone makes a last-second nomination while everyone's tensions are running high.
When bagbuilding Executionology, make sure to maximize the number of worlds that can stay open — meaning be careful with the number of world-limiting in the bag. A huge part of evil's plan if they want to leverage the Mastermind engine is being able to sell worlds where the Vortox just sank a kill, so having several in-play Townsfolk that can all fully deconfirm a Vortox can be super tough on the evil team.
On the evil side — probably build your evil teams first, and consider synergy. If you're putting the Vigormortis in the bag, for example, pair it with something it benefits from killing! (If you rack Vigor/Boomdandy in 1-minion, I'm killing you such that you won't retain your ability OR poison 1 Townsfolk neighbor.) There is a thing as too much synergy, too — Lleech/DA tends to balance as too strong — so keep an eye out when figuring out what evil characters you want in the bag, then adjust the good characters accordingly so they can fight them.
The Lord of Typhon is the only on-script Demon that doesn't produce any misinformation with its own ability. When putting it in the bag, almost always add an Outsider (or maybe even 2 in bigger games), and give the Typhon the tools they need to succeed, like a D/A, Sweetheart, and/or a powerful Boffin ability!
Some notes:
Don't be afraid to get aggressive with Balloonist info! The Vortox on the script means that their info could just be pointing at Townsfolk claims — so show them players claiming Townsfolk! This could include a Mutant who's adhering to madness or evil players back to back with good players. Let the Balloonist be strong here.
The General is tricky here — there's pros and cons for running a 3-star General vs a 5-star General. I think this is one of the few scripts where I'd strongly consider running a 5-star General, just because there's a lot to pick up on here. In Vortox, make sure to give the General a reading that’s more than 1 star away from the truth (so if the truth is thumb slightly up, give a thumb down or slightly down in Vortox), that way their information is still actionable.
Remember that a Chambermaid choosing a Demon who only wakes to a Boffin ability (and not their own Demon ability) doesn't see them as waking. This is mostly relevant on N1, but there's an edge case where the Lleech/Mastermind jinx has triggered, but the Lleech is still waking up to their Boffin ability.
The Mathematician is actually fairly straightforward to run here, so I won't bother with a full bulleted list. If a player gets incorrect information or their ability doesn't work as it should due to drunkenness, poisoning, or the Vortox, it pings the Math. And remember when running a Vortox game that the Mathematician doesn't track their own ability malfunctioning!
Okay, edgecase: if the Lleech-hosted Devil's Advocate protects someone who dies to execution later that day, the Mathematician ticks up that night. Lleeches do sometimes host their own Minions, so this is still important to know!
Don't be afraid to give weird info to droisoned info roles, especially the Chambermaid, Dreamer, and Savant. Scripts featuring the Minuit engine are ones where the possibility of a Vortox game needs to remain open for as long as possible. Giving weird info, like showing dreamt evil players as good characters they aren't claiming, can often allow evil teams to push Vortox worlds long enough to win.
That being said, if evil is actively pushing non-Vortox worlds, follow your evil team's lead and don't sell them out!! Context matters here, and every game is different.
Fisherman advice about who to execute can be extremely helpful to give here, especially on a suspected Mastermind day. Just keep in mind that the Fisherman should get unhelpful advice if the Vortox ability is active — which means that giving advice that would be helpful in a Vortox game can accidentally confirm non-Vortox. Whoops!
Only kill the Tinker due to their own ability to hide a night of zero deaths. Any other time just hard-confirms them!
This is less of a "you should know", but give your Boomdandy teams Tinker bluffs. And your Vigor teams. And your Typhon teams. Actually, just have evil bluff Tinker more when they die at night or want to get executed. People seem to like policy-executing them day 1, and a Tinker claim being the only death at night is terrifying for the good team.
Okay, one more of these — Boffin-Mutant is really funny. I'm not saying to do it all the time, but you should consider giving a non-Lleech Demon with a Mastermind the Mutant ability. It's a bit of a called shot as an ST, but when it happens, it's real good.
You should know that a Boffin-Townsfolk ability in a Vortox game yields true information, since the Boffin is a Minion and not a Townsfolk. The obvious use case is to allow your Vortoxes to bluff true Dreamer/Chambermaid/Juggler/etc information to sell non-Vortox worlds, which can be game-winningly powerful.
Remember that if final 3 is the Lleech, their host, and the Mastermind, good cannot win and you should end the game in an evil victory. Either the host is executed and there are no living good players can stop evil from executing a good player the following day, or the host isn't executed and evil wins.
This may seem obvious, but don't give obviously-false info in a Vortox game unless you literally have to. Evil teams succeed on this script by selling alternative Demons as being in play, so help them out. When you can, opt for false info that can be explained as sober via alternative worlds: "If this is true, then these players are evil."
That's about all from me! It's terrifying to play as good, terrifying to play as evil, and terrifying to Storytell. Would recommend!
I'm hosting a scriptbuilding panel at Final 3 Con this Saturday!! I've teamed up with 2025 World Cup quarterfinalist Hystrex to make it happen, and I'm super excited to share what we've got with the world.
The recording of our panel will be uploaded to YouTube at some point after F3C, so stay tuned for that. We've got a lot in store :3
That's all from me! Sorry about the hiatus on Script-A-Day — as you can see, I've had some other stuff on my plate!
Do you have experience with Dusk in the House of the Damned/would you consider covering it at some point?
Dusk is actually a script I've been meaning to cover at some point, but I just haven't gotten around to running or playing it enough to where I feel comfortable covering it.
There's a ton of high-complexity characters (like Wizard, Legion, and Heretic) where running it in a public online lobby is ill-advised at best, but those same characters make it a tough sell for smaller groups that might not enjoy those characters or have enough experience to play around them.
That being said, I do want to run (and potentially do a Script-A-Day on) Dusk at some point! I've heard a diverse range of opinions on it, from those who believe it's one of the best-designed customs of all time and consider it more approachable than it seems to those who believe it has several breaking strategies and consider its endgames prone to pure coinflips. Having neither played nor run Dusk myself, I can't personally comment on those particulars, but I have played and Storytold similar scripts to where I have a basis to compare it to when analyzing it.
sorry for the scriptaday delay, demoncrawl v2.0 just dropped and i have been sucked into the minesweeper roguelite hole for like a hundred more hours already.
also things are going to be dropping in a different order than the small list implies — Star's Edge and Metaphysical are somewhat volatile right now, along with the penciled-in entries #60 and #61. hang tight! Next one is probably Executionology.
Re-Script-A-"Day" #56: Ride the Cyclone by Paradox
It's not a game! It's just a ride...
Featured characters: Boffin, Mastermind, Al-Hadikhia
Jinxes:
Boffin / Politician: The Demon cannot have the Politician ability.
Mastermind / Al-Hadikhia: If the Al-Hadikhia dies by execution, and the Mastermind is alive, the Al-Hadikhia chooses 3 good players tonight: if all 3 choose to live, evil wins. Otherwise, good wins.
Al-Hadikhia / Princess: If the Princess nominated & executed a player on their 1st day, no one dies to the Al-Hadikhia tonight.
Complexity: Advanced. Recommended for loudmouths who love having punchy, powerful abilities and for team players who can work together to outwit the Al-Hadikhia.
Database link (find the PDF and JSON for running it there!)
Writeup under the cut!
Okay, this is like, the third time I'm talking about Ride the Cyclone on this blog, but it's a cool script that's finally stopped being updated. The many versions of the script have confused some people in the past, so here's a definitive Script-A-Day on what is possibly the premier solo Al-Hadikhia script right now.
Ride the Cyclone is all about maximizing the Al-Had's dynamic of asking town if they're willing to sacrifice themselves to prevent triplekills. Almost every Townsfolk on-script would rather choose to live due to their own individual power — characters like the Balloonist, Town Crier, Alsaahir, Savant, Preacher, and Amnesiac thrive with several nights of life, but if everyone plays for themselves, then evil can dominate by scoring triple kills. The Outsiders are mostly similar — the Puzzlemaster wants to save their guess, the Golem wants to wait to kill a likely evil player (and simply won't get picked by the Al-Hadikhia afterward, since they can't nominate), and the Politician is playing for themselves, hoping to flip evil by any means.
Meanwhile, the Minions are four very different beasts, but are very quiet, making the good team work for their meal to figure out which ones are in play:
The Boomdandy can make executions terrifying if town suspects one's in play, but the mere threat of one can be just as helpful to evil.
The Boffin can help evil recreate powerful mechanical effects like the Golem or Princess, but can also cause more silent disruption via droisoning (PM, Philosopher), Outsider modification (Balloonist), or just by giving evil extra information to help them coordinate (HP, Savant, Fisherman, Amnesiac, Snitch).
The Xaan's a huge source of droisoning that must be accounted for by good, but the Politician being a hidden Outsider can really screw with the potential Outsider count.
If all else fails, a Mastermind can snatch the win for evil from the jaws of defeat if good players get too greedy with their lives and all choose to live.
Outside of the words of potential extra Outsiders, all four of these Minions are mechanically silent, and the threat of each one can sometimes be just as powerful as their actual effects: the threat of a Boomdandy can keep the Demon off the block, the threat of a Xaan can discount incredible information, the threat of a Mastermind can encourage powerful Townsfolk to choose death, and the threat of a Boffin can direct executions into otherwise-confirmed players.
For the most part, bagbuilding Ride the Cyclone is surprisingly simple. Keep the ratio of good characters okay with death to good characters who want to live balanced: a bag with mostly characters who want to choose life can end up swingy, depending on if the Al-Hadikhia gets multiple triplekills or gets drowned in a sea of information. Characters like the Knight, Seamstress, Banshee, and Snitch are invaluable tools when balancing out a bag.
Another thing to note is how solvable the Xaan number is. The Princess can solve if it's Xaan 2 or not depending on if their ability fires, and a Banshee who dies at night without activating their ability knows they're either puzzledrunk or that they died on a Xaan night. This can be incredibly powerful information, especially if there isn't a Puzzlemaster (or someone claiming it): be mindful of the Xaan number when you bag Xaan with characters that can singlehandedly solve it, and make sure evil's game plan isn't going to revolve around selling a different Minion as being in-play with too many hard-confirmable characters!
Some notes:
The Knight is incredibly powerful at ruling out powerful characters as being Boffined Demons. To that end, a Xaan 1 showing the Demon can be powerful - unless it’s obviously Xaan 1! Support it by giving evil 1 or even 2 Outsider bluffs, or otherwise give the Knight true info if the game looks like it’ll shake out as obvious Xaan 1 so the Knight starts turning on their pings.
If the Preacher preaches the Mastermind on a Mastermind night, the good team instantly wins — there's no more Mastermind ability extending the game, and the Demon is dead.
The Balloonist can be great for finding hidden Politicians, but can feel incredibly weak if you just show them alternating Townsfolk and Outsider claims. Make sure they can use their info by showing them players claiming Townsfolk characters back to back (or Outsider characters back to back — Al-Had with Boffin-Golem followed by another Outsider is a classic!)
I’ve talked about High Priestess enough here, but to summarize — the High Priestess is most interesting when they’re incentivized to have conversations with their pings and socially read them: the operative word in the High Priestess’s ability text is “talk”, and their role is to facilitate useful conversations that would not happen otherwise. A High Priestess should expect to be shown players who benefit from being talked to, like a Savant who needs help solving their info or a Boomdandy bluffing info that incriminates their Demon. Who is most important to talk to is somewhat subjective and might change depending on which player pulls the HP token: keep your group in mind, and do what’s fun.
The Princess adds an interesting bit of social complexity here — it can potentially hard-confirm itself if the Al-Had chooses to attack on a Princess night and nobody dies, but can also be denied confirmation if the Al-Had chooses not to wake (remember, the ability has "you may choose 3 players"!) Pair that with the on-script Mastermind, and Masterminds bluffing Princess might be able to score themselves a couple cheeky wins! Just remember that an Al-Hadikhia who chooses a dead player on a Princess night can still revive them from the dead, even if they can't kill. (Why is your Al-Hadikhia choosing a dead player on a Princess night? Beats me, but it's happened before.)
Remember that when a player chooses “die”, they die at that instant: this means that the Banshee’s announcement happens immediately after they pick die, not at the end of the night phase. This means that any players announced after the Banshee’s call will know they can choose to live!
I'd strongly recommend to not allow Amnesiacs to guess their ability after they die. It's a common houserule, but it shouldn't be used on this script, so the Amnesiac has a harder choice when deciding whether or not to live when picked by the Al-Hadikhia.
Be a touch careful with the Puzzlemaster here. It’s much more damaging in an environment where everything goes faster, but given the mechanical and confirmatory nature of the characters on-script, they can sometimes solve who their puzzledrunk is and kill the Demon that same day. All that to say: be careful if you puzzledrunk the Banshee and can’t sell that the Xaan night was that night?
Politician flips are hard to adjudicate and are often very context-dependent at the best of times — but in general, if the Politician is more responsible for evil winning than any other good player (regardless of whether or not that was their intent!), they should flip evil. Ideally, they should be most responsible for getting Townsfolk players executed, and be a major force in town pushing worlds. Simply choosing to die on a Mastermind night (and being the proximate cause of a loss) might not be enough!
You should know that the Boffin-Politician jinx extends to a Boffin-Philosopher who tries to go Politician, since jinxes are between abilities, not characters. Sorry, Demon, you aren't turning good that easily!
While we're on the subject of the Boffin — keep your Boffin-Amnesiac abilities balanced. If the Boffin-Amnesiac causes droisoning or other forms of disruption, give the good team direct clues or otherwise make it possible for good to figure out what's happening. I personally more strongly lean toward Boffin-Amnes that grant the Demon information, since it is still useful for evil (by potentially confirming themselves via their Amnesiac ability gaining information they wouldn't know as evil) while not requiring clueing.
When running the Boomdandy’s ten-to-one countdown, make sure you know it doesn’t have to be exactly ten real-life seconds. Depending on the size of the game, you might increase the time between numbers to allow for a longer countdown. Don’t make it too long — after all, the Boomdandy is still an Minion, so should help the evil team — but it can be unfun for both sides if the countdown is too short.
I think that's about it from me. You can check my earlier posts on this script if you want more advice — the spirit of the script still remains, even as the versions get more and more different from this final one. See you soon!
(i don't know why the Is the Apprentice token is on Magica there. Coral's the Apprentice-Boffin granting Dell the Golem ability.)
I know you already do script-a-day, but are you also open to individual script feedback by chance?
Sure thing! I'm happy to help anyone who wants my feedback on a script they made — my inbox is open!
I also usually lurk around the Unofficial's #custom-script-discussion channel, so you can find me there, if you want. There are a ton of other scriptbuilders who are happy to provide feedback there, too.
Hey, everyone! I know I've been absent for a while, and I apologize for that. Life's been busy, and so have I — here's the small list for what I'm currently working on.
Script-A-Day Entries
#56: Ride the Cyclone by Paradox (the final version!)
#57: Star's Edge by Delta
#58: Executionology by Hystrex
#59: The Metaphysical Experience of Being Kazali-Picked by Requiem
Walls of Text
Scriptbuilding Seminar — The Goblin, Optimal Play Patterns, and Maximizing Fun
Running Custom Scripts with Base-3 Grimoires — Recommended Scripts and Best Practices
What is a Midsyville? Crowfoot Crossing, the 7–9 Player Script, and Exemplar Midsies
