Blood on the Clocktower: Misregistration and the Power of “Might” in TTRPGs

Blood on the Clocktower: Misregistration and the Power of “Might” in TTRPGs

15 March 2024

Blood on the Clocktower

Blood on the Clocktower is one of my favourite games of all time. It's a hidden role game where every single player has a unique ability, most of which gather information for the town to help them find the evil demon and their minions, and execute them to win. However, the game would be way too easy for the town if all the good players’ information was always true, so Clocktower has a number of ways in which the information you receive might be wrong, and part of the puzzle of the game is working out which good players are unintentionally spreading false information.

One of these sources of misinformation is the Outsider character: the Recluse, whose ability reads: "You might register as evil & as a Minion or Demon, even if dead.”

Outsiders are good aligned characters whose abilities work to hinder the good team. The Recluse does this by creating false information. For example, if there was a character who learned the alignment of specific players, they could learn that the Recluse player was evil when they are actually good. Equally, if there was a character that learned which character type certain players were, they might learn that the Recluse is a Demon when they are actually an Outsider.

There are two factors of the Recluse’s ability that really interest me as a designer. Firstly is the idea of registering as something different to what you are, and secondly is the fact that the ability doesn’t have to trigger every time, instead it is up to the Storyteller - the facilitator of the game - to decide whether it happens or not. Generally, in the case of the Recluse, the Storyteller wants their ability to activate as much as possible, but there is nuance to this and the best Storytellers know when to have a recluse register truthfully.

I want to talk about both of these facets of the character and how they might be applied to more narrative focused games like TTRPGs. Some of this stuff would also be cool to see in CRPGs but, without a human brain running the game live, the section on “might” is definitely less relevant.

Misregistration

Misregistration can create some really interesting interactions in Blood on the Clocktower. I would love to see the potential for this in TTRPGs.

Keeping with the theme of misregistering as a demon, imagine a cunning wizard making their party register as demons at the gates of Hell, allowing them to slip in unchallenged; or that same wizard turning that magic against some goblins, and letting the Paladin strike them down with all the benefits of their sword that deals extra damage to demons.

Alternatively, perhaps a player character is cursed to register as a demon, meaning they can no longer enter the church that has been supporting their adventuring so far, or worse, that the monster hunter guild now has their eyes on them.

There are so many different ways this mechanic could be used, feel free to share your ideas in the replies! I only touched on four ways registering as a demon could turn out, think of what you could do with other creature types, or even completely different character traits!

“Might”

One of the reasons the Recluse’s ability (and other Clocktower characters’ abilities) works so well is because it doesn’t have to happen every time. In Clocktower, this can be used to cast suspicion on the Recluse player, but it can also be used when the events that would transpire if the recluse did register wrong would make the experience of the game worse than if the recluse registers correctly.

For another RPG example, imagine if that cursed PC from earlier was magically banished to Hell and they didn’t return because Hell is the native plane of demons, effectively removing that PC from play. There are definitely groups that would find that fun, but it creates a lot of extra work for the GM that I know I would never bother with if I could avoid it.

Frequently, when something “might” happen in a TTRPG, the designers leave it up to dice to decide. By giving that decision to a neutral player (or maybe the whole group in a GMless game), it allows them to have it trigger when it suits the story and gameplay best, and have it not trigger when it might ruin or break something.

Obviously this intuition for balance isn’t a skill all GMs share, so if you use this in your games, it’s probably also worth including a little disclaimer telling your GMs to keep fun in mind.

Misregistration in D&D 5e

D&D 5e has one spell that causes things to misregister. Nystul’s Magic Aura is a second level spell from the Player's Handbook that I have never heard anyone talk about in my life. It allows the caster to change how certain information might appear to a spellcaster using divination magic against an object or willing creature.

For example, you could have a humanoid appear as a fiend or a magic item appear to be nonmagical. This would probably work to get through the gates of Hell, but a lot of the other scenarios I have presented are not achievable using this spell, mainly because it cannot be used offensively as a curse.

This spell as it currently exists could be really interesting to use in the big reveal in a mystery adventure (maybe the wizard whodunnit tried to implicate the local necromancer by planting traces of necromancy magic at the crime scene!), but there is so much more potential for this type of mechanic to be explored, especially when it comes to mechanical interactions beyond gathering information.

Tag Systems

This type of design feels like it would work really well in games with tag systems (think: Fate or Lady Blackbird). It’s as simple as “Curse: Effects might treat you as if you had the Demon tag,” coupled with a sword that “Deals +1 damage to Demons,” or an NPC with the trait “Hates Demons”. Hopefully you can already see the types of gameplay or stories that can emerge here.

I hope something I’ve said today has inspired you as a designer! I’ve had these thoughts rattling around in my head since I first discovered Clocktower in mid-2023, and I’m sure this won’t be the last time I talk about the game here. I’m really proud of this post so it would mean a lot to me if you shared it around!

Thanks for reading this dispatch of Jackalope Mail,

CJ