There are multiple ways to play this game and I have done a bunch of them. The four ways I am aware of are:
– Real Life ✅
– Online ✅
– Live Text ❎
– Asynchronous Text ✅
I participate in these in varying capacities and also frequency. Player, Story Teller and Spectator.
Real Life
The way the game was designed to be played. I have done it all! Locally, I am one of two organisers, each of us with our own Grimoire, that run games locally. We usually try and alternate sessions where we play and story tell, sometime both needing to story tell at the same time when we have enough players. I love how in person feels and the dynamic between players. How they break off, who they chat to, when they chat to specific players. Being able to see how people are acting when talking to other people, body language, really helps with the social side of things. Watching peoples reactions at night when they get information, having to be silent, is sweet, especially when the information is unexpected or spicy.
10/10
Online
The closest to in person you can get without leaving your computer! I have played using both discord/old and the now official app. The official app is by far the best way to play online. The main difference is the ability to have truly private conversations and more of them. The ability to take notes, place reminder tokens and the inability to see full body language of someone changes the social side somewhat, but it is still an amazing experience.
10/10
Live Text
Having not played like this, I cannot comment much. I feel like it would lose a lot over real life or online, with tone, intent and being able to keep up with conversations. One day I will give it a go to form some opinions on it.
???/10
Asynchronous Text
This is the most different way to play Clocktower. The way I play this is, days last a full 24 hours, with people playing from all around the world. There is a town square where people can talk and build worlds, which you can have private chats in separate threads. There are rules around the number of private chats you can have each day and how you announce them. There can be multiple nominations at once, but they are processed in order and votes etc. are publicly tracked. When it is night, everyone, dead or alive, checks in with the Story Teller, does actions or gets information, then day starts again, for another 24 hours. Social is lost much more in this format and mechanical information is key, meaning certain scripts work better, or worse, in this format. It also lasts much longer, up to 7, or even more, real time days so tensions can get high with the lies and betrayal being spread out over longer periods. Keeping your emotions in check and being mindful of how and what you write is of utmost importance.
7/10
Leave a Reply