sometimeskaiju

[sometimeskaiju]

Clocktower Character Analysis: The Ojo is a Super Fun Demon, Actually, and Here's Why

Ojo (Demon): Each night*, choose a character: they die. If they are not in play, the Storyteller chooses who dies.

Since its release, the Ojo has been mistreated by custom script builders and Storytellers alike. Often put on scripts as a nothing-Demon or otherwise as something to fill a 25th character slot, the unique qualities it does have are often overlooked by scriptwriters and STs. In this post, I hope to shine some light on those unique qualities and leave STs with a better idea of how to run the character in the most fun, fair, and balanced way, and to give scriptbuilders some ideas on how to write a script that makes Ojo shine.

Ojo as an informed sniper, and why that's less good than you might think

The most obvious usecase for why a scriptbuilder might put Ojo on a script is to serve the role a Spy or Widow might have on an evil team: to help the evil team kill powerful good characters, so they don't waste time killing Librarians or Butlers and get straight to killing Empaths and Fortune Tellers. In theory, the Ojo should be more powerful than a typical Demon because they can kill all the info-roles more quickly than most other Demons, preventing them from being framed, because they can "kill-by-character".

Those of you that have played Trouble Brewing more than once might notice the immediate flaw in this reasoning. If you've ever played a Spy game where it was immediately obvious it was Spy when the Monk and Fortune Teller died instantly, you'd know what town tends to do after: out all their info and negate the advantage knowing the Grimoire brought.

(usually, this kind of Spy counterplay can hurt the good team if they get things wrong, due to characters like the Poisoner now knowing who to target... but in a meta where the good team hides more info than is typically helpful, a mis-solved Spy can end up helping the good team! but that's a topic for another time.)

An Ojo outing their presence by killing the inforoles first is doing something similar: encouraging town to be more forthcoming with their info and undoing the Ojo's own advantage. On some scripts, an Ojo making it abundantly clear it's an Ojo game can hurt even more than a Spy making themselves clear, because good solving the Demon type can often be disastrous for evil depending on the script. Confirming that, for example, there's neither No Dashii poison nor a Vortox warping info via kill pattern can end up sinking an evil team suddenly left with no potential misinformation to exploit.

Oh confirming the Demon type is only half the problem btw

The main downside of "kill-by-character", though, outside of outing the characters which let the evil team do that to begin with, is that an evil team killing into information isn't killing into socials, and can end up cornering themselves after killing all the players they could frame. Information can always be framed: that scary Fortune Teller's info doesn't have to mean anything if they're getting framed as the Demon by the evil team, so they can leave the info-roles alive. The more important threat is the Empath-confirmed Librarian and their Butler friend whose abilities are spent, and so often slip through the cracks when evil kills by character. They can't be framed, and even if they don't have as much information, the process of elimination can be more powerful than any one character's info, leading the good team directly to the Demon. An evil team that can kill the most trusted players and leave alive the most suspicious ones is an evil team that has a high chance of winning, because even if they left powerful info-roles alive, that doesn't matter when information can always be framed.

Guess which Demon can't innately kill by socials? That's right!

The Ojo in particular often struggles with killing their frames and being stuck leaving confirmed players alive because of the way they kill by character. The fact the Ojo can't kill a specific player just by pointing at them makes them vulnerable, and can result in them accidentally killing suspicious players while being unable to kill socially trusted players with unknown characters. Their inability to kill by socials can often leave them feeling weaker than a Demon with no special ability (that is, "Each night*, choose a player: they die"), since if they don't have a strong read on which players are which characters, they can end up cornering themselves with suboptimal kills in a quest to kill powerful info roles. So that informs...

Ojo as an intuitive cleric, and why intentionally missing isn't asinine

The Ojo, being a Demon, starts knowing several characters which are out-of-play (both their bluffs and other Demons on the script that they know aren't in play). However, knowing characters which are out of play means that the Ojo can intentionally miss, and let the Storyteller decide who dies. This is where I'll posit my first recommendation for Storytellers:

If the Ojo intentionally misses with the intent to kill a specific player they don't know the character of, strongly consider killing the player they want dead.

As mentioned in the previous section, the Ojo is fighting an uphill battle when it comes to killing by socials, since killing by character can often be a downside if they try and kill the powerful characters first. Allowing the Ojo to kill socially trusted players without knowing their character, especially early in the game when their deaths matter most, can help level the playing field and keep the Ojo in the game instead of getting steamrolled.

This may seem like a reversal of what ought to be done. Shouldn't Ojos try and engage with their unique mechanic and try to find out the character of that player? Why just... let them have what other Demons do? But that's just it: their unique mechanic often manifests itself as a downside, so letting the Ojo kill a player or two without knowing their character can help tip the scales toward evil when they would otherwise be cornered and losing, due to their inability to kill socially trusted players. That's not to say the Ojo should be able to give up their ability to just kill like a normal Demon. Far from it: the Ojo should primarily be killing by character, and an intentional miss to kill a specific player should be honored once, maybe twice a game depending on how it's going.

The Ojo is trusting you as the Storyteller to use part of their special ability (the miss) to get them out of a tight spot. Help them out.

However, there's another way to think about intentionally utilizing the Ojo's miss mechanic:

Ojo as an explosive multikiller, and why your Ojos should sometimes get double deaths

When the Ojo ability says "the Storyteller chooses who dies", they aren't limited to killing 1 player to die. Heck, the almanac even recommends occasionally killing multiple players if the Ojo is on a script with a multi-kill Demon like the Shabaloth to hide the Demon type. However, this can go further than just obscuring the Demon type, and herein lies my next recommendation for Storytellers:

If the Ojo intentionally misses with the intent to kill multiple players to sell a bluff (e.g. Gambler, Gossip) or fake another evil character as being in play (e.g. Godfather when an evil bluffing Outsider just died, Shabaloth), strongly consider giving them 2 kills to help them sell their world (though make them two suboptimal kills, to balance out the tempo increase).

The Ojo being, in essence, a 1.25 kill-per-night Demon via its miss is one of the most interesting parts of its ability and one that gets woefully overlooked by scriptbuilders. The fact that the ST can kill multiple players on a miss is something that most STs don't even realize until pointed to the relevant section of the almanac. But this interaction opens up the Ojo to being on so many more kinds of scripts, like BMR-likes or serving as cover on scripts with lower amounts of multideath.

If the Ojo is killing a fellow evil to sell a bluff (e.g. helping a Minion bluff Gambler), then give them a second kill that's all right. Don't kill a Ravenkeeper or Sage with the second death if you can help it — they're already sacrificing an evil life to sell a bluff. However, if the Ojo is killing 2 good players (when bluffing a Godfather in play, for example), consider making those 2 good players less useful kills: you-start-knowing characters and Outsiders are obvious go-tos, but depending on the state of the game, killing a bait role or even an evil player might be the right move to keep the game fun and balanced.

Okay, but how the hell do I run an unintentional Ojo miss?

tl;dr — be nice to them.

Too many Storytellers seem to have an axe to grind for the Ojo, and I used to be one of them. I used to bounce my Ojo misses into Farmers and Sages on N2 and N3 and then be surprised when they ended up getting overwhelmed by the torrent of information coming their way. To figure out what to do on a real Ojo miss, though, returning to the philosophy of the Ojo miss might be an activity worth pursuing.

The Ojo miss exists to balance the times when the Ojo selects a dead character and misses a kill. It's a kill that's literally "better than nothing", at its core, and helps keep the game moving along if the Ojo doesn't hit an in-play character. It's a part of the ability used to help the Ojo, not to punish them.

With that in mind: the miss shouldn't be worse than sinking a kill. This means that killing a Sage early in the game or a Ravenkeeper on final 5 should be off the cards, and it definitely shouldn't be killing an evil player. Remember, this is not a punishment! It's a part of the ability that should be helping the Ojo and its team. It should be middling, or maybe even good, not a downside for missing the Washerwoman bluffing to the nines and convincing everyone they're the Ravenkeeper. Or, in other words:

If the Ojo unintentionally misses, give them the Lil' Monsta kill — something which moves the game along and doesn't swing the game too hard for either team.

Wait why are we talking abo—

Let's take a tangent into Lil' Monsta for a bit

So, I did just drop a random bit of terminology only I use with "the Lil' Monsta kill", so I might as well talk about it. Experienced Storytellers who have run LM or Yaggababble games before will likely have an intuition for what I mean already, but for clarity, I'll explain all.

Lil' Monsta is a Demon whose ability reads "Each night, Minions choose who babysits Lil' Monsta & "is the Demon". Each night*, a player might die. [+1 Minion]". It's incredibly powerful for introducing an extra Minion ability to the game and trivially allowing the evil team to move the Demon around to hoodwink Fortune Tellers and Flowergirls, as well as keep the Demon on the most trusted member of the evil team without to much trouble. The downsides though, are that a Lil' Monsta team doesn't get Demon bluffs by virtue of skipping Demon info, and does not have agency over who dies at night.

Okay, so I fibbed a bit with how I described Lil' Monsta's lack of kill agency. In reality, while the kills a LM team are getting are suboptimal (mainly because the baby should be killing evil players at night such that only one can be alive to hold the baby on the final day), they shouldn't be used to kick an evil team while they're down. Lil' Monsta's kills should be run such that they keep the game fair, fun, and balanced for both teams: this means sometimes having it snipe once-per-game abilities that haven't used it yet or strong powerful info Townsfolk, but mainly making neutral kills that keep the game game going to an exciting final day for both teams. This usually means killing socially trusted players: killing the evil team's frames is worse than sinking, and should be avoided (unless you really, really, really know what you're doing).

In short, the LM kill should be something which keeps the game chugging along: a decent, but not optimal kill that ensures that the game doesn't suddenly tilt toward good winning or evil winning. This can be a middling kill, like a you-start-knowing character or a spent power role, but can sometimes be an ongoing information character or unspent power role, depending on if good is winning. Rarely, if evil is stomping, it can kill a bait role or sink, and in a Lil' Monsta game, evils should be dying regularly to ensure only 1 evil lives in final 3.

And that's what I meant when I talked about the LM kill. Let's wrap this up.

Odds and Ends

Okay, sorry for lying, but while I was busy not writing this post a couple more ideas about how Ojo ought to be run have sprung up, and I thought I'd talk about them before wrapping up:

Ojo gambling on bait roles and getting rewarded with the best kills if they're not in play: I mean, if an Ojo selected Ravenkeeper, I probably would give them a stronger kill (probably not a YSK, maybe something like the Town Crier), but I'm not killing the Savant if it would severely unbalance the game.

Ojo missing onto a similarly-powered character as the one they missed targeting: Encourages the Ojo to just target Savant 5 times in a row to kill all the in-play power roles and sidestep their dynamic. If the Ojo misses, the kill shouldn't sink them, but it should be middling.

Ojo misses being fooled by Townsfolk bluffs: If the Sage is bluffing Savant and the Ojo chooses Savant, I'm probably not bouncing into that Sage, because the miss should help the Ojo's team (it's a part of their ability, as described above).

Ojo’s role on custom scripts

So, a couple scripts that I think showcase the Ojo well after saying all of this:

Bitter End by Moll: Captures the essence of a "traditional" Ojo script that doesn't lean into multideath pretty well. Some notes:

Has a Spy on it! While the popular opinion seems to be that the two roles don't mesh together, having a Spy basically upgrades the Ojo to "regular Demon" status, which does help its ability by giving it a perfect grim read.

Has a Damsel on it! This (a) makes the Spy an interesting tradeoff to consider when bagbuilding, since it disables the Damsel wincon, (b) makes an "outed-Spy" game a bit more difficult to handle, since it could be Ojo with the Damsel ability still around or Spy and the Damsel ability is poisoned, and (c) highlights the Ojo's ability to kill-by-character in a more social light, since if the Ojo misses on what the Damsel's bluffing, and the Damsel doesn't die... that's a pretty good indication they're the Damsel. Or, like, the Mutant. Or just a Townsfolk bluffing.

Hide and Seek by Narninian & Zaba: Features the Ojo alongside the Godfather as the only source of multideath on the script. It's a really good example of using Ojo as multideath cover, since the Ojo can uniquely help its Minions bluff a Godfather game by missing and killing 2 players when they die.

Okay, now that I've talked about actual good scripts, time to talk about scripts I made instead of ones I didn't, because I'm like that:

Confirmation Unchained is a script I wrote to highlight evil nightkills, and particularly Ojo being able to bluff multikills like Gambler and Godfather to help their team bluff. Vigor and Legion tie in quite well, promoting evil players dying at night in different ways (and, as a bonus, Legion can bluff a Godfather being in play like the Ojo and have two nightkills after an evil bluffing Outsider dies, since each Legion can kill once!)

And to close, Cannons Rip the Sky is a BMR-like I made with Hannah which highlights Ojo's multikill ability on a script where those are more common. Its ability to kill by character is genuinely useful here — it snipes the Poppy Grower, and can dispose of protective characters like the Lycanthrope and Innkeeper more easily than other characters — but still benefits from missing intentionally to create multikills to help their team bluff or help sell another world.

And that's my lot! Wow, I've been talking about this Demon for almost 3,000 words. Thanks for sticking through all of this, and stay tuned for when I do another one of these at some point.

[sometimeskaiju]

Me: so my character is a butler, but they're actually a hitman for hire. Classic trope, I know. But I really like it. They're a Hitler.

DM: a what?

Me: a Hitman Butler. Hitle-- oh I hear it now, yeah.

DM: ...

Me: that's ok. They can be an Assassin Butler. Assler. Nope. Heard that one as I was saying it.

Me: Buttssassin.

Me: maybe I won't play this character.

[sometimeskaiju]

So the (fictional in-universe) President's granddaughter was taken by the V'sori, with the plan to fly her to orbit and make a show of torturing her for information on the presidents whereabouts, and the executing her for treason. With that background, it's perfectly reasonable that Baron Blade would send the best team he had to rescue the girl, after all, it would be crushing for morale if she died, and a triumph of she was rescued.

Unfortunately, the best team was also the lost psychotic. They are villains after all.

After a lengthy debate about whether just killing the girl and resurrecting her with the Necromancer, Grave Mistake, they set off. Tracking her down to a police station, they spotted the low-orbit craft and accompanying guard in a Barracuda. Debate was had again about whether to drop in, steal the two ships, puree the guards, and blow up the whole station. In the end, they dropped in and the Necromancer possessed a V'sori.

The poor drone went to the space craft, and fired it's main cannon, destroying the barracuda. They then exited the craft, dropped their grenades, and exploded the cohort.

More drones, inside the station, responded to the blasts and Uthrek set himself to Blend. The Major fired the main cannon of their purloined barracuda, shattering the PD bulletproof glass facade, and the Necromancer entangled the squad in tentacles of night.

Unfortunately, he overextended his power, suffering a level of fatigue, a migraine, and some slight hemorrhaging from the eyes. Oops. Uthrek's constant monologues probably didn't help, but megalomaniacal robot's gonna megalomaniac.

Uthrek and the Major wiped everything out, until at last a V'sori warlord emerged , flanked by guards, a blade to the granddaughter's throat. Unfortunately for him, they don't care much about hostages and Ufrek simply gutted him.

At last two of his bodyguards grabbed the girl, and started to kill her, squeezing her throat. The Major successfully negotiated for their lives, offering them his Barracuda to escape, and promising to kill Citizens Hammer and Anvil, rumored to still be alive, in exchange for the girl. They agreed, and returned to the station.

The group entered the Manta, and as we ended the session, the Major ordered a missile trike on the station and the abandoned barracuda. Apparently deals are for suckers...

[sometimeskaiju]

Session 3: The Alpha Omegas have difficulty flying their stolen Barracuda, but manage to just barely (thanks to everyone assisting and a Benny) avoid crashing. The radio comes to life! Their Barracuda is now reported as having fired on another unit, aand all units are ordered to pursue!

They do manage to make it to the outpost, where they blast a door wide open, and thread the needle, skidding down the long hallway and coming safely to a stop. The guards immediately attack!

This battle was a slog that lasted almost the whole session, some of which was struggling with Roll20's interface, but mostly just a LOT of foes. Turns out, the garrison was not at reduced staff after all, and the plot was an ambush!

The gift focused on teleporting around to find the armory, but on his own stumbled across 4 fully armed Fins, aand he ran, wisely. Grave Mistake followed Uthrek into the Scrum, forgetting he was an unarmored and squishy spellcaster, taking several phase rifles to the face and spending most of the fight wounded - and that -2 penalty was going to seriously hamper his effectiveness.

Major Zen'cha and the Glocktopus stayed in the main hallway with the ship, plinking off drones and war spheres as they poured out of various chambers.

Gift got back to the group, reported the armory location, and got on the radio to negotiate surrender. Glocktopus loaded up with fusion grenades, tossed them through, and obliterated the Fin guards. Meanwhile, Ufrek got stuck monologuing about how ineffable, insufferable, and infamous the Omegas were, leaving Grave to duck for cover and whiff on a few dark bolts.

Just as the Glocktopus started raiding the armory, Gift teleported to the enemy Barracuda, now just about to land, which was his plan all along, keep them talking long enough to establish a connection he could teleport through! Dropping some bombs and teleporting out, unfortunately causing only Minor damage. The enemy will be acting at a 1 wound penalty, but for now, they're poised outside the escape route, and ready to fire!

More to come!

[sometimeskaiju]

Last night was session Two of Necessary Evil: Invasion. Our Protagonists were messaged by Baron Blade that there were 3 situations he needed an Omega Cell to address. If the Alphas would choose one of the 3, he would have a new team member, someone called Glocktopus, meet them there.

Their options were 1: a platoon of K'tharen were attending a ceremonial celebration meal at an upscale sushi restaurant. They would be unarmed and unprepared, easy pickings. 2: The base those same K'tharen were stationed at would be temporarily understaffed. Their normal complement of soldiers would be present, but these 20 troops would be off base and thus not in reserve. Perfect time to break in, damage the base, and steal the guns and armor to give to other Omegans. And 3: A statue of the Overmund is being erected in the main park, replacing a statue of Legacy. Destroy the Overmund Statue. It's not a strategically important objective, but it's a great symbolic win that would boost morale.

Our hero-- villains choose the first. Upon arriving at the restaurant, L'Avenue, a 3 star sushi place, they try to locate Glocktopus. Upon spotting an actual octopus with a ballistics helmet and 4 pistols in its tentacles, they figure they got the right guy. Immediately they develop a plan.

Grave Mistake loads some demolition charges to his zombies, and sends them through the plate glass front windows. He himself will enter the side entrance, and target anyone who tries to escape that way. The others will go through the back door, through the kitchens.

The Gift runs through and starts planting charges on the walls, aand teleporting randomly to attempt to bring the ceiling down on the Fins. Uthrek charges in, ready to puree anyone who gets too close. Glocktopus leaps to one of the counters and shoots a few K'tharen, but gets distracted by the delicious sashimi, and he uses a few of his arms to help himself to a free meal. He also grabs some of the fancy chef's knives. And Major Zen'cha goes in with an explosive charge, but instead of targeting a load bearing wall, he tosses it onto the table where the commander is speechifying to his troops about their bravery. 5 fins die, and the commander is wounded.

Uthrek charges from the kitchen to the restaurant dining floor, but his Club for initiative means he spends the round monologuing. "behold, for you are fortunate! Today you have the honor of ending your lives to further the glory of the Alpha Omegas!" More explosions, more bullets, and Glocktopus starts throwing sushi knives after he uses his 4 shots. One critically hits, in that it got something like 6 raises on damage, becoming embedded in a fin skull to the hilt.

The Fins react, but being unarmed, they charge with their claws. Major Zen'cha easily shrugs off such weak weapons, but the remaining zombies go down. Another round of combat and the focus fire on the commander, who spends a Bennie to soak his second wound, another Bennie to soak it again, aand fails that roll. The damage there was another massive hit, doing 4 wounds at once, putting him in the dirt. Well, the carpet.

The last four fins grab a diner who was hiding under their table in terror, and Ufrek wades in, becoming a spinning silver death machine. All 4 fins go down, and also the hostage whose body was blocking one of them.

The threats neutralized, Grave and Ufrek usher the humans out of the restaurant. Gift finishes planting his bombs.

Side note: I had determined in advance that the restaurant had 10 "hard points" that needed to be taken out, hardness 10. A 14 on damage, on the 3d6 demolition charges, would destroy one. Prior to this, the gift had taken out 3, and Grave had taken One.

Glocktopus stocked up on sushi knives, and a backpack full of sushi. The Major went in search of the K'tharen transport, and upon finding it, called the team together. They grabbed the security card off the commander's corpse, and raided the gun racks, stocking up on fusion grenades while Gift brought the House down.

The Major originally thought to give these weapons to the Baron, completing the Smash-and-grab objective also, but then a funny idea hit. Ufrek decided they could fly the ship to the base, and use it to smash their way into the base, stealing those guns also, a double score. Unfortunately he smashed the transport into a nearby building, but Zen'cha used his superior alien mind and familiarity with ships to recover.

Glocktopus discovered the ships guns, and they noticed that as they flew towards the Fin Based they would be passing the park... So a slight deviation off course, managed just barely by Zen'cha, and Glocktopus was able to fire the heavy weapons at the statue from 100 feet up, obliterating it and speeding along before anyone could retaliate.

They are now within sight of the target base, having accomplished 2 missions at once. The Park's fins are probably a minute or two behind in their own Barracuda, and the radio chatter has notified the enemy base that Commander Karch's Barracuda has gone rogue and needs to be taken down!

Session 3 coming soon...

[sometimeskaiju]

This week was Session One of Necessary Evil: Invasion. Spoilers for those who haven't played.

Our hero-- villains began, as expected, in prison. Well, rather Ina prison transport being transferred to a larger facility, when: Kaboom! The Transport they were in crashes, and Baron Blade pulls them from the wreckage! They're given a choice, join the resistance or die.

They join. Joining involves breaking IN to a different prison, to break Mind Jack, some psychic guy with information the Baron needs, out.

They get in, of course, by crashing through the roof, having been unceremoniously ejected from the Baron's ship. Inside, the guard Drones investigate, backed up by the War Spheres patrolling the corridors.

Ufrek sprang into action, taking out half the Drones, and Grave Mistake blasted the others with a beam of darkness, unfortunately blasting Ufrek in the process, dropping him to 1 wound remaining. The Gift runs to the group of War spheres, handing them a grenade, and teleporting into the nearest cell, looking for Mind Jack.

A few explosions later, and the prisoner who wasn't Mind Jack is dead, and the crew are taking out the war spheres left and right. The last few Drones get cleaned up, and the last Sphere drops. Eventually they learn the Powered prisoners are in a different wing.

They find Mindjack, but decide to set the other prisoners free, to sew chaos and deprive the Fins of their catch.

Not the most chaos, but a good session. Ufrek declared they would be the Alpha Omega cell, and ... next session.

[sometimeskaiju]

We're about to start a Necessary Evil Campaign, and so I wanted to cover the characters in this game. The PCs, the NPCs will come up organically. Now, other read throughs I have read and groups on Facebook that talk about this campaign have all had what I would say are fairly normal, evil human who has superpowers batman or the flash style villains. But not my group of chaos goblins.

We start with the seemingly normal "The Gift".

The Gift, or Carl as he usually goes, teleports. This sounds pretty normal right? No. Carl explodes when he teleports, or rather, the concussive force of the spontaneous displacement... look, he has a Damage Field that's Permanent, but also Contingent on Teleport, so he can't not explode on tele-- I'm not getting into the rules but teleport makes explode. So when he activates his teleport the equivalent of a grenade goes off hurting everything and everyone in the area. And no, he can't choose not to hurt things or people, so he can't like, teleport to the hostage or teleport you out of danger. Oh, and his weapon of choice? He throws grenades.

Then alphabetically we have Glocktopus. A genetically engineered gun toting Octopus. Literally an octopus with telepathy, guns, aand some disguise as human skills, like Octodad but also al Capone. I don't remember whether he always walks on 2 tentacles aand has 6 guns, or usually has 8.

Then Grave Mistake, a cursed necromancer who summons zombies and has bad luck powers, causing people to make mistakes and also machines to break but also he is throwing zombies at you. He may be the least insane.

Next is Major Zen'cha. The Major is a slug like alien which came to Earth to conquer it, only to have his thunder stolen when the V'Sori conquered it first. Bad timing. So he has a super suit that looks like a human but is nigh indestructible. Zen'cha isn't the fiercest in combat, but he is quite the tank and skill monkey (skill sluggy). All of his points went into being skilled and smart, aand all of his powers went into being hard to kill.

And finally, Ufrek. Ufrek is a malleable silvery robot, think the T1000 from T2 except it's always shiny silver and never has a color. Ufrek turns it's body into blades and spikes and has no ethics or morals, and is really really good at close combat. He is a Cuisinart with legs.

So that's it. That's my crew, as it stands now.

Right now they're in a V'Sori prison being transported to a lab, where some of them will be dissected and others will simply be destroyed.

But unbeknownst to them (but beknownst to us!), Baron Blade has a mighty need for exactly the kind of distraction our Protagonists can provide!

Wait? Baron Blade? Like from Sentinels of the Multiverse? Yes. I'm setting this particular iteration of Necessary Evil: Invasion in the SotM universe, which mostly means changing a few NPC names.

[sometimeskaiju]

Some thoughts I had while a friend and I were brainstorming Amnesiac abilities for use on a specific script (I won't name which script because the game we are prepping hasn't happened)

We ended up discussing what made abilities suitable for a script, and eventually just started tossing out Amne abilities and eventually I made this whole screed.

Amnesiac Ability

general Amnesiac Ability design guidelines

 • Amensiac is a townsfolk so their abilities should be beneficial for the good team, and if they cause death, drunkenness, or other harmful effects, they should be "confirmation" abilities similar to Virgin or Sailor.

 • Abilities should be proportionally difficult to guess with their potential impact - low impact abilities should be easier to guess than higher impact abilities.

 • Passive abilities one may not control should be a little more obvious than active abilities, and thus more guessable. Passive abilities might be considered less fun my many players, so a little added power helps there, too. Knowing, eventually, that you're a key role and your ability is impactful is fun.

 • Once per Game abilities should be powerful, as with the Slayer, as guessability will be difficult.

Abilities that end the game, as with Slayer, should be used with caution or be harder to guess, but aren't necessarily bad abilities. The risk of them "going off" and ending the game before the riddle of the ability is solved is high, however, and that is less fun, so be careful when using these.

 • Not every Amne ability idea is suitable for every game and I understand this. These are ideas that i think might work on appropriate scripts, not a list to just roll a d20 and pick at random. A ST should know which abilities complement the script they are running and mesh well. an Amnesiac who interacts with madness where no other madness exists not only confirms pretty quickly but is super guessable, but if lots if players are claiming madness, it is slightly harder to be guess and doesn't confirm the Amnesiac player as quickly. Further, Some abilities are fine in many games, but just shouldn't be chosen in some Grimoires (example: there's one below that kills the Amnesiac's neighbor when the Amne would die. Its not a good idea to give that ability to an Amne that neighbors the demon, but fine in most other cases, with Townsfolk, minion, or outsider neighbors. It might even be ok in a Lleech game, or Zombuul. The point is, think about the impact of the ability on your specific Grim before settling on an ability)

 • Where a ST has a choice, like choosing a word or choosing which player dies, etc. I assume any ST comfortable using an Amnesiac is clever enough to choose interesting words (such as "toothbrush", "dolphin", or "inferno" and not "of", "claimed", or "nominate") or that they are experienced enough to make fun and sensible decisions (not letting the Amne kill the demon because they chose the demon in the "choose two players, one of them dies" on night one, for example)

 • Note also that an Amne ability "works" even if they don't know what that ability is, they just may not understand what they did. Once Per Game abilities should be considered carefully for the group and script before being chosen.

all of that said, these are abilities I have seen used, or read online, or brainstormed with friends. These are presented with the idea that they might inspire your ideas, or give you an idea if you are stumped. Some sound a little like variants on Travelers, or riffs on a different role, and they might be. Even in a game of Oops All Amnesiacs you probably shouldn't just use this list for everyone.

Information Gathering

These are abilities potentially suitable for scripts where drunkenness and poisoning are common or information is otherwise rare or unreliable. These abilities are slightly stronger than most information townsfolk, because guessing the ability is crucial to understanding what you learned.

 •  You start knowing a word. Once per game at night, You learn the alignment of the first player other than you to say it in town square.

 • On the first night, a player is made your Target. Each night choose a player. If you chose your target, you learn their role.

 • On the first night, a player is made your Target. Each night choose a player. If you chose your target, they learn your role.

 •  Each night choose a player. you learn how many of their neighbours are good.

 • Each night choose a player. you learn a role that they are not.

 •  Each night choose a character, you learn whether that character is in play.

Protection

These are abilities potentially suitable for scripts where there are many sources of death or poisoning/drunkenness. These abilities are powerful by their nature, and the passive ones are even better. These might be tricky to guess, as a balance. They still function, though, even if the Amne doesnt know what they do, so be careful when you're using one of these. if the script doesnt offer much protection, these would confirm the Amnesiac (although hard confirmation isn't always bad, it does need to be considered whether you want that potential)

 •  If there are 5 or more players alive and you would die, you don't.

 • Each night, choose a player. If the evil team chooses that player at night for any reason, the evil player(s) becomes drunk until dusk. You learn that the player was targeted.

 • Good players only die when executed if you voted for the execution. Good players not killed this way die when you die.

 • Each Night Choose a player, any effect that targets that player or their role targets you instead. (note this doesn't impact information abilities, as those are not effects. a Dreamer doesn't learn you if they atrgeted your choice, but a poisoner poisons you instead)

 • On the first night, choose a player. The first time they would die, you die instead.

 • Your neighbors cannot be drunk or poisoned by any means and they learn true information. (recluse, spy does not misregister etc.)

 • Each night choose a player different from the last night. A minion, if chosen, does not wake to use their ability.

 • Each night* choose two players, one of whom might die. If one of them died, the demon doesn't kill tonight unless they chose you.

vote/nomination and death manipulation

These are abilities potentially suitable for games with fearmongers, witches, viziers, or even goblins, boomdandies, virgins, or any other vote-nomination interaction already. Spicy abilities, use carefully.

 • Each night choose a player. Until dusk, if they are good their vote counts as two. If they are evil, their vote does not count.

 • Good players only die when executed if you voted for the execution. Good players not killed this way die when you die.(probably don't use this if there's an undertaker or cannibal)

 •  Good players only die when executed if you voted for the execution. Good players not killed this way die the following night, regardless of whether there were other executions.

 • Once per game, at night* ,choose a dead player. They resurrect immediately and may use a not in play townsfolk ability, but are executed and die at dusk.

 • If you would be executed, you survive and an alive neighbor is executed instead.(yes if the demon is the only alive neighbor, this ends the game. pretty powerful and could be hard to guess if the other neighbor was unable to be used as "evidence". Don't choose this ability if the demon is the Amne neighbor, it might be unsatisfying for both teams)

 • Each night choose a player, one of their neighbors may die tonight. If they do, they are the only player that can die tonight.

Madness

These are abilities most likely suitable for games where madness is an important mechanic

 • A minion is mad that they are a minion.

 •  On the first night, choose a character. Each Night, the first player to target you with an ability becomes mad that they are that character

 • Each night, chose a player. If they are good, they are mad that they are good. If they are evil they are mad that they are evil.

[sometimeskaiju]

I don't know how to tell the Warhammer bloggers that I don't want to be dragged into their fascist machine fetishist role play.

I think many of them are queer people in stem(so am I), but when you start reblogging random posts with stuff like "Heresy!", "Chaos Propaganda", and "The Omnissiah preserves!", you sound like a fundamentalist Christian who wants to fuck his truck.

I'm not trying to shame anyone for being a fan of 40k(I like some media related to it). However, you have to consider how aggressive and annoying you sound when you respond to personal writing and theology by branding someone a heretic deserving of death. Just maybe be more respectful when reblogging stuff that isn't about your minatures game, please.

So, I guess if you're a 40k blog or have 40k blogs following you, I'd appreciate it if you reblogged this to spread the news and help set a better precedent in your community.

[sometimeskaiju]

This needs to be edited to include Tennant's reappearance as 14 and Gatwa as ..15? 14.2?

[sometimeskaiju]

Suletta Mercury + Textposts

Give this girl a break!

Extra:

Obligatory text post.