Latest from the Creator
PROJECT UPDATE
Project Update: Behind the scenes: How I stopped worrying and learned to love the first round
Classic social deduction games like Werewolf/Mafia have one key issue that keeps everyone from playing– lack of information. Many modern social deduction games have introduced systems and mechanics that allow hints of who might be on who’s side through loyalty testing. Every time I start playtesting Swords at Dusk, I've gotten used to the first round where everyone opens their eyes and everyone has no idea what to do.
In order to avoid that awkward first round early on, I decided to have a “Seer” role to try and give the game some form of information; it like the obvious fix. However, giving perfect information to one person and hoping that information gets disseminated throughout the rest of the group is kind of a trap– not everyone is a good seer. I would venture to say that most of us suck at being Seer, and let’s be real, if there’s only one “Bad” guy in the group, what does the seer do with their power after they find the killer?
At some point, I decided that this was not a bad thing, because as soon as the wounds start stacking up, everyone starts talking, so I decided to embrace the awkward silence as a part of the genre, and at the end of the day, nobody remembers the first round of Mafia, they remember the twists and turns that come after hurting a few people.
But I do wonder, when faced with an awkward first round of any social deduction game, what's your first move? I'd love to hear from you in the comments.
At some point, I decided that this was not a bad thing, because as soon as the wounds start stacking up, everyone starts talking, so I decided to embrace the awkward silence as a part of the genre, and at the end of the day, nobody remembers the first round of Mafia, they remember the twists and turns that come after hurting a few people.
But I do wonder, when faced with an awkward first round of any social deduction game, what's your first move? I'd love to hear from you in the comments.
PROJECT UPDATE
Project Update: 20 Backers! Woo!
Thank you so much to all 20 of you, who saw this game and decided to give it a chance. It might not seem like a lot of folks in comparison to my extremely optimistic goal, but whenever I wake up and check on the campaign, seeing a new name that I don't recognize is the best feeling. It means that you all took enough of a liking to my project to invest in it, and that's what's been keeping me going the past week or so as I obsessively the project page while on break between teaching classes.
So thank you. Here's to celebrating more milestones before the campaign ends!
More post-mortem-y stuff coming before the end of the week this week.
So thank you. Here's to celebrating more milestones before the campaign ends!
More post-mortem-y stuff coming before the end of the week this week.
Includes Backer-Exclusive Content
PROJECT UPDATE
Project Update: Demo event in NYC this weekend!
Hey folks, apologies for not updating yesterday like I promised, the semester's started and yesterday was my first day of teaching and all the running around getting things set up wiped me out.
First off, the answer to last update's answer is that there are only 3 roles because it was easiest to test three roles in a game that's 4 or more players. Every roles gets an equal amount of testing, and it's a lot easier to adjust any interactions between roles without upsetting the balance too much on other roles.
More importantly though, if you're in the New York City area, I'm hosting a demo of Swords at Dusk over at Hex and Co. East Sunday evening. It's free to play Swords at Dusk, but it'll cost you if you decide to hang around and play other board games as well. I'll be providing free teatime refreshments for anyone who comes by.
RSVP on Partiful so I can figure out how much tea I should brew!
First off, the answer to last update's answer is that there are only 3 roles because it was easiest to test three roles in a game that's 4 or more players. Every roles gets an equal amount of testing, and it's a lot easier to adjust any interactions between roles without upsetting the balance too much on other roles.
More importantly though, if you're in the New York City area, I'm hosting a demo of Swords at Dusk over at Hex and Co. East Sunday evening. It's free to play Swords at Dusk, but it'll cost you if you decide to hang around and play other board games as well. I'll be providing free teatime refreshments for anyone who comes by.
RSVP on Partiful so I can figure out how much tea I should brew!
PROJECT UPDATE
Project Update: Behind the Scenes: Creating the roles
I didn’t know about Blood on the Clocktower when I started making Swords at Dusk. Actually, I never played Blood on the Clocktower until like, this summer. However, very much like that game, I started out twisting the original Werewolf formula the way many designers start modifying that style of game– making a whole lotta roles with special powers and watching them bounce off each other.
While brainstorming all these cool roles and seeing them in action was fun, it was hard to keep track of them all, Even for me, and I made the thing. Obviously, something needed to change; So in the next iteration, I cherrypicked the best performing (and personal favorite) mechanics from all these roles, and ended mixing them together into the three roles you see today:
The Killer has more or less stayed the same since the game was made.
The Admirer took the Storyteller's Shame, but otherwise has remained the same.
The Noble has the "Dramatic reveal" that the Coward had, and I added the Wallflower's win condition. A lot of times, the Fool role often stuck players in that "Critical decision" scenario I wanted to play out with The Detective, and I figured it would be easier and more flexible just to make
I chose these three because the most interesting stories often involved certain roles over others. Over time, I would see many different ways to play each role, and start weeding out mechanics or roles that felt like they weren't adding anything. At the end, cutting and combining these roles allowed my game to be easier to pick up, and that having a bunch of "special" roles wasn't needed to keep a social deduction game interesting.
The Killer has more or less stayed the same since the game was made.
The Admirer took the Storyteller's Shame, but otherwise has remained the same.
The Noble has the "Dramatic reveal" that the Coward had, and I added the Wallflower's win condition. A lot of times, the Fool role often stuck players in that "Critical decision" scenario I wanted to play out with The Detective, and I figured it would be easier and more flexible just to make
I chose these three because the most interesting stories often involved certain roles over others. Over time, I would see many different ways to play each role, and start weeding out mechanics or roles that felt like they weren't adding anything. At the end, cutting and combining these roles allowed my game to be easier to pick up, and that having a bunch of "special" roles wasn't needed to keep a social deduction game interesting.
However, early on in playtesting I discovered why I should cut back on "special" roles in the game, and it's the main reason there’s only three special roles in the game, what do you think that reason might be?
Curious about what "Stars" and "Clovers" the prototype card mentions? Think I should've kept one of my original roles? Let me know in the comments!
If you don't want to wait until next week for the answer, backers get the answer right away...
Curious about what "Stars" and "Clovers" the prototype card mentions? Think I should've kept one of my original roles? Let me know in the comments!
If you don't want to wait until next week for the answer, backers get the answer right away...
Includes Backer-Exclusive Content
PROJECT UPDATE
Project Update: Whoops!
It looks like my crowdfund was unpublished, so if you're seeing this, don't panic! It should be fixed quickly.
Edit: Having received the update email, I realize how panic-inducing the headline is. Don't worry, I'm not in trouble, I may have accidentally enrolled this project in a beta thing, but that beta thing rescheduled my project's date, but I've emailed Backerkit and hopefully they'll resolve this quickly.
Edit edit: Fixed!
-- Oliver
Edit: Having received the update email, I realize how panic-inducing the headline is. Don't worry, I'm not in trouble, I may have accidentally enrolled this project in a beta thing, but that beta thing rescheduled my project's date, but I've emailed Backerkit and hopefully they'll resolve this quickly.
Edit edit: Fixed!
-- Oliver
Includes Backer-Exclusive Content