Player Perspective - Poppy Paranoia

Prepare for 90 minutes of relentless stress.
Storyteller for this game: Aggie P
The Garden Path character sheet here: i.imgur.com/SaOutCY.png
Join us for the streams over at / thepandemoniuminstitute
Find out more at bloodontheclocktower.com/
Intro visuals created by Jon from Luke & Dad Productions / @vfx_jon
Intro music - Private Reflection Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
creativecommons.org/licenses/b...
Other music by Karl Casey ‪@WhiteBatAudio‬

[@couchpot1298]

jams panicking over possible being marionette in the game chat while ben talks about potato waffles is peak clocktower

[@12kd3]

😊😮😊

[@GeniusLad32]

Choosing not to mute yourself on discord at night is a brave decision. I can only imagine at some point you'll be thrown back into the town square without realising while monologuing about your evil plan.

[@nicolai9595]

When nicky on day 1 asked Ben if he was his demon, that read sus as hell, because that seemed like nicky knew there was a poppy grower in play.

[@whocares2277]

I guess Ben just missed that. He later said no minion came to him, but the minion-turned-demon was always there.

[@EllieElfee]

It's a testament to how simple mistakes in this game can unravel everything because Ben could have had this one DAY ONE I was literally screaming at my screen. The second Nicky went "are you my demon" he all but confirmed he was a minion which was a massive error, I don't know that anyone would have believed Ben or that he could have told the town that without basically confirming himself as poppygrower but I have never been so frustrated by something so simply overlooked

[@patters]

this is one of my favourite games in recent memory

[@mrmalaki]

:O Patters from PattersTTV :O one of my favourite people in recent memory.

[@kyleb8117]

That was "Tripoli" entertaining.

[@vincenturquhart1370]

what high praise

[@MonkeyMonkeyJoeJoe]

I had an e-mail notification pop up on my screen right at 1:09:34 and then got incredibly weirded out when the players started talking about the sound that my notification made.

[@GQSmoos]

I watched this one live but I needed to rewatch because Patters is too funny

[@LifeUntilLove]

Great game! I love playing along with Ben, especially when he isn't evil.

[@gingergamer3270]

As a Melbourne resident, I have to say that Canberra was made the capital to stop Melbourne and Sydney fighting and it changed nothing. The beef still exists and no one knows about Canberra

[@GordonHugenay]

That was a big mistake by Nicky, saying that he got marionette. This would have implied that Jams/Reznora were AH/Marionette, even though Jams was a confirmed mayor.

[@fawful9992]

It could also mean that someone was a marionette and their demon had passed it on to the SW.

[@RedMinion5051]

Oh, this game. One of the few games I've seen on Twitch. This is insane.

[@lichhand]

Coming to this video a little late but, I got my copy of BOTC. And, wow. Incredible quality from the components to the artwork. Stoked!

[@thetaerdin]

I love this game. Also Grolen has such a nice voice

[@samplename5159]

i knew nothing as if i was poppygrown! :) wow i totally believed Patters amnesiac day one (because i wanted to, as i found a nice ability guess) and started to build a fun world around it. if only Roxxi claiming to have amnesiac ability of changing the demon outcome wasn't by ockham's razor far more likely... but i stuck with it and had a really nice time! Patters amnesiac: cryptic al-hadikhia gravedigger with letter count 1. tripoli = 7 = lunatic (Alejo), stockholm = 9 = godfather (Malashan) 2. ottowa = 6 = oracle/farmer/damsel/goblin (Roxxi) - guessed oracle in that world, mayor bounce from Simon 3. canberra = 8 = hutsman/choirboy (Skillz) - starts to fall apart as i believed the noble claim, but then Patryk oracle 2 works with godfather+goblin! ...except i started to believe Patryk to be mezepheles as i remembered Jams trying very hard to joke about forgetting his secret word on day one (used "heresy" in a suspicious sentence, evil mayor bouncing to mezepheles when evil is winning works? but then i have 2 mayors, and claiming king rules out pixie mayor); Patters seemingly gave up on amnesiac bluff :( it is also just like Aggie to tell Nicky, Patters' marionette King, that there is an alive marionette; but wait there it is! 4. tokyo = 5 = noble/pixie/klutz (Patryk) the dream is alive, day one roleswap with Skillz... no not really,.

[@lucduchien]

Good game. Entertaining to the end.

[@ganema9]

My first and only game as Poppy Grower was also in a Al-Hadikhia and Mezepheles game. I turned evil at some point and chose to die. I never learned my team, but I won in the end with a gambled vote. Spoiler: Towards the end of this game, I kinda believed that Rez was Alejo's Marionette and Alejo made a first night gamble as Al-Hadikhia to find the evil team and give the role to a Scarlet Woman (without knowing if there really was one) and Patters was the Scarlet Woman claiming Goblin. I was so wrong..

[@ragerequiem6323]

Late to watching this, but thanks for the entertaining content. And choosing potato pancakes/waffles is the most correct choice, in my opinion

[@hillrp1]

Oh, nice end slate. I don't know if that's new or I just haven't been paying attention. But it looks good

[@Pyropardus]

I'm with Aggie, Mayor should be able to pick death and bounce the death to another player, or else they're an outsider. I would also put soldier in that too. But I'd throw in the idea that a soldier in an Al-Hadikhin requires something like a poisoner on the script.

[@alchemicpink2392]

I mean if all live, all die applying to characters surviving is a more than sensible rule, normally the Soldier play style is making your presence just noticable enough that you can catch a kill and disrupt Evil's gameflow and a lot of the time they don't get hit at all. This way, the Soldier becomes a knowable quantity for other players in the choice, incentivising a choice of death to slow down the slaughter. With mayor, sure, they get weaker with an AH in play, but the same goes for Mayors sat next to a No-Dashii, being in a widow/spy game, bluffing as fine to drink with when talking to a sailor or as protection worthy to an Innkeeper, or even outing to a poisoner by fluke on day 1, achieving the Mayor wincon in a game where the Heretic's turned evil, etc etc etc. Point being, yeah, it working like that can feel bad in the moment, but in terms of game health overall it's fine.

[@ianeggleston9991]

I found out about this game after the release and placed an order, does anyone have an idea on timeframe for delivery for non Kickstarters?

[@bernard832]

The excellent food history channel Tasting History with Max Miller just did an episode on French toast. The earliest recipe is from Apicius, a 5th century Roman cookbook. It started showing up again in medieval cookbooks all over Europe. In France, it's called pain perdu. The first English recipes also called it pain perdu, probably due to the Norman French court culture. In most Germanic languages, it's called poor knights. The first English recipe calling it French toast was from 1660, but basically a different dish.

[@rambler209]

Ben, have you tried any of the Co-Op LCGs from Fantasy Flight? They are all pretty fun, and give a lot of that Deck Building feel.

[@LG02380]

Wow, I found so much out so much about Ben, I was born in Mansfield and work in Alfreton 😅

[@Denzarki]

top floor apartment heat, i know that feeling.. 11 years living on the 21st floor which was sun facing in the afternoon til sunset, when it was 39 outside it got to 36 inside even with tinfoil on the windows to try and reflect the heat away it was unbearable.. this year was my first year in my new house and even though it wasn't that bad of a summer in terms of heat, the difference is night and day because even cool days would get too hot in the flat

[@MrDrAron]

Can someone explain me why Simon/Nicky ALWAYS picked exactly one player who already stated they are willing to die? Doing so they made sure that they never got a tripple kill and always kept Ben alive which makes no sense at all??

[@simonpryor877]

I can’t speak for Nicky but I was definitely hoping to get a triple kill and wasn’t aware if anyone was loudly claiming that they were willing to die.

[@kyleb8117]

Pretty easy explanation: we had perfect info and they didn't. I've played in games where people stated something blatantly in public and I didn't catch it. It happens. People can also bluff they're willing to die (or vice versa) to mess with Al-Had. But yeah, with how much goes on in those games, good luck catching everything everyone says while also trying to solve the game in your head or think of what you want to do/say.

[@wordsonplay]

Tsk. Ben broke the "each *silently* choses to live or die" rule on night 3 by announcing his choice in chat.

[@wordsonplay]

Also, I believe the AH's choices are supposed to be announced to all players before any of them make a choice, so you can use that info when making your decision whether to live or die, however the Wiki is unclear about this.

[@mrmalaki]

@@wordsonplay The rule is that you announce them in order so, the demon picks three then the ST says "The demon has chosen Ben first - Ben please choose live or die...The demon has chosen Skilz second - Skilz please choose live or die..." So Ben wouldn't know anything, Skilz would know Ben was first, and the third player knows both players that came before.

[@TheLastSane1]

Ben, have you tried the deck building D&D campaign? Also I got mine copy and I totally forgot I had backed it because it was awhile ago. I love it I have it sitting next to my monitor right now so I can see it every single day. I adore it thank you all so much you guys did an amazing job.

[@solforgeabel8812]

Hey, what do you mean with deck building D&D campaign. I’m a big fan of both deck building and D&D so was wondering what it is

[@TheLastSane1]

@@solforgeabel8812 There are boardgames where you start with a small character deck and as you play you build up your character deck over the turns allowing you more access to items, special attacks, etc.

[@rambler209]

Are you talking about Dragonfire? I really like that one.

[@TheLastSane1]

@@rambler209 Yeah I posted a link to it and somehow KZbin ate it. It had like where to buy it and a video how to play it thought it would explain

[@davidbigby7685]

There was a Woolworth in Montana in the 80s

[@jamessloan_tech]

Woolies on Australia is a supermarket - very confused what yours was like haha

[@simonpryor877]

It was a high street store that sold a bit of everything. Sweets, toys, CDs etc. but not much of anything as Ben said

[@MrChrisxny]

Woolworth was a thing in US. But then im old called the 5 and dime here

[@JackiJinx]

Tripoli!

[@NovaStalker]

If Jams isn't evil I hope we find out how they constructed the worst day 1 accusation I've ever heard.

[@fortissimou257]

Ah me goolies

[@digitalharmony26]

As a Canberran, everyone assumes our capital is Sydney…some special folks think it’s Melbourne, we know by now we’re nothing special. No tourist wants to visit us either 😅 every comedian or band will skip Canberra in their Australian tour too. We’re so used to being ignored, it’s fine 😂

[@darbyl3872]

Where can we find the jinxes for newer characters? I want to ST some games with a few of them.

[@BloodontheClocktower]

If you go to the Script Tool, putting two jinxed characters on the script will bring up an icon under any jinxed characters. Hovering over that icon or exporting the script to pdf will show you what the jinx is. (For a fun time, lock only 'Riot' into the script and then hit 'Randomize' - see how many jinxes you can get.) script.bloodontheclocktower.com/

[@darbyl3872]

@@BloodontheClocktower I love Riot. It's a... yeah. Veiled looks fun too. Thanks

[@jussisaurio]

I haven't played BOTC a lot yet, but the Poppygrower seems like a really overpowered character. Am I wrong about that?

[@mrmalaki]

It can be, it depends on the script and how it's played by the player. If they try and hide and get in to a conflict with a confirmed player then it can go south quickly. It's also a really good role to bluff as for an evil player, to make players consider different social aspects of the game. I'd say it's very strong, but not overpowered.

[@ronnie3044]

I watched the bad review posted on KZbin. Well not really a review but whatever. No offense to the guy. But everything he had issues with boils down to him being socially awkward. He admits he’s an introvert and doesn’t like dealing with a bunch of strangers. So why did he go to a convention to play a board game? He shouldn’t have even put BOTC in the title. 99% of the video had nothing to do with the game. I’m genuinely confused as hell how anyone could make that video titles that way or why someone who knows they are socially awkward would sign up for a convention. I don’t like mayo. So I don’t order mayo on anything. I wouldn’t order a sandwich with mayo on it and then use that as a reason to be negative towards the business. Maybe I’m just an asshole. But I honestly don’t understand how anyone could have the logic of that person. And that’s not me bashing the person. He seems like a nice guy who enjoys board games. But all his disappointment should be pointed towards himself for signing up for something he should’ve known he wouldn’t enjoy.

[@kyleweeks2941]

It also didn't help that his first game was with a full 20 players and in a very noisy convention setting.

[@diamondsky3787]

totally agree

[@josephjoestar3631]

Ben talking about British cities. He could literally just name a city that sounds real and any American would be like "Oh okay, Darbingtonsville is a totally real city. Oh Calabria is a city, I never knew that. Oh wow never heard of Petagotown"

[@Nos4a2ed]

ive got my grim and its gorgious

[@RenewedRS]

I'd been telling people about that Name Day thing for the last week or so and now rewatching this I realise where I stole my anecdote from. Thanks Aggie. P.S. I have a twin sister and her name day is on our actual birthday. Sucks to suck!

[@cheezymcwang8431]

They kept talking about people coming back and it being part of the Al-Hadikhia ability. Am I just thick? Because I can't see that info anywhere on the script.

[@RenewedRS]

The Al-Hadikhia's ability literally says you can choose to live or die. A targeted dead player can choose live.

[@TheLastSane1]

If an Al-Hadikhia chooses a dead player, and they choose life and someone else of the three choses death they can be brought back to life. The thing is even if a Dead player chooses to die, it will still kill the other two if they they both choose to live (because a dead player cannot die so does not meet the requirements of the ability) so a Demon can actually pick their killed minions and revive them.

[@Steev42]

Thanks for asking. I was wondering the same thing. And I've seen an Al-Hadikhia game before.

[@Dragoninja26]

@@TheLastSane1 the first part is true but I'm pretty sure if a dead player chooses death they don't count as living for "if all 3 live, all 3 die"

[@TheLastSane1]

@@Dragoninja26 what I mean is if a dead player chooses death and two live players choose life from what I’ve heard that would mean both loving players would die because none of them picked death

[@afp75]

that "butter" isn't

[@GordonHugenay]

54:37, certainly it's illegal to write in the game chat that you choose to live, after you've been picked by the Al-Hadhikia, isn't it? I mean, in this case it didn't make much of a difference, since Ben already said this very clearly during the day, but it's still wrong.

[@mrmalaki]

Technically yes. I'd put it as similar to a Butler who voted against their master's wishes - glare at them with disapointment and warn them not to do it again.

[@peterptchronic9696]

Canberra is where our parliament is, it's a capital city in name only tbh. Most people accept either Sydney or Melbourne as our proper major cities.

[@darbyl3872]

So, obviously, capital city has various definitions. Seat of government makes the most sense, otherwise they are "largest cities", IMO. That was an entertaining bluff.

[@tegxi]

why is there a jinx/fabled related to dead players reviving? is that just in case the amnesiac gets a revival ability or am I missing something terribly obvious after rereading the script several times

[@alchemicpink2392]

There isn't such a Fabled. The Spirit of Ivory prevents more than one evil player in addition to the current evils being created when the reminder token is put down. Keeps the Amne from tunneling, makes any evil traveller inclusion contingent on the Mezepheles not being in-play. Sees most frequent use in scripts with both a Mez and Bounty Hunter or Fang Gu.

[@tegxi]

@@alchemicpink23920:28 suggests it's related to resurrected mezepheles oh. al hadikhia. since I left this comment I learned it can revive dead players

[@zenthr]

Al Hadikia could choose dead players. If they choose life, they come back (unless all live). If they meet the Mestepholese, they could conspire for more words

[@SMG_Games]

Sorry what freaking cinema are you going to never seen a damn butter fountain. Also Ben no one eats chicken and waffles regularly for breakfast. Its a novelty.