Is there anything you can’t do in Minecraft? From working computers to pilotable bomber planes, the block-based game seems to have moved on a little bit from the days when I was trying to figure out the right pattern of sand and gunpowder to make TNT*. You can even use it to play Blood on the Clocktower!
Quite possibly the best social deduction game of all time has been brought to Minecraft. There seems to be more than one version out there on the interwebs, but I’ve been particularly interested in the way British Youtube group The Yogscast has been tweaking the format to perform feats only possible in the cubist world of Minecraft.
While its hard to read a Steve’s facial expressions and body language, it’s amazing what new possibilities open up when you take a game that’s usually played sitting in one room and bring it to virtual space, specifically within a sandbox video game like Minecraft.
A recent episode, for instance, sees a Wizard – a rather experimental Blood on the Clocktower character who (theoretically) has the power to wish for anything they want – turn every player into a sheep. They ask to hide nameplates and fill the map with bleating bovids as well, making it very difficult for anyone to work out who they’re talking to – or indeed whether they’re conversing with another player or an NPC mob.
Then there’s the Amnesiac. Even in regular Blood on the Clocktower, this character is a great opportunity for the storyteller running the game to get creative, but here the Yogscast has again used the Minecraft backdrop to its fullest.
The idea with the Amnesiac role is they are given a unique power by the storyteller, and have to work out what it is through trial and error – hopefully quite quickly, in order to be of any use to the town before their inevitable demise. But in one of the games in this series, the unique Amnesiac role involves tracking down items in Minecraft chests hidden throughout the map.
Blood on the Clocktower is one of the best board games of all time – If you’re still unfamiliar, our Blood on the Clocktower review will explain why it’s time to change that. It perfects the deduction genre by fixing some of its weaknesses and adding loads of variety. It’s awesome to see how fans are taking this game and making it their own, whether with their own homebrewed scripts and roles, or by porting it into another video game.
It should be said that the Yogscast’s Blood on the Clocktower Minecraft map, apparently made in collaboration with the Lonely Yogs Discord, is a work of art as well, featuring cute little houses for players to sleep in at night, and various town buildings in which to plot.
If you want to share your favorite board games, or even join us in our own BotC sessions, you should head over to our Discord. You might also enjoy reading about the best strategy board games or couples board games in our super duper (I admittedly am a little biased) guides.
* This was a great babysitting trick, by the way. In the 2010s, pretty much any 8-10 year old would go to bed with zero fuss if you promised to teach them the secret to Minecraft bomb-making.
Source: Wargamer
