Halloween Hard Mode
Notes
Because of photoshopped homebrew elements, the PDF is what you need to look at here. Weâve been enjoying this advanced script at live games in the DC area in fall 2024. It makes for memorable games with lots of character changes and character change bluffsâwild, fun games, not necessarily strongly solvable puzzles. Like for any script featuring lots of Storyteller discretion, an experienced Storyteller who knows what their players like is recommended. The script is themed around Halloween costumes and is intended to be difficult for both the good and evil teams. There are two homebrew elements on the script. The first is The Great Pumpkin Fabled. When this Fabled is in play, the Storyteller will declare one day and night of the game to be Halloween. Spooky stuff happens on Halloween! The Storyteller might resurrect the dead on Halloween night and might change playersâ characters (but not their alignments) to represent the costumes we don for the holiday. This can be done to help with game balance and to give players something fun to do for the second half of the game. In a 15-player game, I recommend 3-4 character changes and 1-2 resurrections and recommend declaring Halloween to occur on about Day 3-4. Be flexible on when it occurs and be ready to change your plans if one team gets too far ahead in the game early. Make sure you keep or put some roles in play to enable the good team to detect evil/solve the puzzle and keep or put some roles in play to help evil dodge suspicion. The normal way to play Halloween is to limit character swaps to characters on the script. The better way to run it is (during setup) to ask the players if they are up for canon off-script characters to be able to be swapped in on Halloween night. The latter (which is how I run it in DC) will make for a memorable experience and fun bluffs. And remember, good people often dress up as evil monsters on Halloween, so it is fair game to create a good Minion or a good Demon if you can think of ways to balance that decision. The second homebrew element on the script is the Trick-or-Treater, a character who starts off as one thing but turns into something else part of the way through the game and needs to try to figure out whether they have changed. It was inspired by the Drunk, Lunatic, and Marionette and extends similar concepts to someone who thinks they are (and begins the game as) a Minion. The Trick-or-Treater is like a little kid who takes their Halloween costume a bit too seriously and wishes to retain a cool monster identity even after October. ⢠During setup, if the Storyteller decides to include the Trick-or-Treater, they replace 1 Townsfolk token with +1 Minion. ⢠The extra Minion is evil and in all respects a Minion for the first part of the game. ⢠At some point during the game, the Storyteller will declare that it is Halloween. When Halloween night ends, the Storyteller changes one living Minion into the good Trick-or-Treater BUT DOES NOT TELL THEM THIS. ⢠The player who has changed will continue being treated by the Storyteller as a Minion, but their ability will no longer function. For example, a Poisoner-turned-Trick-or-Treater will continue being awoken each subsequent night to âpoisonâ someone, but the poison will have no effect. ⢠Dead Minions cannot turn into the Trick-or-Treater (because if theyâre dead, their character ability no longer functions to make them change). So, cautious Minions might seek to get themselves killed early in the game to be certain of their alignment. But of course, the Storyteller can also resurrect players on Halloween night to mess with that strategy. The Storytellerâs objective should be to keep the starting Minions guessing for as long as possible about who has turned. They will have to listen to information provided by the rest of town to figure out who is and who is not registering as evil. A Boffin ability can also help the Demon determine which initial teammate has turned good. The big advantage that a Trick-or-Treater can provide town is knowledge of who the other evil players are. This is a huge advantage, but it is mitigated by uncertainty over whether the Trick-or-Treater has actually turned good. It is also mitigated by the presence of the Magician, Recluse, Summoner, Marionette, and Snake Charmer on the scrip, all of which can make the evil players see incorrect or incomplete or obfuscated things during the Minion Info/Demon Info stages of Night 1. These possibilities will make the evil team cautious about coordinating with one another. If the Storyteller puts the Trick-or-Treater in play, they should use some combination of those other characters (or other Halloween night character change shenanigans) to ensure that a Trick-or-Treater who figures out their alignment change cannot reveal the evil players to town with total certainty. Specific character interaction advice: ⢠If you put in play an off-script character that gets to select other characters by pointing to the script, the choices available are limited to what can be pointed to on the script. So for example, if you create an Ojo on Halloween night, they wonât be able to target any other off-script characters that you put in play at the same time. This is perfectly fine, the Storyteller just needs to account for it. In fact, you can do some fun things with itâlike maybe you want to create a good Ojo plus an off-script evil Demon⦠⢠I find that the King and Choirboy are ineffective on most other scripts, but they can shine on this script. They can be resurrected on Halloween night to help the King gets some info late in the game or to help the Choirboy get a second chance for the King to get killed by the Demon. And if they donât manage to fire, their players can always be given different characters on Halloween night for the second half of the game.