It was called "Werwolf" and I hated it so much that I stopped participating after one game IIRC (I was very fun at parties).
Reading up on it, it drew from the mentioned "Mafia" idea mentioned here.
Would have never known, interesting submission.
For me running it (i.e. Being the "god", the narrrator etc.) is much more fun in such a context, as it's more about storytelling.
The main problem is that the game is quite unfun for the first 2-3 days: it's basically impossible to know who's who, so any sneeze, look or being the first one to speak will instantly make you a target of the crowd. There was a guy who just was a chatty guy and always started the conversation and he almost never made it past day 1. Absolutely unfair and unfun.
Whenever he wasn't killed on day 1 it was always due to someone standing up to the obvious unfairness and getting themselves killed, while he would get to live 1 extra night.
That's why we started adding extra unconventional roles and rules, to make up for this. For example, having a necromancer, who could turn a dead into a ghost who could do an action once. These changes would require to be more than 15 people, as you need to adjust the mafia in response.
The format is fun, the basic rules get boring pretty fast, given how newbies tend to play.
On the other hand, competitive mafia seems more about ninja communication and discussion, also I think they can also skip a voting.
The worst part is there’s actually nothing you can do about it. Decide to clam up and stop making yourself a target? Super suspicious, he’s the werewolf this time for sure!
On a brand new night, someone outright stated that "they pick guy X, since he is always the first one to go". I guess empathy is lost on that one.
For those who cannot do this, they will experience true pain, broken trust, and leave with friendships fundamentally changed. If this sounds like you, do not play this game!
Well, maybe should give the type of game another try. Tastes change and at the age at which my friends played "Werwolf", I was pretty much hating myself and everything around me so maybe I'd enjoy it today :)
* you are drunk (which you don't know about)
* you were poisoned that night (which you don't know about)
* the target might be protected in some way (which you don't know about)
* some powers literally let the game master decide if they work or not (you will not be told it did not work)
Imagine the first few nights of mafia style games, where nobody knows anything, so everybody is just going on hunches and feelings. That's Blood on the clocktower for almost all the nights.
Clocktower is the ultimate iteration of a social deception game. It’s about the lying. It’s about the storytelling; not just by the storyteller but by the players themselves who have to create the alternative narratives and convince their friends of those narratives.
Clocktower is so good because it forces people to work together, and assume unreliable narrators regardless of intent. It gives individuals unique and powerful abilities, giving a lot of agency on the game regardless of whether they are dead or not. And because of all of this, it’s not the few but the many that achieve a success for their team.
I am utterly fascinated by this game and, more than that, thanks to its format, it yields a huge framework for experimentation by scriptwriters and storytellers. I have stopped playing any other kind of social deduction game - none can even hold a candle to Blood on the Clocktower.