Pacifist

Information

Type	Townsfolk
Artist	Aidan Roberts

"Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful."

Appears in

Cult of the Clocktower Episode by Andrew Nathenson

You need to enable JavaScript to play this audio

Summary

"Executed good players might not die."

The Pacifist prevents good players from dying by execution.

• When a good player is executed, the Storyteller chooses whether they die or live.
• As always, when abilities like this function in obvious ways, the group is not told why something has happened, only what has happened. The group learns that an execution succeeded, but that the executed player did not die—that is all.
• If a player is executed and remains alive, that still counts as the execution for today. No other nominations may happen.

How to Run

If a good character is executed, declare either that they die or they remain alive. (Do not say why.) Then, begin the night phase. (Whether the player lived or died, this was the one execution for the day.)

Triggering the Pacifist ability once per game is usually about right. You can trigger it more if you feel it is appropriate. On rare occasions, to make the Pacifist look suspicious, you can never trigger it.

Examples

The Innkeeper is executed, but remains alive because of the Pacifist.

The Pacifist is in play. Good is winning. Even after 7 days, and 5 good players executed, the Pacifist ability has not saved anybody.

The Pacifist is in play. Evil is winning. The Lunatic is executed, but remains alive. The next day, the Professor is executed and dies, because the Pacifist is drunk. The next day, a good Bishop is exiled and dies, because the Pacifist saves people from execution, not exile. The next day, the Pacifist is executed but remains alive because of the Pacifist.

Tips & Tricks

• Don't come out! Your ability keeps good players safe (at the Storyteller's discretion), and the evil team will want to remove you from play as soon as possible. Bluff as something undesirable to kill, like a Fool or a Goon, and hold that line until you have very good reason to reveal who you are.

• You should always come out eventually, but how you choose to do so is up to you. For example, you may know a player you trust 100% is good, and reveal to them early and secretly. If your ability saves someone later, they will know immediately it was you. If you don't have someone you trust that much, then simply play carefully until you die, or until it's late enough in the game that people need to know who you are anyway.

• Your ability is more potent in the late game, so survive as long as you can. The Storyteller is simply more likely to save a good player at a critical juncture as the game comes to a climax than they are to rescue someone from the town's blood thirst on the first day. Simply put, the longer you live, the better chance you will have of saving someone, so take whatever action you feel is necessary to make that happen.... within reason.

• Wait for your ability to trigger before making any sort of reveal. Seeing someone be saved from execution unexpectedly will prime the good team to believe you are in play anyway, whereas revealing early and then seeing your ability activate may lean them towards believing some shenanigans are at play.

• There are lots of reasons people may not die, so don't immediately assume it was you. Jumping the gun and coming out when in reality, a Sailor, Fool or Tea Lady's neighbour has just been saved from execution will paint a big target on your back, particularly if it is still early in the game.

• The Devil's Advocate is your worst enemy - capable of mimicking your ability and protecting their evil cohorts on top of that. Thanks to how similar your abilities are, the Pacifist is a popular bluff for this devious minion - tread carefully if you think one is in play, and in general try to avoid giving the good team a reason to succumb to the paranoia that you're trying to trick them.

Bluffing as the Pacifist

When bluffing as the Pacifist, there are a few things you should keep in mind:

• Either stay silent initially, or use the Pacifist as a backup bluff. Most Pacifists wait for several days before revealing that they are the Pacifist, so it will look perfectly normal. Alternatively, if the character bluff that you are attempting isn't going so well, switch to the Pacifist later in the game, or when put in the hot seat.

• If a player is executed and does not die, immediately claim to be the Pacifist! The good team will probably begin to put together the pieces of the puzzle as to why that player didn't die, but in the meantime, you look extremely trustworthy. Even if the good team figures out the nature of the player's survival (due to such things as the Fool, Tea Lady, Devil's Advocate, or Sailor), you'll still look trustworthy, as that has not invalidated your bluff.

• If you survive to the end and nobody has been saved from execution, blame the Storyteller. Sometimes, when the good team is winning by a significant margin, the Storyteller will not activate the Pacifist ability at all to give the evil team a chance. This is a perfectly reasonable, although uncommon, thing to happen, so claiming that the Storyteller has made this decision is reasonable. Of course, if you are actually a Minion, and keen to die on the final day instead of your Demon, do your best to either ignore this argument, or make it very poorly.