Bounty Hunter
From Blood on the Clocktower Wiki
Information
| Type | Townsfolk |
| Artist | Marianna Carr |
| Revealed | 04/07/2020 |
"Alone, I walk these streets, paved with the sick stench of corruption. Its thickness worms its way into my nostrils, unbidden, burning with revulsion. And anticipation. The illness of this wretched place grows each night. And I... I am the cure."
Summary
"You start knowing 1 evil player. If the player you know dies, you learn another evil player tonight. [1 Townsfolk is evil]"
The Bounty Hunter learns all the evil players. One. Player. At. A. Time.
How to Run
At the start of the first night, wake any player with a Townsfolk character and show them the “You are” card and the thumbs down hand signal to let them know they are evil. Rotate their token 180 degrees in the grimoire, mark them with an evil reminder in clocktower.online or turn their token red in the official app to remind you they are evil. They do not learn anything else other than their new alignment, they do not know who the Minions or Demon are and they continue to register as a Townsfolk to abilities; it’s just their alignment that has changed.
When the Bounty Hunter wakes, point to an evil player. This can be a Minion, Demon, Traveller or the evil Townsfolk, anyone that is evil or registering as evil. If that player dies, regardless of whether they die at night or during the day, regardless of whether they’re evil or not, wake the Bounty Hunter that night and show them a new evil player.
Note that the Bounty Hunter is quite late in the night order on the first night. This is the time to wake them to show them the player they are learning is evil. The player that started evil, however, should be told immediately on the first night that they are evil and you as Storyteller should also bear this in mind when doing other first night information – that player is already evil even though the Bounty Hunter has not woken yet.
If the Bounty Hunter is drunk or poisoned or in a Vortox game at any point when they would learn information, you may (must if Vortox) give them incorrect information and show a good player. If they later sober up, they do not learn any new information, even though they still think that a good player is evil. When the player they saw dies, they learn a new player that night.
If the “known” evil player turns good later, this doesn’t affect the Bounty Hunter, that player still needs to die in order for the Bounty Hunter to get further information.
It's worth noting that, if you feel the Bounty Hunter has already gained a lot of information, it's possible to give a dead evil player or one they've already received. In the former case, if they're dead they cannot die again, so the Bounty Hunter will not get new information unless that player is resurrected and killed again.
For Travellers, both travelling away and being exiled result in their death – so if a Bounty Hunter has seen a Traveller, either situation would result in the Bounty Hunter getting more information that night.
NB: Due to the Bounty Hunter adding an extra evil player, extreme caution should be taken when adding it to a script with any other potential alignment changers – as soon as more than one player can be turned evil it’s very easy to get an evil voting majority and not even the evil players particularly enjoy that. The script with Goon, Mezepheles, Fang Gu, Politician and Cult Leader has been made before and it isn’t fun...
Examples
On the first night, the Bounty Hunter learns that Edd is evil. Edd is the King who has been turned evil by the Bounty Hunter. The next day, the King dies. The following night, the Bounty Hunter learns that Abdallah is evil. Abdallah is the Goblin.
On the first night, the Bounty Hunter learns that Evin is evil. Three days later, Evin dies. That night, the Bounty Hunter learns Marianna is evil. Marianna is a Minion. Three nights later, the Demon kills Marianna and the Bounty Hunter learns that Alex is evil. Alex is the Demon. The Tea Lady, who was made evil by the Bounty Hunter, is still alive.
Tips & Tricks
- This is pretty simple, right? You know who an evil player is, right off the bat on day 1! Not even the Investigator info is this strong! You should tell everyone about it immediately and get that filthy scoundrel of an evil player executed as soon as possible so you can get more information on other dastardly fiends around town and work your way closer to finding out who the Demon is!
- You know who an evil player is, but they don’t know you know… Maybe this is a time to sit back in the shadows and pay attention to who they talk to, whether they seem to start without a bluff and then get one after a certain conversation, or maybe they just seem entirely lost and not sure who to talk to. This can tell you who the other evil players are in the first case and that it’s probably the evil Townsfolk in the latter case. Either way, now you have a better idea of who else might be evil and if you now get them executed and see one of the only other people they spoke to on the first day, this is just more evidence that shows your information is correct!
- Once you’re public as a Bounty Hunter, you’re a target for the Demon to kill, so choose your moment to make your information public with great care. Come out too early and you can just be killed before you get the full extent of your potential information. Come out too late and you won’t be able to convince enough people to execute your target in order to get more information. The game can literally swing based on how much information you get, if you manage to work your way through executing the whole evil team to find out who the Demon is, but that requires you both controlling a lot of executions and surviving to that point, so public knowledge about you has to be timed just right!
- Remember you’ve created an evil Townsfolk in this game! Not only is this an extra evil player with an extra nomination and an extra vote, but also they have a free bluff in the character token they actually received if they want it. Even worse, however, they have an incentive to lie about their information, so this is yet another source of misinformation that you will have to be wary of. It’s also worth remembering that there’s an extra evil player if the game goes to a final three – you’ll need an extra good vote on the Demon in order for the evil team not to be able to rise up and beat your numbers just with evil votes!
- Maybe this is a moment to go up to the evil player you saw and try to convince them you’re evil too! If they’re the evil Townsfolk created by your own ability, they won’t know who the other evil players are and will possibly just trust you if you “out” as evil to them. If they’re a Minion, however, you might be putting them on their guard that they’ve been seen by a Bounty Hunter and they might be able to tell the Demon to kill you, so use this tactic with caution!
- If you are staying concealed, you still need to get your targets executed. So you’ll want to be either getting someone else to claim your information for you or claiming your information privately to get people on board with executing your targets – you’ll need plenty of votes, especially if you’ve seen a Minion that the evil team won’t want to be voting on.
- Your information is, unfortunately, very fragile when poisoned – you will almost always learn a good player rather than an evil one and you may not want to get that player executed… If you think you’ve been spotted by an evil team and are just going to be poisoned consistently because you absolutely trust your latest target, maybe this is a time to accept that you’re not going to get any more good information and accept death if people don’t trust you… Or maybe you can discuss with that player and see if they’re willing to die to get you another bit of info that might not be poisoned this time. Or you can turn your attentions to hunting down that pesky Poisoner or Widow that’s messing with your info and hope the Demon kills your current target at night to get you some juicy new info!
Bluffing as the Bounty Hunter
When bluffing as the Bounty Hunter, there are a few things you should keep in mind:
- Bluffing as the Bounty Hunter is a long game. You’ll need a detailed story of which players you discover as being evil across the course of the game. It can be wise to wait silently in the shadows, watching the game so that you can get your story straight. Remember, you’ll be needing to remember a sequence of players who you learn of as being evil and that will need to tally with any information coming from players you're claiming must be good by elimination.
- Coming out as a Bounty Hunter throws a lot of shade on other players. You can get key players killed and undermine trust between players. Watch out for alignment detecting characters like Empath or Cult Leader as they can discover that you’re lying.
- Be mindful that when you’re claiming to be the Bounty Hunter, you will be accusing one or more good players of being evil. The more players you accusing of being evil, the more players you’re turning into enemies. However, if you manage to pull this off just right, this can be a great way to split the game by possibly dividing the good players into two camps. Alternatively, this can be a great way to pull focus off the Demon if they’re under suspicion.
- Create a clique with good players, because you will need a small bloc of allies to execute the people you set up as evil with your fake information. Go around on the first day and pick one or two good players you want to form an alliance with, and drip feed them your information. Even if you get discovered, you're likely to have gotten one or two good players executed anyway and then get executed yourself, all of which are executions that aren't going on your Demon.
- If you come out publicly, be prepared to be executed or get the Demon to kill you, as a public Bounty Hunter surviving into the late game is incredibly suspicious. Bounty Hunters are high priority targets for the Demon because if they're left alive long enough they will eventually learn who the Demon is. So if you think your Minion ability is of limited value any more, get the Demon to kill you as soon as you "come out publicly" to build trust in your claims when you die at night.
- If there’s a player voting erratically, you can set them up as the evil Townsfolk since an evil Townsfolk created by the Bounty Hunter doesn’t know who the evil players are and would likely be voting that way. It can be a great way to isolate a seemingly trustworthy player whose character has been verified, because they will have started as that Townsfolk, but then turned evil by you. It's a great way to undermine provable characters like the Virgin, or Slayer too.