Friendship in "Murderer" game

To begin with, I’m a big fan of board game, and take it a step further, in all board games, I prefer the those of logic and reasoning. The feeling of inferring truth from fragmented information really fascinates me. But I have to say, I seldom have a perfect experience when playing this kind of games with friends.

 

First of all, I would like to criticize the traditional “Murderer” game, Werewolf. Simply explain the rules, there are three camps, villagers, priests and wolfs. During night time, wolf can kill one person at night, and priest can use their skills (if they have). During day time, all players discuss and choose to banish one player who they think is wolf. If none of the villagers or priest is alive, wolf win, if none of the wolfs is alive, priest and villager win. From the basic rule, we can realize the biggest problem of the game: there are always players been kicked out form the game.

 

We have to admit, although a group of friends play together, different people have different level of passion on the game, not everyone can keep looking others play the game when they are “died”. For my own experience, when I play Werewolf with my friends, when somebody get killed and feel bored, he/she will start to play mobile phone, and as others want to take care of his/her feeling, we can’t focus on the game. At the end, we usually avoid to “kill” this guy or just play another game.

 

Besides this, there are also other problems on this game, imagine everyone in the game are rational, it also requires everyone have same level of skill. It there are one person not good at the game, no matter which camp he/she belongs to, other players who belong to this camp may be influenced. For wolfs, there is a risk of being exposed, for priest and villagers, this person can’t provide useful information. Also, as this game is based on deception and communication, if one player plays batter than others, there are higher chance for him/her to win when he is a wolf. As a result, other players will choose to kill/banish this person in order to protect their game experience.

 

Based on the problems listed, I’ve never played the werewolf with my friends anymore, if I keep playing it, I may lose all of them. But Avalon saved both my interest and friendship, it is a game both focusing on reasoning and won’t make people fight.

 

Unlike Werewolf, Avalon doesn’t have the “kill” mechanic, so no one will be kicked out during the game. Instead, for every round, it requires different amount of people take part in a “mission”. Players belongs to good camp can only choose “success”, players belong to bad camp can choose either “success” or fail. Players estimate who is good based on the mission result, and brings only good people to the following missions.

 

Unlike Werewolf, although Avalon also requires communication, players actually estimate others’ action based on their action. For example, two players in one mission and there are one “fail”, no matter how you speak for yourself, there are no doubt that there are at least one “bad” between these two players. This makes the game easier to play for the beginner, and makes it possible to introduce to friends to play together during a party.

 

Recently, a new game caught my eye, which is called “Blood on the clock tower”. Just like Werewolf and Avalon, it has different camps and unique skills for different identities. But it has it’s unique setting, which is the DM in the game isn’t absolute fair, the DM can influence the situation of the game. This brings more participation for the player who has to be the DM in “murderer game” (Werewolf requires a DM, but Avalon don’t). Unlike DM in COC or DND, DM in “murderer game” is more like a machine following particular command, which can be replaced by using a computer. It’s unfair to require your friend to be the DM when everyone enjoys the game but he/she has to be bored. Although I haven’t play “Blood on the clock tower” yet, I have a high expectation on it.

 

Is win important when we play games? Definitely yes, we play for win. But there is a premise which is everyone in the game should be satisfied, no matter win or lose. I win the game because my effort, or I lose because you actually play better than me. In a game, it should be fair that everyone has same chance to control the outcome, instead of sitting there and wait your teammate bring you win, just like “Werewolf”.

 

We need to acknowledge that when a group of friends playing boardgame together, not everyone are big fans of the current game that is playing. We play together not only because the game is interesting, but more important is, who we are getting along with. Time is limited, if I choose to play with you, during this time, I can’t do anything else. I play with you because you are my friend and I would like to spend time with you, that’s all-what friendship is about.

 

Game is just game, but friendship last forever. We have a responsibility to make sure everyone enjoys the time sitting together and no one’s feeling has been ignored. If your friend is suffered in the reasoning of the game, just throw it and says, “Hey, this game is piece of shit how about we play another one?”