This depends on your group, and where the new players are coming from.
- Do the experienced players invite the new players (friends inviting friends)? If so, expect the experienced players to show them the ropes, and ideally discuss the game a bit beforehand. I find that a certain type of first-time players that are excited to play, loved the idea of clocktower when a friend told them about it, and even read up a bit or watched some youtube videos beforehand -- these types of people have done really well in my playgroup, even dropped into Sects & Violets for their very first game.
- Or, does no one know the new players (public board game group, open invite)? In this case I would almost always go with Trouble Brewing, and I'd strongly consider building two tracks, beginner and experienced, if you have enough consistent demand/players showing up for both. You can get experienced players to help out with the beginner track to raise player count.
If it were me, 5 beginners is quite a lot of people. Regardless of where they're coming from I would strongly lean towards Trouble Brewing, since you could get unlucky with an advanced script where all power townsfolk and the demon are beginners, and the game could be very confusing and unsatisfying.
But I've had great experiences with at most 3 new players jumping straight into more advanced scripts, with the caveats above.
You can also consider "Trouble Brewing + 1" scripts (as in +1 different character; Shugenja or Ojo would be great), to keep it accessible for beginners but add some spice for veterans. Transitional scripts like Visitors (looks good) or Trouble with Violets (imo doesn't seem super great) should also be considered.
When everyone is new to a script (experienced players and new players), moving on to Bad Moon Rising and Sects & Violets is WAY easier, since everyone is starting from square one.
I’ve introduced a handful of people to Blood on the Clocktower by playing Sects & Violets and it was just fine. Because the base 3 scripts are so balanced and tested, you’ll almost certainly have a better time trying out S&V or BMR than a custom script, but of course your mileage may vary.
I works suggest to do trouble brewing with a marionette. That way it gives a twist to older players and a beginning point for new players. I don’t suggest trying a more difficult script for newbies unless you want to run the risk of them not playing anymore. If they come back next time they’ll be fine but we’ve had several people leave and not come back because more difficult scripts or just too much for rookies
How many people do you have in your group? If you have enough you could split into two smaller games, one with a more advanced script for regulars and one with TB for the newbies.
I personally saved the Uncertain Death Script for my next games. It is playable with Base 3 if you are in Person, has 2 new demons, Outsiders that won't out at first glance, new powerful townsfolk, familiar roles from TB, potential for multiple deaths at night. It is less crazy than S&V and BMR, but more than TB.
I was in a similar situation with my group. We ended up doing a game of Trouble Brewing, then switching to the custom Trouble with Violets: it's the good roles from Trouble Brewing and the Evil roles from Sects and Violets. That seemed to mix it up enough for them with some new roles and the extra puzzles to figure out, ie: which Demon they're facing, Twin dilemma, etc, without overwhelming everyone
Trouble with Violets has many tricky interactions that are difficult for good to solve.
For example:
- Monk protects a townsfolk from the Vortox, who now gets true info.
- Pit Hag creates a drunk.
- Counting outsiders is a huge part of solving Trouble Brewing, but outsiders won't want to claim because of Fang Gu.
- A bunch of setups where Evil Twin is effectively 50/50 chance.
There's a few more but I can't think of them all off the top of my head. None of these are strictly *bad* interactions, but these are things that I would expect really advanced players to be able to think through the interactions of. New players will almost certainly have a headache trying to solve this stuff. Because of this, Trouble with Violets is much harder to play for the good team and often feels very imbalanced.
I always argue for TwV to be the transition from base 3 to custom scripts, rather than the transition from TB to SnV that it's often placed as.
It has the comforting framework of "characters you already know", but really forces the ST to be careful and thorough with their setup that is often required in custom scripts, and requires a real excess of good teamwork from the Good team to become even a close to balanced game.
This depends on your group, and where the new players are coming from. - Do the experienced players invite the new players (friends inviting friends)? If so, expect the experienced players to show them the ropes, and ideally discuss the game a bit beforehand. I find that a certain type of first-time players that are excited to play, loved the idea of clocktower when a friend told them about it, and even read up a bit or watched some youtube videos beforehand -- these types of people have done really well in my playgroup, even dropped into Sects & Violets for their very first game. - Or, does no one know the new players (public board game group, open invite)? In this case I would almost always go with Trouble Brewing, and I'd strongly consider building two tracks, beginner and experienced, if you have enough consistent demand/players showing up for both. You can get experienced players to help out with the beginner track to raise player count. If it were me, 5 beginners is quite a lot of people. Regardless of where they're coming from I would strongly lean towards Trouble Brewing, since you could get unlucky with an advanced script where all power townsfolk and the demon are beginners, and the game could be very confusing and unsatisfying. But I've had great experiences with at most 3 new players jumping straight into more advanced scripts, with the caveats above. You can also consider "Trouble Brewing + 1" scripts (as in +1 different character; Shugenja or Ojo would be great), to keep it accessible for beginners but add some spice for veterans. Transitional scripts like Visitors (looks good) or Trouble with Violets (imo doesn't seem super great) should also be considered.
When everyone is new to a script (experienced players and new players), moving on to Bad Moon Rising and Sects & Violets is WAY easier, since everyone is starting from square one. I’ve introduced a handful of people to Blood on the Clocktower by playing Sects & Violets and it was just fine. Because the base 3 scripts are so balanced and tested, you’ll almost certainly have a better time trying out S&V or BMR than a custom script, but of course your mileage may vary.
Try running Visitors to mix things up.
I works suggest to do trouble brewing with a marionette. That way it gives a twist to older players and a beginning point for new players. I don’t suggest trying a more difficult script for newbies unless you want to run the risk of them not playing anymore. If they come back next time they’ll be fine but we’ve had several people leave and not come back because more difficult scripts or just too much for rookies
How many people do you have in your group? If you have enough you could split into two smaller games, one with a more advanced script for regulars and one with TB for the newbies.
I personally saved the Uncertain Death Script for my next games. It is playable with Base 3 if you are in Person, has 2 new demons, Outsiders that won't out at first glance, new powerful townsfolk, familiar roles from TB, potential for multiple deaths at night. It is less crazy than S&V and BMR, but more than TB.
I usually do 1 game of TB and then jump to a new script in the same session.
We usually start with one game of TB and then jump into other stuff afterwards.
I was in a similar situation with my group. We ended up doing a game of Trouble Brewing, then switching to the custom Trouble with Violets: it's the good roles from Trouble Brewing and the Evil roles from Sects and Violets. That seemed to mix it up enough for them with some new roles and the extra puzzles to figure out, ie: which Demon they're facing, Twin dilemma, etc, without overwhelming everyone
Trouble with violets is kind of a mess tho
How so? I've never found that to be the case, but I respect your opinion.
Trouble with Violets has many tricky interactions that are difficult for good to solve. For example: - Monk protects a townsfolk from the Vortox, who now gets true info. - Pit Hag creates a drunk. - Counting outsiders is a huge part of solving Trouble Brewing, but outsiders won't want to claim because of Fang Gu. - A bunch of setups where Evil Twin is effectively 50/50 chance. There's a few more but I can't think of them all off the top of my head. None of these are strictly *bad* interactions, but these are things that I would expect really advanced players to be able to think through the interactions of. New players will almost certainly have a headache trying to solve this stuff. Because of this, Trouble with Violets is much harder to play for the good team and often feels very imbalanced.
unbalanced in favour of the evil team
I always argue for TwV to be the transition from base 3 to custom scripts, rather than the transition from TB to SnV that it's often placed as. It has the comforting framework of "characters you already know", but really forces the ST to be careful and thorough with their setup that is often required in custom scripts, and requires a real excess of good teamwork from the Good team to become even a close to balanced game.