No Rolls Barred Plays Blood On The Clocktower

No Rolls Barred Plays Blood On The Clocktower is a series on the No Rolls Barred YouTube channel (with some episodes on Patreon) in which members play Blood On The Clocktower as a group.

"You don't get moments like this in Werewolf, kids!"

―Ben (A Good Day to Die)

History[]

The series began in February 2021 under the umbrella of Board Game Club for its first two episodes, A Stud In Scarlet and The Billiard Boys, recruiting Ben Burns from The Pandemonium Institute as their guest storyteller. Until November 2022, games would be conducted entirely online. Adam had previously played the game in person a number of times. Beginning with Human Remains Of The Day, the game was given its own dedicated series.

The cast played a trilogy of games of each of the base scripts: Trouble Brewing, Bad Moon Rising and Sects & Violets. The series then continued with a variety of custom and homebrew scripts. Where's The Lie? began the monthly run of episodes available via Patreon in September 2021.

A design competition was run at the end of 2021 to determine a script that NRB would play in an upcoming episode, announced in NRB Halloween COMPETITION - Design A Script For Blood On The Clocktower!!. The competition received 600 submissions, many of which were high-quality scripts. The winner, announced in Clocktower Competition Winning Script REVEAL!! (and it's INSANE), was Andrew Pichot with the script No Roles Barred which was played in an episode of the same name and more episodes afterward. The runners-up can be accessed here.

Blood on the Clocktower BTS — Behind the scenes of one of the in-person episodes. Photo by Miranda Holmes

Until May 2022, the series was filmed online over Zoom and Discord. However, the episode Live and Imp-Person and Patreon episode Gran That Jam were both in-person and featured a significantly upgraded production with a spooky set. This set in motion a Kickstarter campaign for a series (described in detail below), while online episodes continued for a while longer.

This series, later dubbed Season 1, featured six episodes of in-person Blood on the Clocktower. The final episode featured the new Vizier character. This was continued into Season 2 in 2024, which featured a new character (specifically chosen by game creator Steven Medway) from The Pandemonium Institute every episode.

There was significant confusion with the schedule and arrangements for Season 2, following the departure of Adam Blampied from Trident Digital Media.^[1] On 13 December 2023 it was announced that filming would begin at the end of February 2024, with episodes set to release from March 2024.

Patreon-specific online episodes resumed on 16 February 2024 with the release of 2 episodes, each featuring Steven Medway.

Bonus episodes were released publicly at the end of 2024 - Take Me To Freaky Town! in November and the formerly Patreon-only Boomdan-DOM! in December.

Episodes are released publicly intermittently. In April 2025 the channel began a legacy series using the Flesh & Bone system. In Flesh & Bone, designed by Nashable, executed characters in one game are removed and replaced for the next. The script thus develops and builds for each game in the series. The replacement of one character with another is determined by vote/playgroup choice.

Kickstarters[]

Our_In-Person_Clocktower_Kickstarter_Is_LIVE!!!! — Our In-Person Clocktower Kickstarter Is LIVE!!!!

The positive experience of the in-person episode, and response to it, laid the groundwork for a Kickstarter project, "Help NRB Make An In-Person Blood On The Clocktower Series," supported by an announcement video. The campaign gained over two thousand backers and contributed to funding six more in-person episodes with over £100,000. These were filmed at The Arts Centre in Hounslow. The six episodes became Season 1 and were released on a monthly basis from November 2022 to May 2023.

At the end of the 6th episode of the first kickstarted series, the campaign to fund Season 2 was released under the name "SEASON 2: NRB Plays Blood On The Clocktower LIVE!!." Each episode in Season 2 would feature a new character, in conjunction with TPI. It was also announced that no more publicly available episodes would be released in 2023. A Royal Blunder, the reward episode from the previous Kickstarter, was released publicly instead to encourage backers.

The campaign was successful by its close - funding the stretch goal of 6 more episodes, to be filmed in late 2023/early 2024 and released in 2024. On 5 July 2023 the reward episode, A Good Day to Die, was released to Kickstarter backers.

Season 2 episodes began on 23 March 2024 and were released monthly thereafter. The last one was released on 31 August 2024.

A behind-the-scenes video for season 2 was released via Kickstarter and Patreon on 27 March 2024.

Episode structure[]

Tom lamp — Tom introduces an in person episode spookily

Episodes usually begin with the introduction from the NRB storyteller (often Tom), and the hellos. Ben usually gets his own special, themed introduction. An explanation of the script, roles and interactions the players will have, by Ben and the other storyteller, takes place before Night 1 begins. The rest of the episode is then split up by alternating days and nights. Like an offscreen game of Blood on the Clocktower, the game ends with an explanation of who everyone was and what they did throughout the game, often with incredible player reactions. In several episodes, particularly those that are in-person, Editor James adds bloopers and songs following the outro.

Episodes[]

There were 13 free episodes in 2021, 11 in 2022, 4 in 2023 and 8 in 2024, not including former Kickstarter releases.

In 2025 the channel began a series of the Legacy variation, Flesh and Bone.

A playlist of all free episodes in the series can be found here.

Online episodes in 2025[]

The public BOTC plans are not currently known, but a public episode was released at the same time as the expected Patreon-only episode in January.

Release date	Episode	Link	Players	Storytellers	Script
25 Jan 2025	Ravenswood Bluff Incorporated	YouTube	Angela, Briony, Dom, Emily, Holly, Jenny, Jon, Kirsty, Laurie, Mara, Sam, Sullivan	Ben, Ken	Strings Pulling

Legacy Campaign[]

Release date	Episode	Link	Players	Storytellers	Script
19 Apr 2025	Blood on the Clocktower Legacy Episode One	YouTube	Dom, Emily, Holly, Jon, Ken, Mara, Sullivan, Tilly	Ben, Laurie	Flesh & Bone

To see this set of tables as its own page, click here.

Online episodes in 2024[]

Further publicly-available episodes were not expected after the Kickstarted live episodes. However, in November 2024, as part of a subscriber push for the Patreon, an online episode was released publicly unexpectedly, and in December the formerly Patreon-only Boomdan-DOM! was released to YouTube.

Release date	Episode	Link	Players	Storytellers	Script
23 Nov 2024	Take Me To Freaky Town!	YouTube	Angela, Blair, Chris, Dom, Holly, Jon, Jenny, Laurie, Rekha, Sullivan, Tilly	Ben, Ken	Halloween Dressrosa
7 Dec 2024	Boomdan-DOM!	YouTube	Blair, Dom, Holly, Ivan, Luke, Mara, Sullivan, Tegan, Tilly	Ben, Laurie	Extension Cord