Blood on the Clocktower's The Carousel Brings 72 New Characters to the Table

Fans of Blood on the Clocktower looking to make their games even more unpredictable can now get their hands on The Carousel, a substantial collection adding 72 experimental characters to the enormously popular social-deduction game.

Despite being regualrtly described by retailers, and many distributors, as an “expansion” set, publisher The Pandemonium Institute says The Carousel isn’t technically an expansion at all. Instead the set collects all of the game’s publicly released Experimental Characters into a physical token set. These are characters that have previously appeared through Blood on the Clocktower Online, events and other releases, but haven’t (as yet) been incorporated into the game’s planned fully developed expansion sets. This means that some of their abilities could still change before eventually appearing in any future release.

The Carousel dramatically increases the number of characters available when creating custom scripts, allowing Storytellers to mix new Townsfolk, Outsiders, Minions, Demons, Travellers, and Fabled characters with those from the existing game. The set contains seven punchboards of character, reminder and night tokens, plus three additional token storage boxes designed to fit insider the game’s Grimoire. There are no new prepared scripts or printed almanacs included in the set.

The collection was originally released directly by The Pandemonium Institute on 4th July 2025, with demand rapidly exhausting stock in several regions. Now it is hitting conventional hobby distribution, with UK retailers receiving stock this week.

From Kickstarter hit to Tabletop Phenomenon

Designed by Steven Medway, the game takes the basic hidden role idea behind Werewolf or Mafia - an informed evil minority hidden among a larger group of good players - but turns it into a considerably more elaborate game of deduction, misinformation, and bluffing. Every player receives a character with their own ability, while a Storyteller quietly manages the increasingly tangled web of information behind the scenes.

The original 2019 Kickstarter attracted 6,434 backers from 55 countries, and raised $573,621, almost nine times its taregt. More than 50,000 copies of the game have since been sold worldwide.

The game’s popularity has also not faded since its release. Quite the opposite in fact, with Blood on the Clocktower not only remaining BoardGameGeek’s number one ranked Party Game, ahead of the likes of Decrypto, Just One, and Codenames, but an incredibly popular (and often oversubcribed) game at conventions and gaming clubs/cafes.

Blood on the Clocktower ‘s popularity has also seen dedicated conventions, a sizeable online comunity, hugely popular filmed games from groups including No Rolls Barred, appearancers on Dropout and Smosh, and a live event that that has repeatedly sold out at the Edinburgh Fringe.

For newcomers, The Carousel is very much not the place to start. For a start it requires the original Blood on the Clocktower game, and secondly The Carousel is aimed squarely at groups already comfortable creating and running custom scripts.

For experienced Storytellers, however, 72 more characters represents an extraordinary large new box of ways to make their players distrust absolutely everyone.

Images courtesy of The Pandemonium Institute.