Being a werewolf and loving it!

A year ago, I stayed with a group of friends in a castle in the remote Scottish Highlands. One night after dinner, I turned a werewolf. And I loved it!

 

Fast-forward a year and the bunch of us still regularly meet to play Werewolf. We throw a quick buffet dinner beforehand, sometimes invite a few newbies to the game, and the party is on! It never fails to be a fun successful night. It is also a great opportunity for me to play around with recipes for a mini-kitchen invasion…

 

So what do we play? A psychological game involving strategic thought, deduction and team work. Dmitry Davidoff created it in 1986 in USSR as the Mafia Game before switching the name to Werewolf Game in 1996 to give it a less cultural and stereotyped theme. The model is a conflict between a dangerous informed minority, the werewolf pack, and an uninformed majority, the innocent villagers. One villager is killed every ‘night’ by the werewolves, and the surviving villagers must debate by ‘day’ who the werewolves are and vote eliminate the suspect. The play lasts until either the villagers have identified and convicted to death all the werewolves, or until the werewolves outnumber the villagers.

 

It sounds simple enough and it is, although you need a set-up and a few rules. The first and most important one is: do not cheat! If you do, you are ruining the whole game for everyone including for you, so what is the point.

 

Set-up

Assemble a group of players, with 7 to 17 players and a moderator (the moderator can change between each game). Off numbers are best, though it is not compulsory; you may have more players than 17 but you take the risk into the game turning into chaos.

 

Determine the roles

Each player receives a card, which must remain secret, indicating if he is a villager, a werewolf, a doctor or a seer.

• The moderator is the narrator and impartial referee of the game. He is neutral and is essential to the game.
• The werewolves: they kill at night and appear as to be villagers by day. Their number depends on the number of players. From my experience so far: for 7 to 9 players, 1 werewolf; from 9 to 12 players, 2 werewolves; from 12 to 15 players, 3 werewolves; and from 15 to 17 players, 4 werewolves.
• The innocent villagers: by night, they sleep or get killed, by day, they debate and vote to lynch a werewolf.
• The doctor: the doctor will protect an innocent villager each night, potentially himself. He can save a villager from dying.
• The seer: the seer can each night ask the overseer if one villager is a werewolf in disguise. The moderator indicates yes or no by a sign.

 

The Gameplay

The game proceeds in alternating phases of day and night, and the flow is run by the moderator. It is crucial that all actions by players at night be performed silently, otherwise the identities of the werewolves, seer, or other roles can be revealed.

1. The moderator will indicate to the players it is night by asking them all to close their eyes (and not to cheat!).
2. The moderator will ask the werewolves to open their eyes and choose a victim, and to close their eyes again once done.
3. The moderator will then ask the doctor to open his eyes and choose someone to protect, including himself, then close his eyes again.
4. The moderator will ask the seer to open his eyes and choose someone to check whether or not he is a werewolf, then close his eyes again.
5. The moderator will then indicate the sun has risen and everyone can open their eyes. He will then tell who has been killed during the night. If the doctor protected the victim of the werewolves, then no one died.
6. The villagers then start investigating, analyzing body behavior, facial reactions, accusations, defenses etc.
7. The moderator requests to have the nominations from the villagers of who they believed to be werewolves
8. The nominated make a speech for their defenses.
9. The villagers (only those alive) vote and one villager is lynched. That villager shows his card and indicates whether or no he is the villager or a werewolf, and if a villager, if he is the doctor or the seer.
10. It is night again and time for another round under the watch of the moderator.
11. When the number of werewolves is equal to or greater than the number of villagers, the werewolves win. If there are no werewolves left alive, the villagers win.

 

Important details

• A dead villager can only express his opinions and participate to the debate on the day after his death, as afterward the dead can keep their eyes open at night and know who is who. They must then be careful not to reveal or indicate what they know to anyone.
• If dead, the doctor or seer cannot reveal who they had protected or checked, and what they know.
• The seer and doctor can reveal who they are when they are alive, keeping in mind it puts them in jeopardy to be killed by the werewolves the following night. It is common for a seer who revealed himself to ask the doctor to protect him so that he may continue to check the real identity of the villagers at night.
• Werewolves are liars. They lie about not being werewolves, and they may lie about allegiances, being the seer or the doctor etc.
• Variations to the games include additional roles: the witch, the vigilante, the magistrate, the wizard, etc. It can make the game even more challenging, though it can also make it more confusing and long, so you get less rounds in one evening.

 

It might look a little complex at first, but I assure you, the game is fairly simple in practice. All the fun is its psychological side. People will surprise you with their strategies, bluffs, deductions, and interactions. Really, you should try!

Thank you for reading, and have fun!
Yours, Virginie