JEWELRY NEWS NEWSLETTER PARTY ZONE ARTICLE

Not Every Game Needs a Board
by Larry Levy ©HuzonFirstGames.com

Want to get started playing new games right away? You're in luck. Here are the rules to an unusual game in the public domain. "Werewolf" is a party game best played with ten or more people. The game isn't particularly complicated, but its a lot of fun. Enjoy!

Werewolf Rules:

Werewolf is a party game for eight to fifteen people. It works best with people who know each other fairly well.

Begin by assembling a small deck of ordinary playing cards. Take the two red Jacks, the Queen of Spades, and the Ace of Spades. Add enough black cards between the ranks of Two and Ten (the values don't really matter) so that you have one card for each player. Now shuffle the cards and deal one face down to each player. Each player secretly looks at their card. The players who are dealt the red Jacks are the werewolves for this game. The player with the Ace of Spades is the moderator. The player with the Queen of spades is the Seer. All the other cards indicate that the player is a common villager.

The moderator (Ace) flips over his card and calls the game into play. He begins by saying that it is now night time and asks all the players to close their eyes. He then asks the two werewolves to open their eyes. They should observe who their partner is. The moderator then asks the wolves to silently point to a player they want to kill. The moderator waits until the wolves agree upon a victim and then asks the werewolves to close their eyes. He then says, "Seer, open your eyes". The moderator asks the Seer to point silently to a player; the moderator then gives a thumbs up if that person is a werewolf or a thumbs down if that person is a villager. Then the moderator asks the Seer to close his eyes and then tells all the players to open their eyes as it is now morning. He then announces which player was killed that night. This player can't say anything; all players killed over the course of the game aren't allowed to speak for the rest of the game.

Since a murder has been committed, the villagers demand justice! The surviving players (including, of course, the werewolves) must lynch a player. Players are allowed to discuss theories, make accusations, or say anything at all. Any player can nominate another player to be lynched. If another player seconds the nomination, a vote must be held. Prior to the vote, the accused player can make whatever defense she wants. Then, the players (including the accused, but not including the moderator or any players who have been killed) vote on the accusation. If a majority of the votes are in favor of lynching, than the accused player is strung up. If not, then continue the nomination and voting process until a successful vote is taken. Exactly one person must be lynched during the daytime. Once a successful vote occurs, the accused player reveals her card. If the player is a werewolf, that's good for the villagers! If the player is a villager, that's good for the werewolves!

After the vote, it is again night time and the moderator repeats the procedure, naturally omitting the seer if he has died and getting input from only one werewolf if the other werewolf was lynched earlier. After the murder comes daytime and another lynching. The process continues until the game reaches one of two states. If at any time there are as many villagers left as there are werewolves, it is assumed that the wolves could easily finish the villagers off and they win. The villagers win if both werewolves are killed before this occurs.

The game takes only 10 to 15 minutes. Since the only information the players have is based upon the actions and personalities of the participants, this is an excellent psychological game, with plenty of room for misdirection and bluff. The seer needs to somehow relay his information without revealing his own status, since such a revelation will presumably ensure that he will be wolf meat the following night.

By the way, the rules as presented work best if the number of players is odd, since then there will always be an odd number of votes, with no possibility of a tie. To maintain this situation, if the number of players is even, the best procedure is to play that on the first night, the wolves get to observe who their partner is, but do not kill a villager. The seer gets information just as usual.