Werewolf is a game in the tradition
of "Wink Murder" or "Murder in the Dark", but with a slightly more
paranoid and vindictive atmosphere. It's a game of accusations, murder,
bluffing, second-guessing, assassination, and rabid mob hysteria.
Players try to escape the noose by blaming their neighbors.
Setting Up
Each player will be given a card. Two players
will receive Werewolf cards, one will receive a Seer card, and the rest
will be Villagers. Look at your card, but do not show it to anyone else
- you must keep it a secret.
Two players are secret werewolves. They are
trying to slaughter everyone else, the innocent villagers. But one of
the villagers, the Seer, has mysterious psychic powers and can detect
the taint of lycanthropy.
The Game: Night and Day
The game proceeds in alternating night and day
turns, starting with the night.
Each Night, all of the players will
be instructed to close their eyes and go to sleep. All the players
must close their eyes, and feign sleep, and must make loud noises,
humming, fake snoring, etc, so that they will not hear what is going on.
It is very important that everyone keeps their eyes closed until they
are told to open them. Anyone caught opening their eyes before they are
told to will be thrown out of the game.
The two Werewolves will be instructed to open
their eyes. The two werewolves should do so, and look around to
recognize each other.
The Werewolves will be instructed to pick
someone to kill. The werewolves silently agree on which villager
it will be. It is important they remain silent. The other players are
sitting there with their eyes closed, and the werewolves don't want to
give themselves away. Sign language is appropriate, or just pointing,
nodding, raising eyebrows, and so on.
When the werewolves have silently agreed on a
victim, and the moderator of the game understands who that is, they will
be told to close their eyes. Everyone else must still keep their eyes
closed until they are instructed otherwise.
Next, the Seer will be commanded to open her eyes. The seer looks around and silently points at another player.
It is important to do this without drawing attention, the Seer doesn't
want to be identified by the werewolves!
The moderator silently signs thumbs-up if the
seer pointed at a werewolf, and thumbs-down if the seer pointed at an
innocent villager. The moderator then says tells the Seer to close her eyes.
The moderator then tells all of the players to
open their eyes, and indicates which person has been killed. That
person is immediately dead and out of the game. They hand their card to
the moderator, face down, without revealing what it was.
Each Day, all the living players must
choose to lynch one of the other players they suspect to be a Werewolf.
The Werewolves are pretending to be innocent villagers, and the Seer
does not reveal her identity either, since if the Werewolves find out
who she is, they will choose her to kill next, to protect their secret.
The Werewolves will conspire to cast guilt on innocent villagers and
away from themselves. There are no restrictions on speech. Any living
player can say anything he wants - truth, misdirection, nonsense, or
barefaced lie.
Dead players should not speak at all. As soon as
the sun comes up and the moderator indicates that someone is dead, he
may not speak for the rest of the game. Similarly, as soon as a player
has been lynched, she is dead. If she wants to protest her innocence or
reveal some information (like the Seer's visions), she has to do it
before the lynching is declared. No player may reveal their card, to
anyone, except after being lynched.
As soon as the village agrees on a particular
player to die, the moderator declares him dead, and that player then
reveals his card, and the rest of the players find out whether they've
lynched an innocent villager, a Werewolf, or (uh-oh!) the Seer.
Once a player is lynched, night falls
immediately and the cycle repeats. Everyone closes their eyes, the
werewolves (or werewolf, if one of them has been lynched) secretly
select someone to kill, the seer (if alive) secretly learns another
player's status; then the sun rises, one player is found dead, and the
remaining players begin to discuss another lynching. Repeat until one
side wins.
Winning
The humans win if they kill both
werewolves.
The werewolves win if they kill all but
one villager. At that point they can rise up and slaughter the villager
openly and the game is over.
To Clarify...
The villagers are trying to figure out who's a
werewolf; the werewolves are pretending to be villagers, and trying to
throw suspicion on real villagers.
The seer is trying to throw suspicion on any
werewolves discovered, but subtly (because the werewolves will almost
certainly eat the seer if they find out who it is, as the greatest
threat to werewolf national security). Of course the seer can reveal
himself at any time, if he thinks it's worthwhile to tell the other
players what he's learned. Also of course, a werewolf can claim to be
the seer and "reveal" anything he wants. Living players cannot show
their cards, after all.
The only information the villagers have is what
other players say - and who dies. Accusing someone of being a werewolf
is suspicious. Not accusing anyone is also suspicious. Agreeing with
another player a lot is suspect, and therefore so is pretending not to
agree with another player. Never voting to kill a particular player is
very dodgy for both of them - unless it's the seer who knows that player
is innocent. |