Most games of Werewolves cover off characters like Hunter, Defender or Sheriff, and here is how we play them. Learn more...
Our kids never liked being 'Saddo' villagers - so here are other special villager roles that are easy for the moderator to add. Learn more...
Need more powerful villagers to balance a game with lots of Werewolves and solo teams - here they are. Learn more...
Sometimes the Werewolves need some special powers or allies to help them take on the village or the other sneaky solo teams. Learn more...
Why stop at two teams, from Cannibals to Vampires, there can be many other dangers facing the village. Learn more...
The dead get a new lease of life with these roles that give dead players something to look forward to. Learn more...
To play a simple game of Werewolves you need at least 7 players (ideally more) and a moderator. The players sit in a circle where they can see each other, with space for the moderator to walk among them.
All the players are the members of a village, most are ordinary villagers, a few have special powers to protect the village and the rest are hungry Werewolves. A simple game for 7 would have 3 Villagers, 2 Werewolves, a Seer and a Witch. The moderator gives each player a card with their roles on it, which they secretly look at and then put face down somewhere easily accessible in front of them.
Once everyone has a card and knows their role, the moderator should welcome the new villagers and set the scene, explaining that the village may have a minor werewolf infestation. But it is night time now, so perhap they can deal with it in the morning. They are then asked to 'go to sleep' i.e. close their eyes and no peeping.
The moderator will call each of the special roles in turn to open their eyes, silently make a choice and then close their eyes before the next is woken up.
The Seer is the first to be woken, and is asked to point to another villager to discover their role. The moderator can either show that player's card to the Seer or indicate the team they are on by some other means.
Next the Werewolves are woken up and asked to point to a player they want to eat that night, and then go back to sleep.
Finally the Witch wakes up and is shown who the Werewolves' victim is and asked if they want to save this person - they can save one person during the whole game. They are then asked if they want to point to someone and poison them to remove them from the game. Again they can only do this once per game and hopefully use it to kill a Werewolf. They then go back to sleep.
The moderator wakes the whole village to reveal if anyone died in the night. either eaten by werewolves and/or poisoned by the witch. It is up to them whether they hint at the nature of the death (i.e. bitemarks or foaming green at the mouth) and usually they will reveal the card showing the victim(s) role.
So, with a killer in their midst, the village need to take action. The village are given time to debate if anyone is a suspected werewolf and needs to be executed. The moderator can support the discussion (while remaining neutral) by asking if anyone has evidence, and after a short while if anyone wants to nominate someone to be executed.
The village then votes whether to execute the nominated person, or select one person if more than one has been nominated. It is up to the moderator how they conduct the vote, whether there is the option to not execute someone that day and whether they immediately reveal the person's role.
The village then go back to sleep, either happy that they've killed a Werewolf or apprehensive of what is to come in the night...
Further nights are much like the first, although there may be fewer roles to wake up if players are dead. Wake the Seer to discover another player's role, the Werewolves to eat another victim and then (if they have any powers left) the Witch to heal or poison someone.
The dead can keep their eyes open during the night, to discover the other player's roles, but need to be reminded not to give away who is who to the living villagers - the dead definitely can't speak!
Further days also follow the same pattern, villagers wake to find who has died in the night and then debate and vote to execute another suspected Werewolf.
The game ends when either the Werewolves outnumber or equal the villagers left alive and can therefore eat the rest of the village, or all the Werewolves have been executed and the village wins.
And that is how to play the basic game, but Werewolves really gets going when you have more players and can add more roles, with new teams to threaten the safety of the village and more heroic villagers with special abilities to protect it.
