Werewolf - the Game
Created | Updated Jun 28, 2012
Everything was perfect: All the citizens of Miller´s Hollow were leading a perfect life in peace and harmony in the shade of the woods. But one day changed the whole life of the villagers - the day the werewolves first attacked. They would only survive on human flesh, each night choosing one of the villagers as their victim. By day, the werewolves acted as normal, innocent citizens. Who could still feel secure in a village like this? Dark times stood ahead of the formally so peaceful little town and not even with the help of the citizens with higher powers could anyone see the outcome of these tragedies…
No, this is not the plot of another werewolf film or book. In fact, it is the description of a game with the title “The Werewolves of Miller’s Hollow”. It is not a computer game, but a role-playing game that is played with an actual group of people (up to 20 participants) of children from the age of 10 and grandparents alike. Even though the game might appear complicated, the players will understand it with ease, once it has started. Prerequisites to the game are good argumentative skills of minimum eight players, dimmed light (some atmospheric music may also help to create the right mood), but mainly you need the deck of cards of The Werewolves of Miller’s Hollow (or self-made cards).
At the beginning of the game the “game master” hands out or shows one card to each of the players, which is depicting the character they are going to play. The players can become a Werewolf, a Fortune Teller, a Hunter, Cupido, a Witch, a Little Girl, a Thief or an Ordinary Villager. According to the characters on the cards they may or may not have special powers.
Basically, the werewolves constitute a separate group and try to win the game together, whereas all the other characters are “good” and thus help each other in order to get rid of the werewolves. The purpose of the game is to eliminate suspicious players by means of votes at the end of each round. In addition, the werewolves attack each night, so in each round two players drop out. The game continues until only one player is left and depending on whether the “last man standing” was a werewolf or a villager, the corresponding team wins.
However, in order to win the game, there are certain rules that need to be observed. First of all it is important to understand, that the game is divided into a day-phase and a night-phase, and usually begins with the night phase. At night, each player (except the game master, of course) closes his/her eyes and “sleeps”, and only those characters that are called by the game master are allowed to open their eyes.
At night, it is time for the werewolves to attack. When they are called by the game master (“The werewolves may wake up now.”), they open their eyes and by silently pointing to one of the players, they have to unanimously decide whom they are going to kill. This way the game master is “told” who the next victim is going to be. Of course, the werewolves mustn’t make any noise and be very careful, because a single movement might give their identities away.
The werewolves, however, are not the only characters that are allowed to wake up at night. The Fortune Teller, for example, has the power to get to know the real identity of a player. Similarly to the werewolves she points silently at one player and the game master shows her the card. So she stays the only one who gets to know the information.
The Little Girl has a helpful skill, as well. She is allowed to squint or even open her eyes while the werewolves are awake. Nevertheless, with her power comes great danger, because if she is seen by any of the werewolves she will very likely be silenced by becoming their next victim.
Each night after the werewolves have gone back to sleep, the game master calls the Witch and shows her who the victim of the beasts is. The Witch has the skill of brewing potions that decide over life and death. Her life potion will spare one of werewolves’ victims, but her death potion will kill another player. She can decide whom she will give this fateful or lifesaving potion to, but she has to decide wisely: the Witch can only use each potion once in the entire game. Also, her aim is to help the villagers and to kill the werewolves, so her death potion should be aimed at one of them.
In order to mess up the life in Miller´s Hollow a little more, Cupido comes in. Of course, the players, who are hit by the arrow of this “matchmaker”, instantly and irrevocably fall in love with each other. They are not interested in any other villager’s fate any more, but only strive to keep each other alive, as the death of one means that the other one dies with him/her of grief.
The special ability of the Hunter is only revealed at his very end, because when the hunter dies, he shoots his gun for the last time, desperately trying to take a werewolf with him.
The Thief is offered the special opportunity of choosing between two different characters at the beginning of the game. By doing so he leaves the other player ignorant of what special character is, or is not part of the game.
The last character that is played in the game is the Ordinary Villager. These characters do not have any special skills and do not wake up during the whole night, but they can have very much impact on the whole game by listening carefully for suspicious sounds and observing the other players.
After the night is over and dawn is breaking in Miller’s Hollow, the game master commands everyone to open their eyes and the day-phase (and also the fun part of the game) begins. In this part of the game the real bluffing and role-acting of the players comes to light, because now the village is discussing who might be a werewolf. Maybe one of the villagers has heard some suspicious movements or the Fortune Teller has seen one of the Werewolves? They might want to give some indications, but they better not give away their real identity, as special characters are always a threat to the werewolves and so they want to kill them first. Of course, the werewolves themselves have to pretend to be innocent and to be part of the “good” side, because at the end of the discussion one of the players is “hanged”. This is the only main opportunity for the good villagers to get rid of the werewolves. At a parity of votes, the Sheriff has to be counted as two players, thus he settles the vote. At the beginning one of the players is elected to become the Sheriff, but when he dies he passes his badge on to another player.
After the day phase ends with the death of one of the citizens, the night phase starts, which is followed by a day phase, and so on. The players that have been killed (either by the werewolves, by the villagers etc.) do not participate in the game anymore. They are not allowed to give hints or to confuse the players, but are only spectators.
As the game continues the citizens become fewer and fewer. As already said the game goes on until only one citizen is left (or the lovers are left) and if this person is a werewolf, the party of the werewolves wins, but if it is any other “good” character, the villagers wins. If the lovers are left, the lovers win the game.
After the winners have celebrated their triumph, the cards are shuffled and another round of The Werewolves of Miller’s Hollow begins, because the players will have so much fun they will not want to stop. What makes this game so unique and popular (even addictive) is that the players need to bluff all the time and so by the end of the game everyone suspects everyone. Argumentation skills need to be used constantly in order to be convincing, while the ability to have someone’s number is sharpened.
How will your friends act if they need to keep it secret that they are werewolves? Will they be able to bluff their way out of a tricky questioning? Try it out yourself!
The Werewolves of Miller’s Hollow, distributed by Asmodee, or just make your own cards.
