Introduction
Some of the people in the village have turned into werewolves, but no one knows who! Will the werewolves eat everyone in the town, or can the villagers sniff out the blighted before it's too late?!
Werewolf is a game of bluffing and deception. There are a small number of werewolves and a large number of villagers. The villagers are trying to sniff out the werewolves and kill them. The werewolves are trying to kill the villagers without being caught. The villagers have the advantage of numbers, and the detective and doctor to help them. The werewolves have the advantage of information.
The game is run by a moderator, who should be chosen before starting the game. It proceeds in a series of days and nights, starting with night.
Night time
During the night, the players have their eyes closed. The Moderator will ask each special role to open their eyes one by one, silently indicate to the moderator what they want to do, and close their eyes again before the players with the next role do the same.
The players that do something during the night are as follows.
Werewolves — The werewolves silently choose someone to kill, and indicate that to the moderator.
Detective — The detective silently chooses someone to investigate. The moderator silently tells the detective whether that person is a werewolf.
Doctor — The doctor silently chooses someone to save. If the doctor happens to choose the same person that the werewolves chose to kill, that person survives the night.
Day Time
During the day, all of the players have their eyes open and identities are concealed. Players can say anything they want, lie, decieve, whatever it takes. Dead players can say nothing. The moderator can say nothing other than to move the game along. The moderator must force all of the players (werewolves included; they are pretending to be villagers) to come to a decision on who they would like to kill. This is usually done by allowing discussion until it seems to be stalling, then calling for nominations and a vote. During the vote the accused players should defend themselves. Each player can vote for as many other players as they would like. If a majority votes for any single player, that player is killed (Only one player per round.) The identity of the player is not revealed, and it becomes night time again. Killed players sit out of the game until the end.
Game end
The game ends when either all of the werewolves have been killed, or enough villagers have been killed that the remaining villagers no longer have a majority, so they can no longer vote to kill the remaining werewolves.
Number of Werewolves
Determining the best number of werewolves for a given number of players is mathematically very complicated. Thankfully, this app does it for you automatically! Just select your number of players, and turn the detective and doctor on or off as desired, and the best werewolf count will be filled in.
Example
Here is what an example round sounds like:
"It's night time. Everyone go to sleep."
Everyone closes their eyes.
"Werewolves wake up."
Werewolves open their eyes
"Werewolves, who you would like to kill?"
After a bunch of significant eye movements back and forth, the two werewolves both nod at Jim.
"Ok werewolves, go to sleep."
"Detective, wake up."
The detective opens his eyes.
"Detective, who would you like to investigate?"
The detective nods at Steve.
"Ok, detective, go to sleep."
"Doctor, wake up."
The doctor opens his eyes.
"Doctor who would you like to save?"
The doctor nods at Susie.
"Ok, doctor go to sleep."
"It's morning again, and I'm sorry to report that Jim has been killed by the werewolves."
Chaos ensues as all of the players try to figure out which of the players has an incentive to kill Jim. Jim's girlfriend is an obvious candidate since he can read her, and would be a threat to her, but that might be too obvious, so maybe the werewolves are trying to frame her.
"Ok everyone, enough discussion, Let's have some nominations."
The players nominate Jim's girlfriend Janet. They also nominate Susie for no good reason except that when she's a werewolf, she's really good. After impassioned defenses, the players vote for Susie, and Susie is killed.
"It's night time again. Close your eyes and go to sleep.