Werewolves and Villagers and Troublemakers, Oh My! Turn the lights down and get ready to find that werewolf amongst you…

I See The Bad Moon A-Risen’

One Night Ultimate Werewolf is a classic social deduction game that is quick to play and full of fun. Firstly, you adjust the cards in play based on number of players (always 3 more cards than players). Then you shuffle and deal one card to each player, leaving the final three cards in the middle. Finally, all players secretly view their character card and replace it facedown in front of them.

I See Trouble On The Way

Now we move on to the Night phase of One Night Ultimate Werewolf. All players close their eyes and one player designated as the announcer calls out the instructions for all players. There is also a free app that you can download which will do the announcing for you, which I would suggest using just for ease. During the night phase, if you are a character that has a night time ability you will wake up when instructed and perform that action.

Don’t Go Around Tonight

As you go through the characters and perform the action related to you, you will be gathering information that will be useful during the next phase. For example the Seer gets to look at another player’s card or two of the centre cards. The robber gets to switch their card with another player (let’s hope you don’t become a werewolf!) and the Troublemaker can switch two other people’s cards. Once the announcer or the app is finished going through all the characters in play everyone will be told to wake up.

Well It’s Bound To Take Your Life

Now begins the day phase of the game. Here players will discuss the information they have and try to work out which players are werewolves. Of course the werewolves won’t just admit to being werewolves as their goal is to remain undetected so not all of the information you’ll be sharing will be entirely accurate. You must also bear in mind then you may not be the character that you started as anymore and may need to switch your allegiance quickly if you think your card has been swapped! Using your powers of deduction you must work out who to trust and who is spending their nights howling at the moon! Once the discussion is over one player counts down 3, 2, 1, Vote! All players must then point at the player they would like to kill. All players on the village team will be voting for who they think is a werewolf, werewolves will be voting for a villager. The player with the most fingers pointing at them dies and reveals their card. If there are an equal number of votes for more than one player they both die and reveal their cards. The village team wins if at least one werewolf dies. The werewolf team wins if no werewolves die.

There’s A Bad Moon On The Rise

One Night Ultimate Werewolf is so quick to play and very easy to teach and pick up. It’s an entry level social deduction and certainly one to be played before moving on to something like Blood on the Clocktower. It’s simple enough that the whole family can get involved, the kids love it! We had lots of laughs playing this late last Christmas Day and the shrieks of laughter as you realise that your sister and brother were just lying right to your face and you had no idea, will ring long in my ears!

This blog was written by Alana Wren