One Night Ultimate Werewolf
“That’s what the Werewolf would say” is a common comment in our family. Other people look at us strangely. I just look at them with pity since they obviously have never played One Night Ultimate Werewolf. At family gatherings, we are into quick, quirky social deduction games and Werewolf is at the top of our list.
Even the setup of Werewolf is fun: You pick a set of role cards equal to the number of players plus three. Each role has its own special ability. This means that the game plays different each time and you can get some very unique combinations of roles. Most are the good guys: Villagers! Others are Werewolves or maybe a Minion helper. We use the awesome app to drive the game. The app is funny and keeps the game moving.
Each player is randomly dealt a face down role card and the remaining three cards are placed face down in the middle of the table. Each person takes a peek at their role card and secretly assumes that role. Then everyone closes their eyes and wakes up as instructed by the app. You move, swap, peek or do other things to your role card or other role cards based upon your initial role. After each player has had a turn, everyone wakes up. You can’t look at the role card in front of you but you are now that role. You then have 5 minutes to talk and try to figure out which players are Werewolves. Then everyone votes. If the player with the most votes is currently a Werewolf the Villagers win otherwise the Werewolves win.
The 5 minute discussion is a blast as players try to deduce how the player cards were moved and from there what role each player had at the start and more importantly at the end of the game. Also involves bluffing from the Werewolf team and switching of tales as people realize that they may have started the game as a good villager but after the card movement they are now a Werewolf.
The game takes about 15 minutes to play. We have played with kids as young as 8. .It has great artwork and simple directions. If you get the app you can skip most of the instructions. It is one of the games that the kids will run downstairs to grab and ask us to play with them!
One Night Ultimate Werewolf is from Bezier games. They have several expansion packs that are great and the app is faithfully updated to support the expansions.
Remember: “That’s what the Werewolf would say.”