[StoicRoivaS]

What is The Werewolf Game? The Werewolf Game, hereforth referred to as TWG, is a party game derived from a very similar party game called Mafia. In its original form, Mafia was played in person using only a deck of cards or pencil and paper. Since then, it has evolved into its current online form called TWG.

TWG is a game of good and evil, gambles and rewards, and, most importantly, fact and fiction. TWG, in its most traditional form, puts a team of werewolves against an entire village full of everyday humans. From there on, it’s a fight for survival.

Semantics of TWG:

During the first night at the village, someone is killed, and the body is discovered the next morning. The town, distraught at what has happened, decides to do what humans do best, blame someone. Through a day-long process of debates and deliberation, someone is eventually hung, and the town goes back to sleep, praying the nightmare is over. As long as there are still werewolves left to feast upon the village, the killings continue. The wolves slaughter an innocent human during the course of the night, only to transform back into humans during the day time and go through the rounds of “who did it” along with the rest of the village. The werewolves are, obviously, more powerful than the humans, but they are faced with an entire village full of humans, and for this reason they chose to kill silently during the night. After attacking enough humans to dwindle their number, the wolves will transform and attack openly during the day, slaughtering the village as a whole. The nightmare ends for either side when all of it’s opponents are gone, that is, when either all wolves are lynched, or all humans are murdered.

Syntax of TWG:

TWG is a game of phases, aptly named “night” and “day”. The game starts on a “night” and is stopped on “night” until the requisites are met. In a typical game there are special roles, good and bad alike, that are required to PM the host certain things to progress the game. The wolves need to decide who they would like to kill, and any special human roles need to decide any choices relevant to their role. Once all information is sent to the host, the host will update the village (thread) with the resolution of the events of the night, and the phase will be moved to “day”. At this point the village determines who they would like to lynch as a potential wolf. This is typically accomplished through a standard voting system. The conditions for day ending can vary slightly, but once a decision is made via one of these conditions, that person is lynched and removed from the game. The game then proceeds to “night” and the cycle starts over again. The game ending conditions are similar, yet slightly different for each team. The humans win when the final wolf is lynched and the wolves win when the number of wolves equals the number of humans after a lynch. The wolves win at this point because they could merely transform and attack the rest of the remaining humans (vote them into being lynched, if you will).

Game Structure:

The game structure varies largely from game to game, but many underlying themes tie all games together. In a typical game, there are somewhere between 10 and 20 players who are each given a role at random from the list of possible roles for that game. This role is secret and is not to be shared with ease (Note: Sharing PMs from the host is not allowed at all). Typically there is a team of wolves who are aware of each other from the start of the game, in approximately a 1:4 ratio with the number of humans. There are also a few special humans that have powers above and beyond the normal human (they are not aware of each other typically). The remaining players are normal villagers (entirely on their own). Once roles are given out, the host will start the game on the first “night” phase (night 1) and the game will proceed from there. All roles requiring contact with the host during the night phase will do so as instructed and everyone else will await the day (not posting in the thread typically). Once the events of the night are resolved, the host will alert the village as to what has happened and the game will be moved into the first “day” phase. Anyone killed over the course of the “night” is dead and removed from the game, disallowed to post further in the thread. From here the villagers decide whom they would like to lynch through the process decided upon by the host (the typical process will be described later). After a verdict has been reached, through majority, time limit, or other condition, the town lynches the suspect and that person is dead and removed from the game, disallowed to post further in the thread. The game then proceeds back to the “night” phase (night 2) and the process repeats until one of the above end-game conditions is met.

Common roles found in a typical TWG:

There are a few roles that are bound to show up in nearly every TWG played. The host of any specific game may tailor the roles to their liking, but the common roles and their traditional interpretations are as follows:

Seer:
The seer is akin to a village shaman of sorts. Each night the Seer will concentrate on a specific member of the village and have a “vision” of that member. The vision will tell the Seer varying degrees of information about the villager, depending on the host’s interpretation of the role. Sometimes the Seer is revealed that the person is either human or not-human, and other times it is revealed whether or not they are human, wolf, or special human. The player who is the Seer will PM the host the name of the (living) player they would like to have a vision of, and the host will PM the results back to them at some point. Both of these actions will happen over the “night” phase.

Guardian:
The Guardian is essentially a body guard. Each night the Guardian protects the house of one villager of his or her choice. This action keeps the wolves from attacking the house over the course of the night. If the wolves try to attack the guarded player, the attack is unsuccessful. Mechanically, the role works similarly to the Seer. The Guardian PMs the name of the player they’d like to guard overnight to the host, and the host takes this into account when resolving the events of the night. The host has a few options when it comes to revealing what happened in the morning, but often it will be announced that player X was guarded successfully.

Psychic:
The Psychic is basically what you would expect to get when applying the word psychic to TWG. Each “night” the Psychic will receive a report from the host telling them how many wolves are left. Assuming that the wolves kill a human each night, this essentially tells the village whether their previous day’s lynch was that of a human or wolf; a very powerful tool for the village to have.

Wolfsbane:
The Wolfsbane role has two prominent variants. One of which entails a townsperson that is immune to the nightly wolf attacks. This is generally said to be accomplished by spreading the Wolfsbane herb over their door at night. If the Wolfsbane is chosen to be attacked by the wolves, the attack is unsuccessful and it is up to the host as to what their “morning” post will say concerning this, if anything. The second, and less common, variant is similar to the role of Guardian, with a twist. The second variant on the Wolfsbane role can protect anyone but themselves over the course of the night. If the person they chose to protect is the target of the wolves’ nightly attack, they will still be slain, but a random wolf will die along with them during the attack.

Master Wolf:
The Master Wolf functions as any normal wolf would, collaborating over nightly kills and helping his teammates hide among the humans, save for one major defining difference. If the Master Wolf is chosen by the Seer to be the target of their nightly vision, the Master Wolf will be returned as “human” to the Seer, by the host. This enables the wolves to more easily gain the trust of the humans.

Notes of Interest:

The Colors:
The colors are associated with different teams and or roles. Typically, TWG is about villagers and werewolves. In this typical game, the werewolves are referred to as "red" and the normal villagers (or humans) are referred to as "green". The special human roles, like wolfsbane or guardian, are referred to as "blue". Because of the nature of the game, often the host will make up a story to go along with the setting of their game idea. So the game may not always be about werewolves and villagers. Sometimes it may be about republicans vs democrats (as a recent game here was) or other times it may be about townspeople and hitmen. The colors are a way to refer to the different sides or roles regardless of the story setting they're placed in. So if the setting of a game were about townspeople and hitmen, the hitmen would be called "red" and the normal townspeople would be called "green" and if there were any special townspeople they would be called "blue". These are just generic terms to refer to the different sides or roles and people will know just as well what you mean if you always call them humans and wolves.



This is draft 1 of a work in progress. Suggestions and clarifications are welcome but please try to put them in the thread as infrequently as possible. If you see a spelling or grammar error, I haven't proofread this fully so there's bound to be millions, just send me a PM or message over aim. There's no use in crowding the thread over an apostrophe or two. There is a "detailed" version in the works in which I will attempt to clarify the finer points of TWG, phantoms, less common roles, possibly some strategy tips, etc. Please do not suggest things of this nature at the moment either. This is meant to be the "basic" guide to hold over the newer players until I have time to finish the "detailed" guide. If something integral to the game is missing from this, feel free to point it out, otherwise keep an eye out for the detailed version, hopefully in the next few days.

PS <3 Guido <3