The idea
Every player secretly gets a role card. Most players are on the village team, a few are werewolves, and there may be oddballs with agendas of their own (the Tanner wants to be voted out; the Minion is on the wolves’ side without being one). During a single night, roles wake up one after the other to peek at, swap or protect cards. In the morning nobody is quite sure which card they hold any more. After a short discussion everyone votes at once, and the team that got what it wanted wins.
Setup
- 3 to 12 players. The host picks the roles; the deck holds three more cards than players.
- Each player is dealt one card face down; the three extra cards stay face down in the center.
- With the Alpha Wolf, a fourth center card, the Center Werewolf, is placed sideways next to the other three.
- Some roles need company: Masons come in pairs and the Alpha Wolf needs another Werewolf in the deck. The role picker enforces this.
Online, the host creates a table, shares the code, link or QR, arranges the seat order to match the real room (neighbours matter for some roles), builds the deck and starts. Everyone plays on their own phone.
The night
Look at your card once, then close your eyes. The app then wakes the roles in the official order: the wolves find each other, the Seer looks at a card, the Robber steals one, the Troublemaker swaps two other players’ cards, and so on. When it is your turn, your phone shows what you may do and only you see what you learn. Roles that cannot affect each other act at the same time, so a ten-player night still takes a minute or two.
Roles whose card ended up in the center still “wake”: the app pauses for them so nobody can tell whether a role is in play. A shielded card (Sentinel) cannot be viewed or moved.
The day
The sun rises and the timer starts. Talk. Claim your role, share what you saw, catch the lies. Everything the night taught you is listed under “What you learned tonight”. Anyone may press Skip to vote; the vote starts when everyone has, when the timer runs out, or when the host ends the day.
The vote
- Everyone votes at the same time. You may not vote for yourself.
- The player with the most votes dies. On a tie, everyone tied dies.
- If nobody receives more than one vote, nobody dies (the “circle vote”). The village wins only if no werewolf was in play.
- The Hunter’s target dies too if the Hunter dies. A Bodyguard’s target cannot die. The Prince cannot die.
Who wins
| Team | Wins when |
|---|---|
| Village | At least one werewolf dies. With no werewolves in play: nobody dies. |
| Werewolves | No werewolf dies (and the Tanner does not die). |
| Minion | Wins with the werewolves even if the Minion dies. Without any werewolf: wins if another player dies. |
| Tanner | Dies. When the Tanner dies, the werewolves lose. |
| Aliens, Blob, Mortician… | Each has its own goal, printed on the card and shown on the results screen. |
What counts is the card in front of you at the end of the night, not the one you were dealt. The results screen shows every card, every vote and the full night log, so you can see exactly what happened.
Playing together, apart or both
The table works for people in one room, people on a video call, or a mix. When the host turns on video and voice during the day, remote players see and hear each other through the app during the day, the vote and the results, never at night. A group sitting together picks one phone or laptop as the table’s camera and speaker; everyone else at that table stays silent on their own device, which keeps a shared room free of echo.
Tips for a good first game
- Start with the classic deck: two Werewolves, Seer, Robber, Troublemaker and a Villager.
- Talk early. Silence helps the wolves.
- Claim something. A player with no claim is the easiest vote at the table.
- Remember that the Robber and the Troublemaker move cards: the Seer may no longer be the Seer.