I was introduced to Werewolf by my best friend, but it wasn’t really until my first conventions that I fell in love with this game. Gathering 20 people in a small room, half of whom you’ve never met before, to slowly kill off based on first impressions. Plus one person gets to play God. It’s great! 
You are randomly given a card by the person playing God (the Game Master) which tells you whether you’re the evil, but fun, werewolf or a villager. The werewolves get to eat people in the night, slowly whittling down the village till it’s just you and your werewolf chums or a villager, whose primary function is to be eaten. Always better when you’re the one doing the murdering, but you’ll get your turn eventually. Every night the werewolves choose who to eat and then in the morning the village votes on who should be lynched in response. Because of course, the best response to finding your neighbour dead is to democratically choose someone in the village to murder and hope you guessed right. This day and night cycle continues until either all the villagers or all the werewolves are dead.
There are several extensions to this which include special cards. I personally have the ‘Best of Werewolf’ version, which includes a ludicrous amount of special cards. It’s simply not possible to have all of them out at once, as otherwise the werewolves always win. So I recommend rotating them out and finding a top five you really like: Witch, Hunter, Cupid, Seer and White Werewolf. They’re my favourite and in my opinion always lead to a good lasting game. Plus one of my favourite things to do is to try and see if I can chain four deaths using the special abilities.
I love this game dearly. Desperately trying to convince people you’re not a werewolf is really funny and difficult when put on the spot at 3am, regardless of whether you were a werewolf. Plus, how often do you get to defend yourself from being lynched? 
In short, this game is great! I miss playing it.
This article was brought to you by Alex Wren, Social Media Area Head in Promotions Glasgow in 2024. Alex lives in the Glasgow area and is currently doing a PhD in Biomedical Engineering. When she isn’t being our fabulous overlady of social media, she enjoys cosplay, running and playing Dungeons & Dragons, video games and loves board games. This Rookie’s Guide to Games Series is her excuse to try new games and expand her collection. You can find more posts from the series HERE.
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