One Night Ultimate Werewolf

Everyone gets a secret role, almost always on the village side or the werewolf side. At night some roles look at cards and secretly swap them, so at dawn some players are no longer who they think they are. Then everyone talks for a few minutes and votes once, all together. The village wins if at least one Werewolf dies; the werewolves win if no Werewolf dies. What counts is the card in front of you at the end, not the one you were dealt.

Deck

52 cards: as many as the players plus three, chosen with the rules below

In hand

1 each, face down in front of the player

On the table

three face-down cards in the center

There are always three more cards than players. For your first game the rules recommend playing with 3-5 players, with these cards:

For each extra player add one card of another role from the table below, so there are always three more cards than players. There are two Werewolves, no more. To vary the roles, instead, take out a card and replace it with another role, introducing no more than one or two roles new to the table at a time, so everyone understands them. Almost any combination works. Always use both Masons; use the Insomniac only with the Robber or the Troublemaker.

To find your way around: the aces are the Werewolves, numbers are the Villagers and every other role has a face card of its own.

1. The narrator One player is the narrator: they play like everyone else and call the roles at night with their eyes closed, but may open them between calls to check the order. Alternatively, the night can be called by Bezier Games' free app.
2. The roles in play Pick the cards and say the roles in play out loud, with how many of each: everyone knows which roles are there, nobody knows who has them or which ended up in the center.
3. The cards Shuffle the chosen cards, deal one face down to each player and put the three left over face down in the middle of the table. Unused cards go back in the box.
4. Each player's card Everyone secretly looks at their own card and puts it face down in front of them, near the three in the center: everyone must be able to reach every card easily.

What each role does, in the order it wakes up:

1. The night The narrator says "Everyone, close your eyes", and everyone does, the narrator too.
2. The calls The narrator calls the roles in play one at a time, meaning every role among the chosen cards, including those that may be in the center, in this order: Doppelgänger, Werewolves, Minion, Masons, Seer, Robber, Troublemaker, Drunk, Insomniac, and the Doppelgänger again if the Insomniac is in play. After waking a role they silently count to ten, the time for its action, then say "close your eyes"; for a role in the center the pause is the same. When they call their own role, they do their action without speaking. The lines to say are in the Summary.
3. The action You wake up for the role you saw at the start of the night, even if your card has changed since. Whoever is called opens their eyes, does their action in silence and closes them again when the narrator says so.
4. The cards nudged After the last call the narrator, eyes still closed, moves the cards around slightly, so nobody can claim a card was moved or looked at because it is no longer in its place.
5. Wake up The narrator says "Everyone, wake up!". From now on nobody looks at any card again: your role is the card in front of you now, which may differ from the one you saw at the start.
6. The discussion Talk about who the Werewolves are. You may say anything, but you never show your card.
7. The vote After a few minutes the narrator says "Three, two, one, vote!" and everyone at once points at another player. Keep pointing until it is settled who dies.
8. Who dies Whoever has the most votes dies and turns their card over. On a tie, all the most voted die and turn their cards over. If nobody has more than one vote, nobody dies. If the Hunter dies, the player they are pointing at dies too.
9. Who wins Turn every card over and see who won, following the rules below. You win and lose with the card in front of you at the end.

Who wins:

• The village: if at least one Werewolf dies, even if other players die too. Or if no player is a Werewolf, because both are in the center, and nobody dies.
• The werewolves: only if at least one player is a Werewolf and no Werewolf dies. The Minion wins with them, even if the Minion dies.
• The Minion without Werewolves: if no player is a Werewolf, the Minion wins as long as at least one other player, not the Minion, dies.
• The Tanner: wins only by dying. If the Tanner dies and no Werewolf does, the werewolves do not win. If the Tanner and a Werewolf die, the village wins too. If no player is a Werewolf and the Tanner dies, the village loses.

• For your first game, play with 3-5 players and the recommended cards; anyone left out can watch, since a game takes about ten minutes. The Doppelgänger is the most complicated role: leave it out until you know the others.
• For the narrator: tapping softly on the table during the night covers the noise of players looking at and moving cards. With new players or new roles, a longer pause during each role's action gives them time to decide and do it.
• How long the discussion lasts is up to the table, and larger groups need more time. After a few games with larger groups, the rules suggest a timer: when it goes off, everyone votes, and there is less idle talk.
• From 7 players up the center is hard to reach: stand during the night, or use a smaller table. At a long table, sit along the long sides, not at the ends.
• For the Werewolves: claim to be another role, so you do not die. Claiming to be a Villager is common.