Werewolf aka Maffia: my favourite game EVER!

Long overdue that I would make a blogpost about that game that I've played over the world, with so many different people and so many heated discussions: Werewolf - Les Loups-Garou de Thiercelieux!

In the most basic version of the game, minimum 5 players receive one card that either says "villager" or "werewolf" -sometimes also called "Maffia" (usually there are 2 werewolfs in this basic version). These cards are put face down on the table, and the the master of the game asks everybody to close their eyes - night fase. Then the Master of the Game asks the werewolves to open their eyes, and without talking they turn over discreetly one card of one of the villagers, who is thereby killed. Next, everybody opens their eyes and the entire village discovers who has been assassinated and therefor remains out of the game (can't talk but only watch). During this day fase, everybody raises suspicions about who they feel is the werewolf, and arguments based on obvious lies, bad acting and strategy fly back and forth. In the end, everybody raises their hands and simultanously points the person they feel is the werewolf. Whoever receives most votes is "lynched" and has to turn his/her card around, thus dying. If it is the werewolf, congrats to the villagers and they try to kill all of the werewolves this way, if on the other hand it is an innocent villager, well, they just made the werewolves job easier... The game continues with more nights and days until either the werewolves have killed off everybody, or till both the werewolves have managed to kill all the villagers.
For more info, go to wikipedia or another, more historical website is this one. There are many variants and additionnal characters that can make it a lot more interesting.
Characters I usually include:
- the werewolf
- the witch : who can kill one other card just after having been killed
- the alchemist: has a potion of life so he can ressurect himself once
- the fortune teller: during the night fase, before the werewolves open their eyes, consults one card and puts it back in the same way. She helps look for the werewolf but should be carefull how she discloses her info since she is a likely target for the werewolves.
- Romeo & Juliette: if one of them gets killed, the other one has to turn over his/her card as well and dies too.
- Angel & Demon: have to respectively choose somebody (their own choice from the beginning of the game) to protect or accuse during discussions (but don't have to vote for them).
- the thief: has the power to swop three cards from other people then himself after a specific card "eclipse" has been killed (if the thief has been killed before that card is turned over, he is died and can't act).
- the Doctor: if he's been killed, he can ressusitate somebody else that already has been killed.
- the scapegoat: in case of equality of votes during the day, neither of the two indicated people die, but the scapegoat has to come forward and turn over his card.

I just love this game since it is all arguments, discussing and strategy. Personnaly, I don't like guessing from the sounds that one can pick up during the night, I like to stick to guessing wether someone is lying or not. You can also add a separate stack of "events" card that are turned over at each day fase and go for instance:
- voting by innocence: everybody stands up, last werewolf victim begins by sitting down and innocenting the person he/she feels is less likely to be the werewolf. That person also sits down and also innocents somebody and so forth. The last person standing has one card that dies.
- forbidden words: like "I" or "werewolf" words are not allowed during the discussion. If somebody does mention these words, they cannot vote.
- women can only vote for women, or young against old, stuff like that.
- a question regarding the identity of the werewolf can be asked to the master of the game or one of the dead people (if the werewolf was an actor/actrice, who would he/she be?

I have however had to adapt since we were often in small company (4 or 5) and then I actually play a variant that I am pretty proud of (and that I can't see mentionned anywhere else):
- There is only one werewolf.
- Instead of just one card (and therefor one life), every player has 2 or 3 or even 4 cards (and thus lifes). If one gets killed, the player continues playing till everyone of his cards have been killed. Everyone is playing with a combination of characters and tries to establish his best strategy of survival. Therefor, the werewolf also has other characters, but his werewolf role prevails and he can use the other characters to kill of his victims as well (for instance, look with the fortuneteller which would be the best victim).

ENJOY!!