Well, Dad it didn’t pass me by. It landed on my face.
A close friend sent my kids One Night Ultimate Werewolf for Christmas last month and I daresay he and his wife did a better job than Santa did…game nights are the norm in our home and since we have four kids (three are gaming age) sometimes playing a game with all three of them means my wife and I have to choose teams or one of us sits out to moderate. Enter One Night Ultimate Werewolf.
This is a nice little social deduction game where the way for the village team to win is pretty simple and straight-forward. You kill one of the Werewolves. There can be up to two in a game. But there’s a flip side. You could end up being one of the Werewolves and in that case you are no longer part of the village team and you most certainly do not want yourself or any other potential Werewolf to be killed. That’s when the deceit and misdirection and fun kicks in and makes Werewolf such a wonderful game.
Setup
To set up the game you take three more cards than you have players and each person takes one. Put the remaining three in the center of the table. Everyone looks at their own cards and assumes the role they see. Any Werewolves are on the werewolf team as is the Minion. Everyone else is on the village team, at least for now. Everyone lays their card face down and closes their eyes. So begins the Night Phase. One by one each role is called upon either by the announcer or the incredibly convenient app to open their eyes to do their actions. For example, Werewolves look for the other Werewolf. If only one player has opened his or her eyes then they can take a peak at one of the center cards. Each role has a specific ability to perform which ultimately makes determining who’s who in the next phase a little difficult. Especially if someone has a reason to be untruthful.
Once all the roles have opened their eyes and performed their actions, everyone opens their eyes. Now it’s time to discuss who the werewolf(ves) is(are). This is the Day Phase and no one is allowed to look at their cards again. After a few minutes (the app defaults to 5 minutes) everyone has to vote by pointing to the player that he or she believes is (or accuses as) a Werewolf. The person with the most votes has to reveal. If that player is a Werewolf then the werewolf team loses and the village team celebrates by rubbing it in the losers’ faces. But if the card revealed happens to be from the Village team then the werewolf team gets to revel in lycanthropic victory while the village team starts assigning blame to the weakest link. Game over. Short. Sweet. And infinitely replayable.
So who will enjoy this game?
Gee, who wouldn’t? We have played this game several times with just ourselves and with our kids’ friends as well as our nephews. It’s such a hit that when those visitors pop in they request that we play it again. From 7-year olds to adult non-gamers, we’ve seen first-hand how this game is appealing to everyone we have introduced it to. We’ve also learned a lot about those kids in playing this game. You should definitely try this game. You may be surprised at just how effectively and convincingly your children can deceive you. At least we did…we’ll keep that in mind in the future.
One Night Ultimate Werewolf has become a staple in our regular lineup and I think you and your family would love it too. If you have a Friendly Local Game Shop (FLGS) then I encourage you to stop in and make an inquiry on the game. Or you could try Amazon if you’re unfortunate enough to not have a FLGS in your area. Be sure to give Bézier Games’ other games a look too. Great stuff!
