Werewolf (hidden role game)

Werewolf is a hidden role game made by Dmitry Davidoff in 1986. It is also called Mafia. The game is usually between two teams. There is an evil team that less players belong to. This group knows who is good and who is evil. They have to hide that they are evil from the good team. There is the good team, called the village, that has most of the players. People in this team have to find out who is good and bad. Everyone is given their role at the beginning of the game by a person who is not playing, called a moderator. The game has two stages, day and night. At night, everyone closes their eyes. The moderator tells the evil team to open their eyes. They choose someone to kill or remove from the game. Some other roles on both teams can do things at night. In the day, everyone opens their eyes. The players that are still alive will talk to each other about everyone's roles. They also each choose someone to kill, and the person that the most people choose will be killed. The game keeps going until only the members from one team are left.

Players making accusations in a game of Werewolf.
Other name(s)	Mafia
Designer(s)	Dmitry Davidoff
Players	At least 6 for classic
Setup time	< 6 minutes
Playing time	15–60 minutes
Skill(s) required	Strategic thought, team play, social skills, roleplay

History

Dmitry Davidoff (Russian: Дми́трий Давы́дов, Dmitry Davydov) is usually said to have made the game. He says he first made the game in Spring 1987 at the Psychology department of Moscow State University. He made it to do psychology research and his job of teaching high school students. It got popular in other Soviet colleges and school in the 1990s. It also started to be played in some parts of Europe and the United States.

Andrew Plotkin made a werewolf theme for the mafia rules in 1997. He said that mafia was not that big of a cultural reference. He also said that werewolves made sense in the rules. Werewolves are bad creatures that hide in the day. Many science fiction writer groups and people at tech events started playing mafia.

A person with the username "mithrandir" ran a game of werewolf on the website The Grey Labyrinth's forum in August 2000. The Grey Labyrinth is a website about solving puzzles. The website says that this was the first werewolf game that was played on a forum.

Some parents in Rockingham complained to a school there. They were scared of bad effects that the game could have on their kids. Davidoff said that the game could "teach kids to distinguish right from wrong." He also said that the good lesson of being honest was stronger than the scariness of the game.

About.com said that Werewolf one of the 50 most important games since 1890.

Playing

Simpler games have players put into two teams. This is the evil team and the good team. The evil team is called the werewolves. The good team is called the village. Games will need someone who is not playing. This person is called the moderator. Everyone will get a card before the game starts. This card will give them a role. Each role is part of a team. The role might also have powers. These powers can do many things. An example is finding out a player's team.

The game has two stages. These are night and day. At night the werewolves open their eyes. They silently choose who to kill. At day all players vote on someone to lynch. The village also finds out who was killed at night.