The Werewolf Game: Basic Guide and Official Rules

[Nakah]

The Werewolf Game is a fun forum game that anyone can play.

This thread is an exhaustive explanation of what The Werewolf Game is, as well as how to play it. The original thread by Nakah (rather than this one which was edited here by Bird) can be found here. You don't necessarily need to read anything but the Procedure section to learn how to play, but I recommend it! It won't take more than 10 minutes anyway.

And all my players must follow and obey the rules listed below!


     Concept

The Werewolf Game (often abbreviated TWG) is a bluffing and detection game which pits a small team of wolves against a large team of humans. The game is played in a single thread which cycles through day and night "phases", with each phase lasting a day or two of real time. People who play the game are assigned a "role" at the beginning which determines which team they are on. If they are a wolf, they will know the identity of the other wolves and the team will privately agree on whom to kill each night phase. They're trying to kill as many humans as possible. And if you're assigned to the human team, you're trying to eliminate the wolves. This is done through a public voting process each day phase. Whoever has the most votes at the end of that day phase is "lynched".

The catch is that the wolves will be voting also, and the humans will have to determine whether somebody is a friend or a foe. They may successfully lynch a wolf, but they could also end up lynching an innocent human. They'll have to try and find players who are suspicious and interrogate them, pressing them on their behavior, examining every tiny move for a trace of guilt. And at the same time, the wolves will be lying, conniving and manipulating the humans into voting for other humans. They'll kill threats at night, and try and frame other humans for it.

It's all very exciting.

The game ends when the humans have lynched all the wolves (human victory), or when the number of wolves equals the number of humans (wolf victory). It can be exhilerating and very fun, but it demands a lot of attention.


     Procedure

Each TWG has a host who creates and runs a game. Hosts are decided through a democratic vote, but you can read this page if you want to learn about it more in depth.

After the host is chosen, that person will create a sign-up thread, where players who want to participate in that TWG express their interest. This is usually done by people just posting "in" in the thread, like this. Once all of the slots in that host's game have been filled, he'll create the game topic where the actual game is played, and you'll receive a personal message containing your role and possibly your allies.

Once the game topic is up, the game has begun. The Werewolf Game usually begins with a Night Phase. What phase it is will be announced by the host, who will also mention how long that phase will last (although Night Phases generally last about 24 hours and Day Phases last about 48 hours). During the Night Phase, the wolves will privately confer and decide on a human player to kill. Once they come to a decision, they PM that they are killing whatever player to the host. The wolves typically get one wolfing per night phase, so they should try and choose wisely.

Depending on the game, there may be other roles who have special abilities which activate at night. But more on those in the "Other Mechanics and Vocabulary" section. Beyond the wolves making a kill, there isn't usually a lot of thread activity at night. When the night phase ends, the host will reveal who the wolves killed, and that player will no longer be able to post in the thread (except for a token death post, where he says "well this sucks" or something). And then it's the day phase.

Day Phases are much more action packed than Night Phases, since everybody is voting and discussing who they think the wolves might be. The wolves, trying to look human, will be voting and discussing things as well. And although much of the discussion happens through posts, players are also encouraged to use PMs and our discord server.

If a player believes that another player was likely responsible for the wolfing (or is just acting suspicious and doesn't strike them as very human) they can vote for them by bolding their name in the thread, like this. Usually, this vote is accompanied by an explanation of why you think that player is a wolf. You are free to change your vote as many times as you'd like before the phase ends. But when the phase does end, the person with the most votes will be killed, and night falls once again.

If the phase ends when two players have the same number of votes, a "knife in the box" (kitb) situation occurs, and one of them will randomly die while the other survives.

If at any point in the day phase, a player receives more than half of the total votes in the game, the day phase instantly ends and that player is lynched. This is known as an "insta".

The game continues alternating between these day and night phases until one of the win conditions is met. To reiterate, the wolves win once the number of wolves equals the number of humans, and the humans win when all the wolves have been eliminated. When the game ends, a post-game thread will be created by the host, where he reveals the roles and players are free to discuss the game there.


     Other Mechanics and Vocabulary

Knife in the Box - A situation that occurs when a day phase ends with two or more players in a tie for receiving the most votes. One player is randomly chosen to be the lynch's victim.

Insta - If a player gets more than half of the game's votes in a single day phase, the phase isntantly ends and that player is killed. No phantoms are given out if somebody fails to vote in a day phase ended by an insta-lynch.

Special Roles - Many games feature special roles outside of typical "human" and "wolf". Here are some of the most common ones, with explanations.

• Guardian - Human-aligned special role. Every night phase, sends a PM to the host with a player's name. If that player is wolfed, they will survive the attack.
• Seer - Human-aligned special role. Every night phase, sends a PM to the host with a player's name. When day phase begins, the seer will learn the color of that player. Wolves appear red and humans appear green.
• Master Wolf - Wolf-aligned special role. Appears green to the Seer.
• Wolf Shaman - Wolf-aligned special role. Has the same power as the Seer.
• Miller - Human-aligned special role. Appears red to the Seer. May or may not know that he is the Miller.
• Herring - Human-aligned special role. Appears blue to the Seer. Usually does not know that he is the Herring
• Vigilante or Vigi - Human-aligned special role. Every night phase, sends a PM to the host with a player's name. That player dies when the night phase ends.
• Reviver - Human-aligned special role. Every night phase, sends a PM to the host with a dead player's name. That player will be alive at the start of the next phase.
• Psychic - Human-aligned special role. At the end of the night phase, will be told how many red players are still in the game
• Charismatic Human - Human with two lynch votes. May or may not know that he is the Charismatic Human
• Brutal Wolf - Wolf-aligned special role. If lynched, the Brutal Wolf will kill another Player.
• Wolfsbane - Human-aligned special role. The Wolfsbane cannot be wolfed.
• Loose Cannon - Human-aligned special role. Any Player that uses a power on the Loose Cannon is killed at the end of the Phase.  A wolfing is not considering using a power. May or may not know that he is the Loose Cannon.
• Coroner - Human-aligned special role. Is told the role or the color of every player that is killed.

Terms like "vigi'd and "seer'd" or "seer'd" refer to the actions of these roles. Unless stated otherwise, such actions can only target living players.

Safety Vote - A safety vote is a vote made if you don't believe you'll have time that phase to make an actual vote. They're made on players who are not likely to be lynched, and are highly discouraged as they do not help anyone.

Claims - Claiming is when somebody says that they have a certain role. It might be beneficial for a Guardian to claim, since they can have other special roles claim to them, while guarding themselves at night so they aren't wolfed. This would form a powerful human alliance. False claiming involves saying that you're one role when you're actually a completely different role.

Counterclaims - If somebody false claims, the person who really has that role is encouarged to counterclaim. If a wolf false claimed guardian, hoping for other special humans to claim to him, the real guardian should counterclaim so that nobody believes the wolf.

Bandwagon or Bandwagoning - Bandwagoning is when somebody votes for a player who everyone else is voting for. He or she doesn't provide a reason for the vote, they just go with the crowd. This is a common strategy employed by wolves, and a common mistake made by humans.

Mystery Games - A mystery game is one where the roles are not known by the players. To get one of these games approved, it must be sent privately to the TWC who will then not be able to play it (as he'll know the roles). These play out a lot differently than regular games, since players will be very cautious. These also are generally capable of featuring many special roles.

Manhunts - A manhunt is a special kind of TWG with just one wolf, and little to no special roles on the human side. Here is an example.

Menhunts - A game with multiple wolves and no special roles on the human side. Here is an example.

Manti Rule - Once upon a time, there was a TWG player who went by the name Manti. He was soooooo good at TWG, everybody died. Well, something like that. But he was really quite good, and ended up being wolfed on night 1 whenever he was human. And if he wasn't wolfed night 1, players reasoned that he must be a wolf that game and killed him. The Manti Rule refers to cases where players seem suspicious by the fact that they weren't wolfed early in the game.



     Rules

1. Players are not allowed to share their role PMs or conversations with the host. If all the humans just screenshotted their role PMs and put them in the thread, it would be obvious who the wolves were and the game would fall apart. This also includes copying and pasting conversations or PMs with the host, or sharing any information contained in your role PM, such as the time it was sent.

2. Players are not allowed to edit/delete their posts for ANY reason. Moderators are not allowed to edit/delete anyone's posts without host consent. Moderators are allowed to delete posts by users not in the current TWG who post in the thread. A player who edits a post without receiving explicit permission from the host/TWC will receive a warning. Further offenses will result in game bans.

3. Only living players are permitted to post in a TWG game thread. Dead players are not permitted to post or discuss the game with surviving players. Living players are not allowed to send private messages to dead players. People not in the current TWG are prohibited from posting in the game thread.

4. Players are allowed to share PMs and chat logs sent from other players. They are allowed to forge fake PMs and chat logs sent from other players. But they are not allowed to impersonate other players or the host, fake logs or PMs from the host or anything of that nature. If you have a question about any part of this rule, ask the host or the TWC before making a mistake.

5. Unless stated otherwise, at latest at the start of player sign-ups, player sign-ups are first-come, first-serve.

6. The Host reserves the right to admit or kick any player prior to or during a game, so long as he has sufficient reason to do so.

7. Playing in a single TWG with two accounts is cheating. Punishments for offenders will be severe.

8. A topic related to a current game may only be posted by the host of that game.

9.  Players who submit games to host sign-up topics are prohibited from submitting games to the next two host sign-up topics. This does not apply to games that get second place in those sign-ups, which get a free do-over. Furthermore, after your game has won the hosting poll, you have 7 days to get your game up and running before permission to host is given to the player who got second place in the poll. This rule is currently not in effect.

10. The host is allowed to replace inactive players with players on the substitute list.

11. The moderators of The Werewolf Game, known as The Werewolf Council, reserve the right to change/add rules or deal punishments as appropriate. Do not abuse loopholes or attempt to break games because certain mechanics are not specifically prohibited by the rules. If you are curious about whether something is allowed, send a PM to any member of the TWC, or the game's host.

12. Read this for the rules regarding the new anonymous accounts. Otherwise, ignore it.

Spoiler

The following accounts have been created for anonymous games:

1. TWG Mario
2. TWG Luigi
3. TWG Bowser
4. TWG Yoshi
5. TWG Waluigi
6. TWG Link
7. TWG Kirby
8. TWG Pikachu
9. TWG Samus
10. TWG Fox
11. TWG DK
12. TWG Falcon
13. TWG Pit
14. TWG Snake
15. TWG Sonic
16. TWG Master Chief
17. TWG Ness
18. TWG Tingle
19. TWG Haruhi Suzumiya
20. TWG VermillionDollars

This thread will detail how these accounts will be used as well as what rules are associated with them. These will eventually be added to the rules topic, but I feel an announcement like this is necessary for such a radical change.

Once your game wins, you can put up a sign-up topic. At this point, if you want to utilize the special accounts, send davy a PM specifying which of the 20 accounts you would like to use. You'll get the passwords to those accounts. You are encouraged to change the passwords before the game starts (and make sure to update the google docs before the game ends if you do so) and you can distribute those passwords to the players whenever you want (either at the beginning for an anonymous game or in the middle if you just want an anonymous phase). You can give players multiple anonymous accounts as well, or give multiple players one anonymous account. After the post-game goes up, the passwords of the accounts will be changed, and the users will be locked out.

1. Under no circumstances is a player or host permitted to modify the email address associated with any of the anonymous accounts. This will result in a permanent ban.
2. The anonymous accounts are not permitted to post in any topic besides the game one for which they were distributed.
3. Hosts will be given the passwords to each anonymous account, but they are not allowed to log into those accounts to gather information.
4. Hosts are allowed to change the avatars and signatures of these accounts prior to the game thread going up. If he or she elects to do so, players are disallowed from modifying the accounts or signatures. It is the host's responsibility to return the accounts to normal.
5. Players may change the avatars of each account as long as the avatar is still clearly representative of the account name. They are not permitted to change the signatures.
6. Hosts may place additional restrictions on each of these accounts regarding changes or posting styles, but it is up to him to enforce these rules.

[close]

15. Unless explicitly permitted by the host of a game, posting screenshots is now against the rules. A player who post a screenshot without receiving explicit permission from the host/TWC will receive a warning. Further offenses will result in game bans.


16. Be nice. Have fun. Be a good sport.


Use this thread for asking questions about the rules, or complaining about the rules. For instance, why can't we edit posts at night??????????

[Bird]

Under Construction

[Yugi]

6. Don't post in game threads unless you are in that game.

I was wondering when that loophole would be found out.

[Toby]

Are you allowed to fake chat usernames?

Eg. Could I go into Mibbit and make my username BDS and try frame him?

[Bubbles]

7. Players are allowed to share PMs and chat logs sent from other players. They are allowed to forge fake PMs and chat logs sent from other players. But they are not allowed to impersonate other players or the host, fake logs or PMs from the host or anything of that nature. If you have a question about any part of this rule, ask the host or the TWC before making a mistake.

[Bird]

its TWC + bubbles now

[Bubbles]

its TWC + bubbles now

[Yugi]

Are you allowed to fake chat usernames?

Eg. Could I go into Mibbit and make my username BDS and try frame him?

I doubt it.

Also I'm pretty sure IP or something like that would ruin it.

And what if we play with an alt account, but not with our original Account?
Ninja'd.
Ninja'd again.

[Toby]

Missed that.

[BlackDragonSlayer]

Are you allowed to fake chat usernames?

Eg. Could I go into Mibbit and make my username BDS and try frame him?

U_U

Then I'd know that you were a wolf.

[Toby]

Obviously I'd tie you up and stick a sock in your mouth first!

[spitllama]

It's all very exciting.

Thank you for that. I did need some last-minute convincing.

[Waddle Bro]

this one found on another forum.

SHIT I was going to make a game exactly like that.

[Bird]

Bomb games are fun, and there's plenty of room for variation. Don't let his game dissuade you from making your own!

[Yugi]

Bomb games are fun, and there's plenty of room for variation. Don't let his game dissuade you from making your own!

Or just bribe him to make him host it over here.