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They smell your fear

The village is infested with werewolves, but no-one knows who they are. Every night someone dies, and every morning the bloodthirsty mob lynch whoever they think done it.

This is a non-RPG party game, also suitable for play in a crowded AnteChamber ?. Renamed so as not be confused with the other game (and it makes sense too :)

Setup

The GM secretly picks two werewolves and one shaman. The werewolves should not know who the shaman is and vice versa. Obviously the townsfolk should not know the identity of any of the three.

Play cycle

The GM calls for players to open and close their eyes as appropriate...

Night phase Everyone closes their eyes.
Wolf phase Werewolves open their eyes. Werewolves silently pick a victim. Werewolves close their eyes. (If only one werewolf is alive he picks a victim on his own. If no werewolves are alive the GM still calls.)
Shaman phase Shaman opens her eyes. Shaman silently points out a townsman. GM silently indicates (nod or shake of the head) whether the townsman is a werewolf. Shaman closes her eyes. (If the Shaman has been eliminated the GM still calls.)
Day phase Everyone opens their eyes. GM reveals who has been eaten during the night.
Lynch phase Slander and mayhem. The majority decide who is lynched by a show of hands. This person is out of the game. (The Shaman will have additional information but should be careful not to reveal her status to the werewolves.)
Night phase Everyone closes their eyes. Aarrroouuuuuuw!

Endgame

Werewolf victory One or two werewolves remain alive. (Burp)
Town victory A night passes without a killing. The werewolves have been eliminated through the wholesome application of mob justice.

Comments

d@vid Apr 29 2003:

I originally came across this game on an InteractiveFiction ? author's site, I think, but I don't remember exactly where; anyway, people seemed to find it kinda fun back when I wasn't in exile, so here it is

I found an easy way to pick wolves and shaman was to hand out a suitable number of playing cards face down: whoever got the jokers were werewolves and the ace of spades was the shaman; cards were handed back and nothing was revealed until the relevant people opened their eyes on the first night

naturally CLAWs players enjoy putting on hick accents and townsfolksy professions when it comes to the lynching phase

d@vid Nov 8 2004:

wowser, it's been a while - the i.f. author I mentioned was Andrew "memetic lycanthropic Eve" Plotkin - also, the Graduate Mafia Brotherhood have a detailed history of the game (which they call Mafia), although an origin has yet to be determined

the thematic Durban variation is to call the shaman a sangoma and call the werewolves tokoloshes, but the pages above (and puddingwiki's Werewolf Variations) list a million actual game variations too (such as "wolfsbane", which I'll try out the next time I encourage a game)

GameIdeas ?