Lupus Operandi

Werewolf - The Game

Okay, so maybe that post wouldn't have made much sense as to what is was referring to, and as a story it's lousy.

Wii were referring to the game Werewolf (Lupus in Tabula) Wii played at BoardgameCafe last Friday - a simple game when you have a large group. It's a very good ice-breaker, but if playing with friends it's far far better as you'll then be putting on your best poker face!

The game's basically about a werewolf lurking in the midst of the villagers, killing them one by one at night. In the daytime, the villagers will discuss and vote a player suspected to be the werewolf to die (weeeh mob lynching). Other roles that would help the villagers to uncover the werewolf include the Seer, the Mystic, the Bodyguard and the Little Girl (however, this set has plenty of roles for different group sizes). The Seer, once every 'night' after the werewolf has targetted a victim, will then request the moderator to reveal the identity of a player, if he's a villager or a werewolf. The Bodyguard can choose a different person each 'night' to protect - saving him/her from death in the hands of the werewolf. The Little Girl, IMHO, has the most interesting role in the game - during the werewolf's turn, she can peek to try and spot the werewolf!

So gameplay goes: Nightime - everyone closes their eyes, the moderator calls for the werewolf to open his eyes and choose a victim, after which the werewolf shuts his eyes (Little Girl may be peeking during this time!). Then the moderator calls for the Seer to open her eyes and choose a player for the moderator to identify, then the Bodyguard to protect a player. So no one knows who is who except for werewolves (if more than one). Once a player is killed by the werewolf or lynched by the mob, they too must close their eyes during the night phase but cannot communicate anything during the day phase.

So. We had two games of Werewolf (Wii don't think anyone who plays this game will stop at just one), the first one as posted before. What happened, in drier terms was this. There were 9 of us - LoStBoYz, alan, ayheng, wolfx, Vincent, ryhen, aanemesis, jack208 and us. Jack208 decided to be the moderator for the game, allowing the rest of us to enjoy the game.

As that left the eight of us, jack208 had it so that the first 'werewolf kill' would be him (think Desperate Housewives narrator heh), with 2 werewolves, a Seer, a Bodyguard and a Little Girl. First game had LoStBoYz and us as the werewolves. We didn't know who the Seer, the Bodyguard nor the Little Girl were by then. Never mind. ryhen started off the discussions by asking if the Seer could...but was interrupted by LoStBoYz, accusing him of being the werewolf wanting to identify the Seer. Each time ryhen wanted to explain his reasons he was interrupted and shot down by LoStBoYz. In the end, public opinion was swayed between the two of them, but lacking any evidence or hints of identity, ryhen was pitchforked first.

Then the night phase came and we targetted Vincent. It was this phase where jack208 commented, "The Bodyguard cannot protect the same person twice." Hmmm, somebody being kiasi heh heh. Probably protecting himself. jack208 also commented, "The Little Girl has yet to use her ability," drawing our attention back to the fact that Wii've forgotten to watch out for her. Or is she, after all, dead?

Sometime here actually aanemesis remarked that he'd vote wolfx for no other cause than the fact that his nick was 'wolfx' XD LoStBoYz as a threat seem to be forgotten already. As Wii were sitting next to aanemesis and opposite wolfx, ayheng and alan, Wii tried to signal to them that aanemesis was a werewolf (and indirectly inferring that Wii was the Seer). Giving uncomfortable looks and surreptitious pointings behind aanemesis' back and hoping that the three of them would take the bait. But the clincher to lyching aanemesis was when he commented that, "The Villagers-ar, quite, a bit stupid la." That was when we all tapau'ed him with the lyching votes (he was jesting that mob mentality led to irrational thinking), but since we'd no one to vote he nicely kena XD

We killed off Alan after that...leaving the game to a showdown between 2 villagers and 2 werewolves - of course, the innocent villagers could think that it's actually 3 villagers and 1 werewolf too :D After a bit of debating (in this game ayheng remained the quietest of the lot) the votes were tied: wolfx 2 LoStBoYz 2. No one died from lynching because of that.

Then we killed off wolfx and won the first game :D

Post-mortem results: Seer - Vincent, Bodyguard - Alan, Little Girl - aanemesis.

Second time around, Wii got the role of werewolf again! Aiyar, how now? Play same modus operandi? Change act? Wii decided: openly and steadfastly state that ayheng was innocent. Alan was our partner-in-crime. So, initial chitchat and random lynching. LoStBoYz was still the noisiest and most suspect member of the group (he did so to spice up the game anyways), leading to a contest between him and Vincent. aanemesis sneakily voted us! Unsure about his reasons =_=' LoStBoYz got voted out - but his spirit didn't rest easily...although his character was 'dead', he kept comments running thus leading to us being disturbed by 'voices in the wind'.

Interestingly Wii led the kill against Vincent - whom would have already fallen under suspect by the Villagers. We rationalize that playing with analytical players, they would find it odd for the werewolf to target him (leaving him alone would have bought the werewolves more time as well as make him look even more guilty).

Who to vote? aanemesis brought us into the spotlight by voting us again, and Wii dragged him along with us. It was going hard until wolfx claimed that he was the Little Girl :s and will risk his life to expose the werewolves! It was an open claim to the Bodyguard to protect him, but Wii were also wondering if it was a selfless martyr act to mislead the werewolves into paying attention to him while the real Little Girl flush out the werewolves!

At this point, aanemesis also commented, "If I was the *pause* Little Girl..." Unfortunately we all took it as if he was attempting to bluff and claim that he was the Little Girl rather than see it as him hinting to the Little Girl that he was the Bodyguard. aanemesis died that day (and Wii wiped the sweat off our brow).

That night itself wolfx was caught with his right eye opened so big Wii could see the whites of his eye (-_O)! Little Girl had to die!

Showdown again - alan, ayheng, ryhen and us. rhyen was suspecting either ayheng or alan and was openly confiding in us, and the silent duo was left to work things out...rather, waiting for ayheng to throw his vote.

Here we outted ourselves - ayheng obviously didn't like how ryhen was discussing matters and decided to vote him. Wii immediately jumped aboard as well! ayheng noticed our eagerness and revoted us! Thankfully alan helped us tie the vote - leading to the werewolves having another win!

Post-mortem results: Seer - Vincent (again! but he died early again! poor kid), Bodyguard - aanemesis, Little Girl - wolfx

Oh, this was good fun. Wii can't wait to play this again (hopefully Wii gets Little Girl *crosses fingers*)!