How to play Werewolf: rules, roles and tips
The goal, every role, how a round works, and how to win, for 5 to 15 players.
Werewolf is a party game of hidden roles for 5 to 15 players. A few players are secretly werewolves. Everyone else is a villager trying to find them. It is the same game many people know as Mafia: the names change, the bluffing does not.
In the classic version one person sits out as the moderator, reads a script and keeps track of who did what. In GatherPlay's Werewolf the shared screen runs the night and every phone keeps its owner's role secret, so everyone gets to play.
The goal
- The village wins when every werewolf is out.
- The werewolves win when they match or outnumber everyone else still in the game.
How many werewolves?
A good rule of thumb is one werewolf for 5 or 6 players, two for 7 to 10, and three for 11 to 15. Fewer wolves make long, careful games. More wolves make short, tense ones.
The roles
Werewolf
Each night the werewolves agree on one player to eliminate. By day they pretend to be ordinary villagers. Werewolves know who the other werewolves are.
Seer
Each night the Seer checks one player and learns whether they are a werewolf. The Seer is the village's best source of truth, which makes them the wolves' favourite target once they speak up.
Bodyguard
Each night the Bodyguard protects one player from the wolves, but never the same player two nights in a row. A good Bodyguard guesses who the wolves fear most.
Villager
Villagers have no power at night. Their job is the most important one: talk, watch, notice who changes their story, and vote.
Optional roles
Hunter
When the Hunter dies, they shoot one player straight away.
Witch
Sees the wolves' victim each night and has one healing potion and one poison for the whole game.
Elder
Survives the first wolf attack. Nobody is told.
Idiot
If the village votes them out, they are revealed and stay in, but lose their vote.
Cupid
On the first night, links two players as lovers. If one dies, the other dies too. Lovers from two different sides win together as the last two alive.
Tanner
Plays alone and wins if the village votes them out.
Raven
Each night marks a player, who starts the next vote with two votes against them.
Minion
On the wolves' side and knows the pack, but the pack doesn't know them. The Seer sees a villager.
White Wolf
Hunts with the pack, and every second night may kill a wolf. Wins only as the last one standing.
Serial Killer
Plays alone and kills one player each night. The wolves can't kill them.
Piper
Plays alone and charms one or two players each night. Wins once everyone else alive is charmed.
Wolf Cub
A werewolf that hunts with the pack. If the Wolf Cub dies, the wolves kill two players the next night.
Lycan
On the village's side, but the Seer sees a werewolf. A Lycan has some explaining to do.
Cursed
On the village's side until the wolves attack: then they don't die, they join the pack.
Scapegoat
When the vote ends in a tie, the Scapegoat is voted out instead of nobody.
Sisters
Two villagers who know each other from the start, so each has one player they can trust.
Apprentice Seer
When the Seer dies, the Apprentice becomes the Seer, and keeps what the Seer learned.
Add one optional role at a time. They are most fun once the group knows the basic game.
How a round works
- Night falls and everyone closes their eyes. The shared screen calls each role in turn: the Bodyguard protects someone, the werewolves agree on a victim, the Seer checks someone.
- Dawn. The screen says who was eliminated in the night, or that the night was quiet.
- Discussion. Talk it over. Accuse, defend, bluff.
- Vote. Everyone votes for a player or abstains. A player is out only with more votes than anyone else and more than the abstains. A tie means nobody goes, unless the Scapegoat is in the game.
- Repeat until one side wins. At the end, everyone sees what really happened each night.
How the night works
Everyone closes their eyes. The shared screen calls one role at a time, out loud, just like a moderator: “Bodyguard, open your eyes.” Only that player opens their eyes and taps their phone; everyone else keeps theirs closed. Then: “Bodyguard, close your eyes.” A short pause, and: “Werewolves, open your eyes.” The wolves see each other, whisper or point, and agree on a victim. The Witch is called next if she is in the game, and the Seer last.
Each turn ends a few seconds after the role has chosen, or when its timer runs out. A role that is already dead is still called and the screen waits a little, so nobody learns who is gone. Phones stay silent at night on purpose: a sound or a buzz on one phone would give its owner away. Keep the shared screen's sound on, because its voice is what wakes each role.
Tips for the village
- Talk early. Silent players are hard to read and easy to suspect.
- Track votes, not just words. Wolves often avoid voting for each other.
- If you are the Seer, think about when to reveal what you know. Too early and the wolves remove you; too late and the village has already lost.
Tips for the werewolves
- Act like a villager who is genuinely trying to find wolves.
- Do not defend your partner too hard. Sometimes voting against them buys you trust.
- Pick night victims who are leading the discussion, or who might be the Seer.
Playing apart
Friends in different places can still play. Start a Discord or Google Meet call. The host opens the shared screen in a browser tab and shares that tab on the call, with its sound, so everyone hears the night calls. Everyone joins the room on their own phone with the code. At night, turn your camera off instead of closing your eyes, and turn it back on at dawn.
Playing without a moderator
The hardest part of Werewolf used to be the moderator: one person who does not play and has to keep every secret straight. With a shared screen and a phone per player, the game itself deals the roles, calls each role at night and tallies the votes. Host a game and try a round.