Werewolves of Miller Hollow: Discover how well your team members can lie.

[#1]

Hey all,

It's been a couple of months since my last post about games and how playing games can help you build a better team. Feel free to read my previous posts here: about Dixit, Pandemic, and Escape Games.

Today I want to talk about a group favorite: Werewolves of Miller Hollow.

This is a game for at least 7 players + 1 moderator.
So better suited for bigger teams or for a company retreat/event where multiple teams come together.

The game takes place in a small village which is haunted by werewolves. Each player is secretly assigned a role - Werewolf, Ordinary Townsfolk, or special character such as The Sheriff, The Hunter, the Witch, the Little Girl, The Fortune Teller and so on...

The Moderator player controls the flow of the game (you need someone who has played the game before to properly play this role, if the game is new to everyone the moderator should take some time to prepare for their role).

The game alternates between night and day phases. At night, the Werewolves secretly choose a Villager to kill. During the day, the Villager who was killed is revealed and is out of the game. The remaining players (villagers, special characters, and werewolves) then deliberate and vote on a player they suspect is a Werewolf, helped (or hindered) by the clues the special characters add to the general deliberation. The chosen player is "lynched", reveals his/her role and is out of the game.

The aim of the game for the Werewolves is to remain alive, the aim for the villagers is to find and "lynch" all werewolves.

This game is an ideal discussion and social interaction game as during each "day" phase the group as a whole need to discuss who to "lynch" at the end of the day. These interactions can give you valuable insights into the structure of the team, who speaks up more or speaks up less, if discussions are open and respectful, or not. All of these insights can then be used to help improve the health, structure, and performance of your team.

And honestly: it's just a fun game to play after a long day of meetings or conference sessions (Team '24 anyone?).

Have you played this before? Let me know what you think of it!

[Barbara Szczesniak]

Sounds complicated, but I'm sure it all becomes clear once you play for a while. I might give people the link you provided to the game description ahead of time, so they could have an idea before we sat down to play.

[Dániel Ballabás - EverIT]

Count me in for a game session/night at Team24!

I haven't tried this one yet, but I played many other social deduction games. My current favorites are Tempel des Schreckens (it doesn't need a Moderator or a Night phase), Secret Hitler (I like the "always two players on the line" mechanic over the way The Resistance: Avalon games make it sometimes about group decisions), and Hollywood 1947 (mainly for the theme, and the different player abilities).

I agree on your points about the game's ability to check the "personas" of your group. Do you have experiences using them during onboarding (when there is a difference in the level of how well players know each other and each other's reactions)?

[Hind Kadiri From Jaanga]

Hey @Peter Van de Voorde , I absolutely love Werewolves of Miller Hollow! It brings back some good memories, especially the times I was the werewolf, and no one suspected a thing! Such a fantastic game for team building. Thanks for sharing this gem of an idea with the community!

[Amanda Barber]

This is such a great series! Thank you for sharing, @Peter Van de Voorde - suggesting this to my team for our upcoming retreat.

[Andy Gladstone]

@Peter Van de Voorde I missed your posts. I never in my life thought I would have a resource for learning about new games, but you have become my mentor! 

[Dave Liao]

Werewolf is an excellent game!

I've even seen this game packaged with a companion mobile app that helps if no one feels particularly confident playing as a GM.

[Laurie Sciutti]

Never played but it sounds interesting!

[Matthias Gaiser _K15t_]

I'm always struggling whether Werewolf is a good game to play in a work environment - you're always suspicious if someone else tells the truth or not 😏

But as you say, it's interesting to see how people react, basically to inspect the team dynamics in a different/playful environment.

I prefer the One Night Ultimate Werewolf variant (possibly with expansions). Why? This game is super fast (~10 minutes) and no players get eliminated, so you don't have to wait until everyone else dies.
But there's still lots of fun involved. If you want to, there's also an app which can act as a moderator - so the moderator can also play along.

I'm happy to bring this to Team '24 and look forward to find some time playing it together.

[Dave Liao]

@Matthias Gaiser _K15t_ - thank you! I was trying to remember who made the Werewolf game with the companion app, and that's the company! 🙌

[Jimmy Seddon]

Excellent post @Peter Van de Voorde!  I don't think I have ever played "Werewolf" but I have played many of the other games that follow the same type of rules.

[Shawn Doyle - ReleaseTEAM]

It's a great little game.  It was in our rotation for a long time pre-covid.

[Vronik]

I admit I don't know the game, but it seems very interesting.

thanks for sharing