Werewolf XVI: Rules & Questions

Werewolf XVI will begin on Monday 1st June.

If you need to get in touch with me without using the PM function for any particular reason, you can email werewolfxvi@gmail.com, with your forum username in the subject line of the email.

Rules for Werewolf XVI

Thanks to Hectic & Diamond for the original rules post. I have added in a couple of rules, which are highlighted in blue for ill the old heads that know the standard rules inside out. The rest of it is pretty much the same as the rules for XV, with maybe the odd rewording.

Werewolf Rules

Werewolf is a game that takes place in a small dark village which is haunted by werewolves. Each player is secretly assigned a role - Werewolf or Villager. There are three special villagers - Tinker, Traitor or Seer. There is also a Moderator player who controls the flow of the game. The game alternates between night and day phases. At night, the Werewolves secretly choose a Villager to kill. Also, the Seer (if still alive) asks the moderator whether another player is a werewolf or not. During the day, the Villager who was killed by the werewolf is revealed and is out of the game. The remaining Villagers then vote on the player they suspect is a werewolf. That player is lynched and is out of the game. Werewolves win when there are an equal number of good players and evil players. Villagers win when they have killed the wolf/wolves.

Gameplay: (Day 8am to 8pm, Night 8pm to 8am)

At the start of the game, all players are randomly given a role to play. The game starts at "Dawn" with the seer asking the moderator if a player is good or evil. The seer DOES NOT reveal this directly to the rest of the villagers. The seer can then email the moderator with a message about anything pertaining to the game. The moderator will post this message. Whoever is the wolf can also email the moderator with a message which the moderator will then post. Villagers will have to decide which message is more genuine. The villagers then vote on who to lynch (hoping to lynch an evil player). Whoever recieves the highest number of votes is lynched and is eliminated from the game. This conclude the "daytime" portion of the game.
Votes are cast using the poll system. These are public. Once you have voted, you then CANNOT change your vote. Voting closes at 8pm.
When "nighttime" is declared, the wolf/wolves will e-mail the moderator a chosen kill for that night. The moderator will then post the Alpha wolf's choice, and that player is eliminated from the game. This concludes the "nighttime" portion, and the "daytime" portion is repeated.

Players are free to post their ideas regarding who has what role. Players ARE NOT permitted to PM each other about the game.

Evil Characters:

Alpha Werewolf - This person select one player to kill during the nighttime portion of the game. The alpha wolf's only goal is to survive until there are equal numbers of good and evil players. This can be accomplished by posting misleading information about other players and through sending one PM during the "daytime" with a misleading message to the moderator for him to post anonymously. Sending this PM to the moderator is optional. The wolf does not know any other players' roles, including the identity of any other wolves or traitors.

Traitor - This person knows who the werewolf/werewolves are at the start of the game. His goal is to keep the wolf alive so that the evil characters will win. This is accomplished by posting misleading information about other players and even going so far as to sacrifice himself.


Good Characters:

First Seer - The seer is the only character that can truthfully discover if the other players are good or evil. He does this at the beginning of each day. After his discovery, he has the option of sending one PM to the moderator with a message for the moderator to post anonymously. This is done so that the wolf has a harder time discovering the seer and also so that the evil roles are not immediately outed.

Tinker - Though the player assigned as the tinker is a good character, the seer will "see" him as an evil character. The tinker does not know beforehand that he is the tinker. The tinker will have to try and convince the other villagers that he is actually a good character if the seer tries to out him via a PM to the moderator

Villagers - The only thing regular villagers can do is vote on who will be lynched at the end of the day.

Optional Roles:
(These roles may or may not be included at the discretion of the moderator)

Extra Wolves - Each night when the Alpha wolf selects a kill, any other wolves may also select a kill. If they successfully choose the same kill as another wolf then the wolves who have selected the same kill will learn of each others identity. They are still NOT permitted to communicate with each other directly. In the event that the Alpha wolf is killed then another wolf will take their place with regards to sending messages, in order (Beta, Gamma and so on). If the Wolves choose different kills then both choices will be killed, (an option for 20+ player games).

Extra Seers - Any extra seers will start the game thinking they are ordinary villagers. In the event that the first seer is killed then another seer will take their place, in order (Second, Third and so on). - note - third seers are very rare and are usually only recruited mid game if another seer is an inactive player

Guardian - The Guardian is a good character. Each night, the Guardian may choose one player to "save". If the wolf chooses to kill a player who has been saved then the kill is unsuccessful and the wolf does not achieve a kill that night (the wolf is held up battling the guardian). However, the Guardian may only choose each player once throughout the whole game. If a player has already been chosen by the Guardian previously, they cannot be chosen again.

During the day the Guardian partakes in play just as a regular villager would.

Martyr - The Martyr is a regular villager with one exception. If they are selected as a kill by the wolf, the alpha wolf will be killed with them. Only the original Alpha Wolf can be killed this way, not any Wolves below in the pecking order. In this way their job is to get themselves killed by the wolf. However they may not make false claims about their role to do this (i.e I'm the seer!).
If the Martyr is killed by the villagers, nothing special happens.

Witness - The witness is essentially the opposite of the traitor, they are aware of the identity of all the wolves (but not the traitor) and must try to convince the other villagers of their guilt. However they are forbidden from revealing their identity at any point as anything other than an ordinary villager.

Masons - Masons are ordinary villagers who are aware of each others identities. They are usually a small cabal who are encouraged to work together to protect each other and influence the vote. They are NOT permitted to communicate outside of the game.

Governor - The Governor is a regular villager with one exception. The Governor has the power to overturn a lynching as voted by the players on any given day.

When a lynching vote is complete, the moderator will ask whether or not the Governor wants to come forward and pardon the victim. If the Governor issues the pardon, the victim is not lynched and there is no lynching that day.

The Governor reveals his identity to stop a lynching, and as such it is known from that point forward to all players who the Governor is (Wolves are of course likely to kill the Governor pretty quickly once their identity is revealed, unless of course the Governor is doing a bad job...). The Governor is not revealed before this time.

Whilst alive and active the Governor may stop as many lynchings as he likes, but he cannot issue a pardon to himself.


Other additional rules:

Full Moon - This is a new feature that (as far as I’m aware) hasn’t been in any of the previous games.

At dusk on one night, the moderator reveals that the coming night will have a Full Moon. That night, a villager is converted into a Werewolf. The villager will be told privately, and will be able to make a kill that night just as any other wolf would, and from that night forward they are a wolf and are on the side of evil.

Any villager without a special role may be converted. In other words, Masons, Seers, Witnesses, Martyrs and Governors cannot be converted.

This feature’s use is up to the discretion of the moderator. There may be a game without a Full Moon.

If a Full Moon is a possibility, the email addresses of every villager will need to be known by the moderator in order to communicate the conversion from villager to wolf.


Notes:

The Alpha Wolf may unintentionally kill the traitor, or another wolf.

Villagers may unintentionally kill the Seer.

The Seer may implicate the Tinker which might lead to that player's death.

Depending on the number of players, the moderator will increase or decrease the number of roles. At the start of the game, a list of how many of each role is in the game will be posted.

Players are strictly forbidden to PM each other with information pertaining to the game. Please do not spoil the game for others. An email address will be provided to players who need to communicate with the moderator.

Only the Traitor and the Witness begin the game with knowledge of other players' roles.

Messages that the moderator posts to the board may be from either the Seer or the Wolf. The players will have to decide.

The moderator will post messages from the Seer and Wolf as soon as he checks them. There is a deadline of one hour before nightfall for these PMs

Players may post their roles, with the exception of the roles above that have additional conditions, but they may not be telling the truth.

The Wolf, Traitor, and Seer should try and keep their role a secret for as long as possible. Villagers should try to lynch the Wolf and Traitor immediately once found out, and the wolf should try to kill the seer once found out.

Each day sequence of the game will last approximately 12 hours, and the game will be paused over weekends. A time will be posted as to when the "day" will end and all votes must be submitted. The night sequence of the game will last until the moderator receives information from the wolf about who he killed during the night.

Any player who does not vote during the day will be killed off that night.

Ties will be broken by a public gambling event (such as a horse race).

Trust me, it'll become easier once we've started the game. And then quite possibly much more complicated again once TVOR asks a question.

 

Any questions about the game as we go should go in this thread rather than in-game threads.

Thanks.

 

Always happy to answer questions, and this is a useful point to bring up.

First of all, these aren't the official numbers yet, hence why I've not put it in the first post (still got a few days to work out how things might go with this many of each, and so on).

And secondly, the moderator does post a list of the amount of players for each role before the game starts, as per the rules.

I believe having the number of Tinkers blind would make for an interesting game, as would having any number of the roles blind in fact, but these are the rules as stated and as I understand them.

(I looked through the last game before working a lot of this out, and there was a list like the above one I've posted before the game started.)

 

Not a question as such but, one of the things that made the game less enjoyable last time around were the late messages (more so for those not on BST). It added nothing tactically just made playing frustrating.

While I'm not advocating a time limit for messages I'm asking (nicely) for messages to be posted timely. Thanks.

 

I reckon the best way to play this is to address it if it becomes a problem as we go. If you're consistently screwed over by the timing of messages I'll add in a couple of conditions if it seems workable to do so.

 

Tbf it's never been a problem in the past just last time around. People complained almost daily but still the late messages persisted. I don't necessarily see it being a problem this time but your suggestion works just fine.

 

To be completely honest late messages and sometimes not even posting a message are parts of tactical gameplay. At the end of the day the seer has nothing to gain by not posting a message, however a wolf has no incentive whatsoever to post a message if there is no seer message.

Unfortunately phillipine you are always going to be at a disadvantage due to your location. I did consider running the game myself this year again but using a two day cycle. However i don't think anyone has the energy for a month long game of werewolf.

 

Sorry if it's been mentioned elsewhere but has a start date been decided?

 

I am sending out the roles this afternoon/evening. Keep your eyes peeled.

Sorry, been away for a few days and working ear lies for a couple too so haven't been on here all that much.

 

If you survive day one...

 

eagerly awaiting that pm, cant wait to play on Monday.

 

A few basic reiterations and clarifications ahead of the big day tomorrow:

The Traitor knows ALL the wolves.
The Witness knows ALL the wolves.
The Wolves do not know each other unless two pick the same night kill, in which case they will know who picked the same kill but cannot communicate.
There may be random deaths.
Inactive players can be killed at will by the moderator. (Please post at least something during the day and cast your vote on who should be lynched... or face death.)
There may be more than one kill per night.
The Guardian may protect one player from being killed by the wolves per night, but cannot pick the same player again for the remainder of the game.
The Governor may choose to overrule a lynch vote within an hour or so after the vote is complete, unless the vote is for themselves. If the Governor overrules a lynching, he reveals his identity by doing so, and no lynching takes place on that day. He may choose to overrule a lynching of the same player over and over again if he so chooses (& gets the opportunity).

Only The Alpha Wolf can post an anonymous message.
Only The First Seer can make a viewing and post an anonymous message.

In the event of the first Seer dying, the second Seer will become Seer 1. However, the second Seer is not given the first Seer’s findings.

In the event of the Alpha Wolf dying, the Beta Wolf will become the Alpha Wolf, and so on.

There will be NO communication between living players outside of the game, good or evil.

Masons must not communicate outside of the game, they simply know each others’ identities and should aim to work off of one another in the daytime discussion thread in order to root out evil.

Up to date kill intentions may be posted by anyone at any time in the daily thread, and even lists kept of player intentions if you wish.

Administration will be kept to a minimum, but any rule queries will be answered ASAP.

Once a vote is cast in the poll it is FINAL, and cannot be changed.

Voting will close by 8pm each night or when all villagers have voted, whichever is first.
I may change the exact timings depending on my work shifts – I will aim to give as much notice as possible for any changes.

If you have any questions about the gameplay, please ask them in the Rules & Questions thread (http://www.wfcforums.com/showthread.php?54955-Werewolf-XVI-Rules-amp-Questions).
If you would rather keep your queries anonymous, email werewolfxvi@gmail.com, and I will endeavour to respond as quickly as possible.

Good luck to everyone! See you tomorrow for the grand opening.

 

No, they become EVIL. A full moon means a good player joins the evil side.

 

What does the line I have highlighted in bold above mean

 

Is this process random or of your choosing?

 

You can post up your intentions or the intentions of others in list form on the daily thread if you like, to try to keep track of who killed who and who wants to kill who. Basically it goes without saying, but you can recall old lynch votes, and declare your intentions in the day time.

 

It's like a moderator tool. It might freshen up the game if it's getting a bit stale or one team is romping home. So it's up to me if there's a full moon.

If it's used though, who becomes a wolf will be decided with a random number generator, just as the initial roles were decided.

 

I just want to apologise for the late start. The short version: I overslept. The long version: I usually get woken up at about 6am by my pet birds, because one of them is new and get crazy in the mornings and sets the other two off. That didn't happen this morning so my bird alarm was essentially broken.

Sorry again.

 

As a spectator I can vote and post in main thread, but not cemetery. Umm?

 

I will get the powers that be on the case.

 

It's like the inverse of last year; as a player I could post in the cemetery!

 

Someone's just voted for Cude but we can't see who it is. Is it an anonymous poll?

 

It shouldn't be... Let me try to work this out. Teething and everything...

 

Haha I feel your pain :naughty:

 

I am going to have to make a new poll via a new thread as I can't find a way of making the poll public once it's been created. I think I must have missed the checkbox in my rush to open the village this morning. Apologies.

 

Check with Hornmeister but it may be possible to create a new thread with a new poll and move the posts from day 1 into it. I'm sure I did that last time I ran it as I did exactly the same thing.

 

I will give it a go but my only worry is that the poll gets screwed up in the process. Besides, there are posts in the new thread/poll now so I don't know if it's worth the hassle of then deleting all of the new posts.

I'll leave it as it is for now, and just make sure I don't make the same mistake again tomorrow.

 

When we were chatting about the game a few weeks back and sharing tips, I remember saying this:

Something will go t*ts up, it always happens

Your initiation is complete :sign15:

 

More than one thing has gone t*ts up though of course. I managed to sleep in on Day 1!