Werwords

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Werwords
Game data
author Ted Alspach
graphic Jason Boles , Roland MacDonald
publishing company Bézier Games ,
Ravensburger ,
GoKids 玩樂 小子,
Popcorn Games
Publishing year 2019
Art Party game
Teammates 4 to 10
Duration 10 mins
Age from 8 years

Awards

Werworts , English original title Werewords , is a party game by game designer Ted Alspach, which was first published by Bézier Games in 2017 and was then published internationally. In 2019 it was published in a German-language version by Ravensburger Spieleverlag and in May 2019 it was nominated for Game of the Year together with the games Just One and Lama .

Theme and equipment

Werworths is a semi-cooperative party game that is based on the well-known role-playing game The Werewolves of Mirkwood and combines this with a word-finding game. As with werewolves , the players play in two parties, the villagers, including the mayor and the seer, and the werewolves, and pursue different goals: the villagers want to try to find the werewolves, and the werewolves are looking for the seer, who is the only one besides the mayor who knows a secret word with which they can be found. The group that reaches its destination first wins the game.

In addition to instructions, the game material consists of 14 role cards, including a mayor, three villagers, two Freemasons, four villagers, a seer, a fortune teller and two werewolves as well as 48 answer markers, 35 of which with “Yes” and “No”, ten with “Maybe”, and one each with “Close”, “Wrong track” and “Right”. The game is also supported by a mobile app that specifies the course of the game and uses a database with around 10,000 terms to determine the magic word.

Style of play

As with similar games, the roles of the other players are assigned before the game with Werworths . Depending on the number of players, there are one or two werewolves, a mayor, a seer and a varying number of villagers in the basic game. Additional specific roles can be added to scenarios that build on the basic game. The necessary role cards are shuffled with a villager card more than fellow players and each player receives a card, the remaining role is placed in the middle of the table; after the distribution everyone knows their role. The mayor reveals his card and reveals himself accordingly, he then looks at the remaining card and is assigned this as a second, secret, role. He also gets all 48 answer markers as well as the mobile device with the app.

After the mayor has started the game on the app, the game begins with a night phase in which all players close their eyes. The app calls up different roles one after the other that fulfill their specified roles:

  • The mayor chooses the secret magic word during the night. During the day he has to answer the questions of the other villagers with the help of the answer marker, but is not allowed to speak. Since the mayor has a second, secret role, he behaves when answering the questions and is also allowed to lie.
  • all the villagers sleep through the night and do not notice the search for the magic word. During the day, the villagers try to guess the magic word by questioning the mayor.
  • the seer is allowed to look at the magic word at night and, as a villager, ask questions during the day in order to put the other villagers on the right track.
  • Even the werewolf can look at the magic word at night and ask questions as a villager during the day. He tries to identify the seer and to lead the villagers on the wrong track.

After the night all players open their eyes and start questioning the mayor, who answers accordingly with his markers. The players mainly ask yes / no questions because the mayor is not allowed to speak. The app shows the available time and when this has expired, the last answer marker has been used or a player has guessed the correct magic word, the day ends.

After that there is a discussion and vote in all cases:

  • If the villagers can't figure out the magic word, they vote on who was the werewolf in the game. Each player simultaneously points to another player and the player or players with the most votes reveal their role cards. If it is a question of the werewolf, the village community has won the game and drives out the werewolf, otherwise the werewolf wins.
  • Once the villagers have found the magic word, the werewolf tries to determine the seer. If he succeeds in this, he has won. If he doesn't succeed, the village community wins and the seer can banish him with the magic word.

Versions and reception

The game Werworths was developed by game designer Ted Alspach based on the game The Werewolves of Mirkwood and published by Bézier Games in 2017 . In 2018 the game was published by the Chinese publisher GoKids 玩樂 小子, and in 2019 in a Korean version by Popcorn Games and a German-language version by Ravensburger Spieleverlag.

The game received positive reviews on multiple platforms. This is how the game critic Udo Bartsch called it “extraordinary” in his blog “Reviews for Millions”.

In May 2019 Werwort was nominated for Game of the Year together with the games Lama and Just One . The jury justifies its assessment as follows:

“The well-known werewolves game principle with secret character roles has been fascinating for many years. In Werworths , author Ted Alspach has now congenially combined it with a guessing game. The fact that some players seem to have to ask unsuspectingly for the solution that they have long known to cover up their identity sounds absurd at first glance, but it turns out to be a fabulous trick. It's phenomenal how much fun can be possible in five minutes. "

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b c d e instructions for playing Werworths , Ravensburger 2019
  2. ↑ Words , versions at BoardGameGeek. Retrieved June 23, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Udo Bartsch: Werworths review on “Reviews for Millions”, June 13, 2019; accessed on June 23, 2019.
  4. ↑ a b Werwörter in the database of the game of the year eV; accessed on June 23, 2019.

Web links