Werewolf

Also known as Mafia.

Werewolf is the village telling of Mafia, the party game Dimitry Davidoff designed at Moscow State University in the mid-1980s. Andrew Plotkin retold it as Werewolf in 1997. This package follows those traditional rules. It is not a commercial edition, and it does not use those editions' names.

The platform is the moderator. It deals the roles, runs the clock, resolves the night, and counts the vote.

Six, seven, or eight players sit one online table. Nine or more is outside this game. Pass-and-play on a single shared screen is outside it too: the roles are hidden, and a shared screen can show a private card.

An empty seat is not filled by a computer player. If someone disconnects, the table waits.

Everyone receives one secret role.

The lobby can set the werewolf count from 1 up to one third of the table, never below 1. At six to eight players that cap is 2. It can turn the Seer or the Doctor off. The seats that remain are Villagers.

The game starts at Night 1. The werewolves may kill on the first night.

Night is simultaneous. Everyone, living or dead, sees the same night screen for the same length of time.

Night lasts at least 20 seconds and at most 60 seconds. It ends early once the minimum has passed and every living player has locked. Otherwise it ends when the sand runs out. A werewolf's choice that is still showing at the timeout counts. A night action nobody chose is forfeited.

The pack kills only when more than half of the living werewolves chose the same person. Two werewolves must agree. A split, or too few choices, kills nobody. A single werewolf's choice is enough.

The Doctor's protection is silent. If the Doctor saved the target, dawn says only "Nobody died." Dawn never says that a save happened.

The Seer sees the answer as soon as they choose, while they are still alive, even if dawn will take the Seer or the person they looked at.

Then dawn:

The win check happens immediately. If the werewolves have caught up, there is no day.

One shared clock covers discussion and the vote. The lobby sets it from 2 to 10 minutes. The default is 5 minutes. The first 60 seconds cannot be skipped.

Each living player votes for one other living player, or abstains. Votes are public and update as they change. You may change yours until you lock.

Day ends early once the minimum discussion has passed and every living player has locked. Otherwise it ends when the sand runs out. A selection still showing at the timeout stands. No selection counts as an abstain.

The lobby chooses the elimination rule.

If someone is exiled and role reveal is on, their role is named. Then the win check runs. Otherwise the next night begins.

A dead player is a spectator. They cannot choose, vote, or use the living chat. They do not keep the werewolf notes. Until the game ends they see only roles the village has been shown, plus their own card. When the game ends, every role is revealed.

There is no separate dead-player chat.

After every death, in this order:

There is no draw. Dead players share their team's result. Every original member of the winning team wins, not only the survivors.

Player tokens are lanterns around a well. The sand clock sits by the well. Your role card is in your own corner. Hold it to read it large.

A gold ring on a lantern is your own night choice. It is not shown on anyone else's screen. Pack choices appear as notes in the werewolf corner, not as marks on the public lanterns. By day, the vote tally is carved on the lanterns, and the plurality leader is marked Leading.

Another seat's role, the Seer's answer, the Doctor's memory, and the pack's notes live in private hands. They are not drawn on anyone else's board. That is a screen boundary, not an anti-cheat guarantee. A shared display, a screenshot, or a person reading over a shoulder can still see the card.

The game cannot mute a microphone or close a chat.