Bézier Games | One Night Ultimate Werewolf | Board Game | Ages 8+ | 3-10 Players | 10 Minutes Playing Time

A great product. Really sturdy cards and tokens. Can be played unilaterally but works well as an expansion to the original One Night Ultimate Werewolf.Having played many enjoyable rounds of One Night Ultimate Werewolf (ONUW), I recommend the original ONUW for purchase, however, now with the release of Daybreak expansion the game becomes even better and I unreservedly recommend purchase of both. Read on to see why.....This is a fabulous card based game with an element of role playing, but do not be put off by this. There is no acting required it is merely that your card provides you with a character to be within the game. However, the beauty of this game is that your role may change during play due to simple actions that are required by each character. This generates an air of mystery which you will need to unravel through cunning questioning of fellow players. That may sound easy but with bluffing of others and reliance upon assumptions the game play can change. You need to work out who is the werewolf and it may now be you. If it is, you need to ensure you are not killed otherwise you lose. It is a really great game and unlike most other games played.With the original ONUW the game extends to several players, so is a great party game when you have several people available and willing to play. This is one of the virtues of this game because most purchased games tend to be limited to the number of players who can be involved. However, if I was to be reluctantly critical of ONUW, although it does play 3 players; for the best results it plays better with 4 or more. On occasions I only have had two other people to play this game and I have previously found that the 3 player format is reasonably easy to deduce and therefore not as good as the games played with more people. This limits the ONUW game usage, which is unfortunate as it is a brilliant game to play. However, the GREAT NEWS is now having purchased the Daybreak expansion, which when merged with some of the ONUW characters, the new Daybreak characters (especially the Witch, the Alpha Wolf and Mystic Wolf) brings the 3 player format to life and becomes really interesting to play.For those interested in the 3 player format one of the best options is with the Alpha Wolf, Mystic Wolf, Witch, Robber, Troublemaker, Insomniac and TannerWhy this works:Firstly, with 3 player format to avoid being overrun with evil, it can be more intriguing to play with no more than 2 werewolves. More werewolves bring an imbalance where it could be that all 3 players are werewolves from the start. If 3 werewolves were played on a 3 player round, then admittedly, one player would not realise that they have become a werewolf and this may be interesting, however, the Alpha Wolf would know. Also, if 2 players were werewolves from the start, they would know each other unless you played the Dream Wolf and placed the Mystic Wolf as the 4th card in the centre. The remaining player would have limited impact in the night phase unless the player was originally a Witch, where a card from the centre may be used to change one of the players from a werewolf to a village team role. The game would be good but only provide limited intrigue. If you were to play with 3 werewolves, the Witch and the Tanner role must be included along with a Drunk, so that the centre roles can be brought into play with the starting werewolves. One of the Troublemaker or Robber roles would have to be dropped.If it is accepted that only 2 werewolves are in the game then the Mystic Wolf should be the "extra wolf" that is placed horizontally in the middle with the Alpha Wolf being selectable when choosing initial cards. To enhance the intrigue you can shuffle the two werewolf cards face down before the card selection stage placing one to one side as this will become the unknown 4th card for the centre. This then means that it is unclear as to whether the Alpha Wolf or Mystic Wolf is in play during the night phase. When playing this way you might choose to turn off the lone wolf option on the night phase, because it would mean the Mystic Wolf may be able to view one of the centre cards and a players card rather than just one of the players card. Also if the Alpha Wolf was in play, it could place the Alpha Wolf at further advantage as a card from the centre could be viewed.Back to why this selection works; if the Alpha Wolf is in play then it defines who else is to be a werewolf which puts the favour towards evil (ie there are now 2 werewolves in play). However, if the Witch is in play this could change the role of the Alpha Wolf or its protege back to a village team role by replacing the character to/from the middle pile. The Witch role can decide to swap other players or herself so this creates doubt for the Alpha Wolf. If the Alpha Wolf had chosen the Witch character as his protege and the Witch swaps another character then the Witch remains a werewolf, however, if the Witch chose to swap the Alpha Wolf then this now changes the dynamic of the game play with the player starting as a Alpha Wolf now needing to play as a villager to win. The Robber can steal the identity of the Alpha Wolf or its protege, however, if the chosen protege for the Alpha Wolf had been the Robber and the Witch had swapped the original Alpha Wolf, then if the Robber chooses to rob the Alpha Wolf then the Alpha Wolf is back to being a wolf. Likewise, the Troublemaker may swap between the other two players and because the Troublemaker wakes after the Witch it can place further intrigue to the game. The Insomniac gets to be instrumental in starting to piece together the jigsaw of who's who in the daybreak phase as this character gets to view their card at the end of the night phase. However, this could be a bluff to influence the games outcome. If the Insomniac discovers they are a villager role it needs to establish if there are werewolves in the village before letting this be known, however, if the role has become a werewolf this changes the strategy to be played through questioning and releasing of information. The Tanner brings a final extra dimension of intrigue as the players will need to take care when choosing to kill a victim. No one wants to kill the Tanner because they will then lose and the Tanner wins the game. It could be that a player is bluffing to be a Tanner to avoid being killed. This all creates great confusion and uncertainty which is what you require to make the 3 player game interesting.This remains one of the most engaging games in my collection and always goes down well when introducing this game to new players. The more people you can get to play the better the game becomes. In theory with both ONUW and Daybreak merged then the game can play up to 23 people, however, due to the nature of the game and the physical ability of allowing people round a table to perform the night phase actions without other players realising who is who, then I would suggest 10 is probably the maximum playable. However, this issue could be overcome if you had a facilitator in place to move the cards as instructed silently by the players during the night phase. Never tried this but no reason why this would not work.A definite one to purchase and I would recommend that you buy both versions so you can mix and match the characters.

I was a bit hesitant to buy ONUW as it's a very different game than most other the tabletop games I own. It's not a boardgame (there's no board) but neither is it a card game really, despite it having cards. This is social bluffing game: a party game if you like. It's all about trying to get glimpses of what each other player's role is without giving too much detail away, in case you discover your own role has been switched in the night and have to make allegiences with the other side.The set is not essential as you could write roles on a regular playing cards or, as I initially did, make your own set by drawing some characters onto some stiff card. The DIY approach works fine (until they become dogeared) and is great for seeing whether this game works for your group. I found it to work tremendously well with my kids so I decided to buy the official set, which is great. The role cards are pretty thick, boardgame chit card rather than playing cards, which makes them much easier to pick up in 'the night' without making much noise. It also includes a set of role chits that are useful for advertising to everyone exactly what roles are in play (as it's easy to forget what these are when you're trying to lie). The artwork is fun: the characters are comical but have a playfully dark air about them and really help to get the theme going.But what really propels this game to a new level is the free Android and iOS app that Bezier Games have made available. This app make it unnecessary for a player to be the announcer and instruct the night roles to do their stuff: the app does it for you and tremendously well too. The dramatic music and the voices really set the mood.Anyhow, ONUW is a great game. It plays through in about ten minutes, can play with large groups or as few as three (just about), has loads of replayability with the roles available and can be expanded with ONUW: Daybreak and the forthcoming One Night Ultimate Vampire games. The only thing I'd say is don't get this if your group is a bit inhibited or humourless as it relies heavily on the energy and creativity of the players involved. I imagine it'd make a fantastic game to play after a few drinks.(By the way, if you are confused, as I was, with the hundreds of games called Werewolf that are out there, it's actually quite simple: Werewolf is a larger game played over several nights but suffers from player elimination. Ultimate Werewolf is Werewolf with more roles. One Night Werewolf is like ONUW but comes on smaller, regular cards with pixel art. One Night Ultimate Werewolf: Daybreak is a similar game with different roles that can be played separately or combined with ONUW. Werewolves of Millers Hollow is a game like Werewolf and Ultimate Werewolf but from a different company.)