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Sight Reader
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Werewolves of Miller's Hollow » Forums » General
First Time Hosting Tips
Thanks to a few more months of experience, here's an update of my previous hosting tips.

Ratios
For Werewolves of Miller's Hollow you need about 3 villagers for every Werewolf. The Seer is generally recommended as well, and that's probably complicated enough to get started. Have more roles rehearsed and ready, though, because most people hate being stuck as a simple villager.

Jumping right in
I teach non-gamers who are generally restless, so I explain the general cycle of "sleep-bite-wake-lynch" then jump right in. You can explain individual roles as you call up these people to do their tasks. This quick start approach can help with unruly crowds of folks who want to talk about everything but the game. All that really matters is that players can identify what their roles are before the game starts - I provide a playing aid of some sort so people don't have to reveal that they have a weird role just to get you to identify it.


Frequent breaks
The critical thing to remember is that it is positively painful for players to keep eyes closed for prolonged periods of time. You really can't appreciate this until you've played - within minutes, your entire group can end up with a bleary eyed headache. Explain what you're going to do with eyes open, close eyes, do it quickly, then let eyes open up again while you fumble around or explain what's going to happen next.

Secrecy
All the things you have to do sound easy until you realize that it all has to be done with attentive ears listening for everything! Before starting the first night, remember to warn people (especially the chatty ones) that players are listening for movements, sounds or changes in speech that might give something away. Here's some classic examples:

1. You: "Werewolf, choose a victim" - Werewolf: "Ummmm..." - Villagers: all turn in surprise, then bust out laughing
2. Werewolves: goofing and fidgeting - You: "Werewolves, open your eyes" - Werewolves: abruptly quiet

As a moderator, you have to be even more careful and even deceptive. Direct your voice the wrong way when talking to someone. Get used to using formal titles ("The Lovers will now... The Witch will now...") NEVER use the words like "him" or "her"!

Communicating Selected Roles
There are times when people have to choose roles (Bodyguard: "I choose to protect the Witch"). Have a numbered board ready so these selections can be made secretly with one hand (so the player can use their other hand to make it sound like they're not paying attention): You: "Which of these 4 groups is that role in? OK, is it the first, second or third role there?"

Communicating Selected People
For roles like The Lovers, people have to know they were chosen. However, in big tables and crammed rooms, it can be awkward and time consuming for you to tour the room tapping people on the shoulder.

To reduce movement, have everyone hold out their hands to you (eyes closed). Make sure you pretend to reach and touch everyone, but just grasp the hands of those chosen.

Verifying Identities
After Werewolf kills and Seer choices, you have to make sure that no one special was picked. I suggest having people hold their cards up with eyes closed.


Voting
To reduce pointless arguing, you can just have those who are undecided raise their hands and ask questions. When everyone's mind is made up, have everyone point, figure out who the top vote getters are, then get a count.


I wish you best of luck, and I hope you have as much fun watching werewolves gobble up villagers as we do!
Max Jamelli
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Mrs. sigtaulefty and I are hosting a Halloween party this year and this game is on tap. Looking forward to moderating.
Sight Reader
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sigtaulefty wrote:
Mrs. sigtaulefty and I are hosting a Halloween party this year and this game is on tap. Looking forward to moderating.

Best of luck! I recommend having a cheat sheet roughly dividing the roles into these phases:

"Startup": things done before the game really starts ("Matchmaker", etc)
"Beginning of Night": things done before Werewolf bite ("Guardian", etc)
"Bite Check": Things to check for once the werewolves have bitten ("Cursed", etc)
"End of Night": Things done after Werewolf bite ("Witch", etc)
"Day": Things to verify as voting and lynching progresses ("Prince", etc)

This cheat sheet is written large enough so players can silently choose role names by a show of fingers (i.e. "Show me which group you want to select... Good, now show me which role in that group you want to select...")
Last edited on 2008-10-24 19:19:32 CST (Total Number of Edits: 1)
Max Jamelli
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We're gonna have a practice game tonight (with only a few people who are in town early) and I think that'll be the best way to figure out how to move things along smoothly.
Sight Reader
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sigtaulefty wrote:
We're gonna have a practice game tonight (with only a few people who are in town early) and I think that'll be the best way to figure out how to move things along smoothly.
Good luck in it. Make sure people don't have their eyes closed too long... it's painful!
Max Jamelli
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sightreader wrote:
sigtaulefty wrote:
We're gonna have a practice game tonight (with only a few people who are in town early) and I think that'll be the best way to figure out how to move things along smoothly.
Good luck in it. Make sure people don't have their eyes closed too long... it's painful!


:) I just hope they don't fall asleep!
Sight Reader
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Our last two Werewolf sessions have led to the discovery of an important caveat...


After literally years of introducing people to absolutely hilarious games of Werewolf, we were stunned to have a game that was sincerely boring. Everyone just sat there, no one wanted to say anything - no arguments, no opinions, nothing! As a result, when it came time to vote, the results were truly random, and after a few rounds of this people quickly lost interest in the game.


Interviews with players after the game led me to recognize a key reason that may explain why some people have great time with this game and others think it's awful:

- Werewolf can be a disaster if everyone is a stranger!

Even though we had a few veterans, none of these people were the outspoken type, and no one else knew each other. When you don't know someone, you don't know how they will interpret or respond to what you say. Thus, fearing offense, people were uncomfortable spewing nasty accusations about others, and as a result everyone spent the game sitting around in polite silence. This silence meant a complete lack of evidence which resulted, of course, in a thoroughly random and boring game.


We had a pretty similar mix on the next game night - even some of the same people - except that this time we had none of our veterans. To prevent the same thing from happening, I had everyone play a mixer game first, Pit, where people got acquainted with screaming in each other's face.

Note: I combined two Pit decks together with sleeves to accomodate more than 8 people

After this, we tried Werewolf again. The first round made me nervous when everyone just shrugged their shoulders and said, "There isn't anything to go on". However, this is pretty usual for a first round, and unlike the previous session, people were actually willing to say that. Once that first round passed things indeed started getting pretty goofy, and despite the presence of some strong cultural differences we had as much fun as ever.


Thus I've come to conclude that, despite all the complex mechanics of variants like Ultimate Werewolf: Ultimate Edition, the game doesn't work unless you have some body language to go on.

So, what to do if everyone is shy and just sits there? I couldn't tell you for sure, but I think I'll try this if it happens again.

- Ask each person, "Why should we believe that you're not a Werewolf?" and see who can give the FUNNIEST speech!


I don't know when I'll get a chance to try this idea since now everyone actually knows each other. However, if anyone else is willing to try this, I would be most grateful for feedback to see if it worked!
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