For the first week of class we all played Ultimate Werewolf in which I was only a villager. This complicated the game for me since I was one of the few players without any special abilities to use. On top of that I was targeted by Virginia Woolf meaning I would die if they were voted out. Due to these limitations I decided to play riskier and take a more active role in the discussion. I made a point to explain details and strategies that could be hard for new players such as always checking who is silenced to know if the spellcaster has died. I didn’t have any in-game ability worth trying to stay hidden so I figured that would be the most beneficial thing I could do for my team.

The session was an interesting game as one of the werewolves’ allies the minion was voted out first, but the seer was also the first to be killed. The sorceress tricked the villagers into voting out the apprentice seer but we quickly got them and one of the wolves out. There were also several rounds with no deaths which likely helped the village a ton. With no reliable information left to find werewolves the group mostly voted out whoever was silenced including myself. This is usually a bad strategy but unfortunately it is somewhat common. Since the spellcaster was in love with one of the werewolves everyone was reluctant to vote them out, but the hunter risked shooting them after dying which won us the game.

Ultimate Werewolf is a very popular game that I have played many times. SGC usually runs the game at all the League of Geek events and it always draws in a lot of players. Social deduction games are great both because of the puzzle of trying to figure out other players roles and because you get to lie. Lying and tricking other people in a safe environment just for fun can be a lot of fun. There is obviously the downside of dying early and having to sit out for the entire rest of the game. Even then though Werewolf can be exciting just watching it play out and seeing everything at night happen. I look forward to most likely playing this game again at Recon later this semester.