For the first week of EDL290, we played Ultimate Werewolf. I loved a variation of this game as a child (Mafia, for those familiar), so seeing a more complex version available for adults was incredible and greatly nostalgic. The game had several roles, from Cupid selecting lovers to the two Masons whose names we could not say in fear of sudden death. My favorite was actually the one I played: the Spellcaster, who had the ability to silence someone for each round of the game.

Usually, I have experienced this game with people that I know and have some degree of friendship with. For the first time, I walked into the room and played this game with a group of 30 people that I had never met. This part was difficult because when you play with friends, you know their “tells.” We had no way of gauging who was being honest and who was lying. We had to trust our instincts and our past experiences with human interaction to determine who was lying about their role and who was being honest with the class.

I tried to lead the group in the first round by breaking the ice and asking everyone how their day was. However, the true leadership was shown when one person suggested we should kill someone off. Eventually, someone lead the followers and brought them to the initial leader by agreeing with killing off that person. Seeing how a group of strangers interacted with each other and how leadership in each turn was determined was an interesting perspective. I enjoyed interacting with the people around me, especially after I died and the Seer came forward with his knowledge. I think it was smart that the Seer kept his identity a secret until he figured out who was a wolf.

Overall, this game was a blast and was a phenomenal introduction to this course. I plan to figure out how to play this with a normal deck of cards and invite my friends over to play it. I’m sure they would love to fight over who the “bad guy” is.

-Alexandra Bartkoske