In Werewords, you have a word that everyone is trying to figure out.
But a sneaky Werewolf is trying to put everyone off.
In Werewords Deluxe Edition, players guess a word by asking “yes” or “no” questions. Figure out the magic word before time is up, and you win! However, one of the players is secretly a werewolf who is not only working against you but also knows the magic word.
Werewords Gameplay
So here you have a Mayor, Werewolf, Seer cards and a number of villagers. These are shuffled and dealt out to each player with 1 tile going in the centre.
The Mayor player reveals and flips their card face up.
Now you start an app that will guide you through play. Everyone closes their eyes.
The Mayor looks at the centre card and becomes that role. If it’s the Seer or Werewolf they take on those roles. So let’s assume they picked a Villager for this brief overview.
The Mayor will then be shown 2 words on the app and they’ll pick one and then close their eyes.
Next, the Seer and Werewolf will take turns opening their eyes so they both know the word.
Now they have 4 minutes to ask the Mayor Yes/No questions with the Mayor using tokens to communicate and nothing else.
The Seer will try and steer everyone towards the right answer while the Werewolf is doing the opposite.
If they get the word the Villagers, Seer and Mayor win. But the Werewolf has 15 seconds to try and find the Seer and if they do they win.
If they don’t get the word then the Werewolf will win unless the Villagers vote and give a majority to the Werewolf.
Theme
It’s in this Bezier Games Werewolf world which is fine as it’s a hidden role game. But, it really doesn’t make sense, to be honest. Still, the familiar characters are fun to see.
Setup & Rule-book
Pick the right number of roles and the right player count on the app. Job done.
The rule book does a good job. I think the way the more advanced roles are described could be done better. For some reason, they did it differently from the One Night Ultimate Series rule books.
Components & Artwork
I guess they’re OK but I’ve seen these thick role cards and similar artwork so often in games I own that it’s not special.
Not saying it’s bad, just VERY used to it now 🙂
Ease of Teaching & Accessibility
It’s very easy to teach. There is a tonne of different roles that you can use with experienced players. But, if you have new players just stick with the Werewolf and Seer. That’s simple.
You can even make the experienced player the Mayor and only shuffle the other role cards out. No harm in determining a Mayor to start the game.
As with any hidden role game the teaching and asking of questions during the game need to be done with care. But, rounds are only 5 minutes so if terminal mistakes are made, just start again.
Taking all of the above into account, you have to say it is very accessible.
Werewords Summary
There are a few hidden role word games. The one I always think of, and my favourite so far, is The Chameleon. It’s similar in a loose way but also different enough that you could own both.
But this one is more of a twist, and of course, you get to have more options on your game day. Also, yes Werewords is basically Insider but a Mayor instead of Master and a Seer/Werewolf combo instead of the Insider.
The reason I picked up Werewords over Insider is:
- The additional roles (That I may never use but still)
- The increased player count (Which I think is infinite anyway, but the roles make this interesting)
- The app (But any timer would do)
The game itself is a good one though. It’s fast so if you’re good at social deduction games you don’t really have the advantage. Only at the end of the round when looking for the Seer or Werewolf. You have a bit of time during the question phase, but not much.
So yeah, very fun game. Well worth a go if you haven’t played it already and like to play 20 questions with hidden roles.
Jesta ThaRogue