How to effectively moderate an ultimate werewolf game?

Question

I'm hosting a werewolf game (there will be 10-15 people), but I have never played as a moderator. How do I make sure the game is fun for everyone, for example when a good number of people have been "killed"? Would the game be fast paced enough that people don't have to spend a lot of time standing idly by?

Answer 1

I had a fantastic time being a first time moderator/first time playing with a decent number of people, so I would like to answer my own question as I learned a lot from the experience.

Choosing Roles

There were 10 people, including myself. No one had played Werewolf before (or even Mafia) except me. I thought it would be best to start simple, so the roles I included were:

• 1 Seer
• 1 Bodyguard
• 1 Cupid
• 3 Werewolves
• 3 Villagers
• last person was moderator

Moderator Duties

Best best thing to do is to be really animated when being the moderator, and actually try to tell a story. Even simple things like a more dramatic tone made the game more fun. To that end, I also had people go around and introduce themselves as a "villager" with a medieval job of their choice.

As a first time moderator, I used a notepad with a simple symbol based seating chart just to remember who was who, and who was dead.

Keeping a strict time limit on the day cycle was also important, as it ensured the "dead" people wouldn't have to sit by with nothing to do, although they found it extremely entertaining just to watch.

After people learned the game, they were eager to moderate as well, and that made the game more fun because everyone brought something interesting to the role.

Setting

In addition, it helped to play in a social setting, with drinks at a bar (I picked a large biergarten with picnic table style tables) because it made people more relaxed and more willing to "buy into" the story and ridiculous scenarios.

Also, it solved the problem of people being "dead". They could just order another beer and laugh at the villagers' flailing attempts to find the wolves.

Answer 2

The first you have to remember, is that werewolf is a team game. Even if you are dead, you can still win if the rest of your team survives.

Next, try to increase the speed of the if 50% of the players are out of the game.

As a moderator, I often try to include a story. For an online version, I did a Lord of the Rings theme. For real life the themes are simpler but funny. For example, during election times, you could have a politically based theme. This increases the amusement factor.

I also like to play tricks on players. I have my own set of roles. And sometimes, I include several cards of the same role. This increases the confusion, but if you are dead you have access to a whole lot of extra information. And I really like the WTF looks if they discover some stuff.

The players still hate me for the time, I did not include any wolf in the game. And I picked the victims each night. (I held a card in my hand but they did not notice it).

And don't be afraid to experiment. Some stuff works some doesn't.