To some it is known by the name “Mafia”, others encounter it as a game called “Werewolf”. However named, the game implied is deemed to be one of the most popular analogue games in today's heavily virtualized world. Today, the game most commonly goes by the name “Les loups-garous de Thiercelieux”, which was created in 2001 by Philippe des Phallièrs and Hervé Marly. The English and the German version followed in 2003, titled “The Werewolves of Miller's Hollow” and “Die Werwölfe von Düsterwald”. It is a social communication game for at least 8 players, best between 10 and 20. The Game is based on the players' capability to assume a certain role, to manipulate the other players and to uncover their lies. The equipment one needs involves special role cards that can be self-created when the players are acquainted with the game. “The Werewolves of Miller's Hollow”, further, qualifies as a story game, as it provides a framework for shared story creation, but is constrained by a set of rules. The role play fully relies on imagination, since the players sit around a table or simply in a circle and the improvisation happens only verbally. (cf. Costikyan 2011)

The German version of "The Werewolves": "Die Werwölfe von Düsterwald"

“The Werewolves of Miller's Hollow” takes place in a small village that is frequently attacked by werewolves. There are several roles which are assigned to the players by a moderator in the beginning: werewolf, ordinary villager, or a special character. With a special role comes a special skill. For example: If "The Huntsman" dies, he has a free shot and can take a player with him; "The Witch" is in possession of a healing tincture with which she can save a dying citizen. Each player only knows about their own role for certain and is free to pretend to be anyone they want. The game's procedure is controlled by a moderator who knows all secrets of Miller's Hollow. At the beginning of the game, everyone has to close their eyes, as the game alternates between night and day phases and starts with a night phase. Not only on the first but also on the succeeding nights, the moderator, first, awakes the werewolves, and then, one by one, the special characters. The werewolves secretly choose a villager to kill, by pointing their fingers at a person. Their decision has to be unanimous. When they have made their choice, they close their eyes again, and the moderator wakes the villagers with a special role one after the other. During the day, all players wake up and the villager who was killed during the night is revealed and has to exit the game. The remaining villagers, including the ones with special skills discuss the probable identity or identities of the werewolf or the werewolves, depending on how many werewolf cards the moderator mixed in the deck of cards at the beginning. The accused defend themselves and the villagers vote on a player who they suspect to be a werewolf. The majority's vote decides the matter. The special characters are able to influence the villagers' decision by adding clues they can get through their skills. However, they have to be careful not to reveal their identity, since a revelation of their skills would make them a likely target of the werewolves. By a democratic vote, the villagers, finally, choose a suspect. His or her role gets unveiled and he or she is out of the game. The citizens and the werewolves try to eliminate the other group respectively. The surviving group wins the game.

"Werewolf" and "Villager"

With regard to the game's playability, there should be at least eight players, since there exist so many different roles. However, not all roles have to be used in the game. It is the moderator who decides which roles appear in a round, as he or she mixes the selected cards into the deck. The distribution of citizens and werewolves is not equal: The werewolves are much less in number, but they can use their advantage of killing each night. They also know each other, contrary to the villagers, who can not be sure who is one of them and who is a villain. As for the game's replay value, the more you play the game, the easier it gets to adopt the certain roles, to unveil others' lies and manipulations, and, of course, your own strategies and mind plays develop. Moreover, no round is like the other: Since the roles are changed for every round, players face new challenges and the outcome always varies.

The special roles (from left to right): "The Fortune Teller", "The Witch", "Amor", "The Huntsman", "The Little Girl", "The Thief" and "The Mayor"

As already mentioned above, among the roles there are not only werewolves and normal citizens, but also villagers with a special skill. Of course, there exist some extended versions of the game, where more special characters have been added. The basic special characters, however, are “The Future Teller”, “The Witch”, “Amor”, “The Huntsman”, “The Little Girl”, “The Thief” and “The Mayor”:

• The Fortune Teller: The fortune teller awakes at night and can choose to see the identity, i.e., the role card, of another player. During the day time, the future-teller can try to deliver this information to the other villagers, without arousing the werewolves' suspicion, as they would clearly eliminate him or her.
  
• The Witch: The witch awakes at night after the werewolves have selected their victim. She has two tinctures, one to save the werewolves' victim and one to poison a player of her choice Each tincture can only be used once in the game.
  
• Amor: Amor only awakes in the first night phase and can determine a pair of lovers. The moderator touches the assigned players' shoulders to let them know they are in love. They are allowed to briefly open their eyes to know about each other. During the game, they have to secretly fight for themselves, as a third fraction in the war between villagers and werewolves. They will not accuse each other in the discussions or try to kill the other, because if one of the two dies, the other one immediately dies too. It is their goal to survive together. Naturally, the pair of lovers can include werewolves as well as villagers.
  
• The Huntsman: The huntsman can shoot one other person when he dies.
  
• The Little Girl: The little girl is allowed to peep during the night phase when the werewolves choose their victim. Through peeping she can try to identify the werewolves. However, she has to be very careful, as the werewolves are eager to find out who she is.
  
• The Thief: The thief only awakes once during the first night phase. He or she is allowed to choose one of two identities, i.e. role cards, that the moderator has preselected. The role cards can turn him or her into a villager or into a werewolf.
  
• The Mayor: The mayor is elected during the first day phase by a plurality vote. He or she receives the mayor role card as an addition to the already assigned role card, which allows either a villager or a werewolf to become mayor. The mayor's vote counts as two votes during any poll. In case the mayor dies, he or she can appoint the successor.
  

To come to a critique of “The Werewolves of Miller's Hollow”, its status as a game is investigated in order to establish and reinforce said status. It is examined with regard to Jesper Juul's set of characteristics that constitute the necessities of every game and distinguish it from non-games. (cf. Juul 2003) According to Juul a game is a rule-based system, which is doubtlessly true for “The Werewolves of Miller's Hollow”: The game's procedure follows a fixed pattern that is orchestrated by the moderator and basically involves the alternation of two different game phases called 'day' and 'night'. Deviations from this pattern are not allowed. Furthermore, the players can only act within the activity range of the roles they were assigned by the role cards, i.e. villagers cannot open their eyes during the night phase or Amor cannot heal the villagers. Another one of Juul's prerequisites for games is that they have a variable and quantifiable outcome, which again holds true for “The Werewolves”: The outcome of the game varies in so far that either the villagers manage to discover and kill the werewolves before they slaughter the whole village or the werewolves or at least one werewolf remain undetected and murder all the villagers. It can be argued whether the game's outcome is quantifiable, as there are no points to be won or levels to be reached. One could, however, count the surviving villagers and argue that the better the villagers played the more people survived. This aspect directly leads to another of Juul's game features, namely that different outcomes are assigned different values, which is a rather ambiguous matter in “The Werewolves”. To be more precise, every outcome can be perceived as positively and negatively at the same time depending on whose perception one examines. The death of the villagers is, of course, perceived as a negative event by the players who were assigned the roles of villagers, but as a positive event by those playing the werewolves, and vice versa. Nonetheless, these two possible outcomes for every single game motivate the players to exert effort in order to influence the outcome, whereby another one of Juul's game prerequisites is met. Naturally, the villagers are eager to detect the werewolves to save their lives, and the werewolves struggle to stay undiscovered and win the game. The fact that the game is about life and death of the fictional villagers and werewolves entails an emotional aspect: The players feel emotionally attached to the outcome, i.e. their death or their survival, and, thereby, fulfill Juul's fifth game necessity. Finally, just as Juul requires games to be, the consequences of “The Werewolves” are optional and negotiable. The actions take place within the realm of fiction, i.e. no one is really killed, obviously. However, some players may feel real-life consequences: They may, for instance, experience anger at their partner when they themselves play a villager and find out that their partner acted as a werewolf and successfully lied to them for the duration of the game. Moreover, even though the game is ideally organized by fixed rules, players leaving the game prematurely is a situation that can be negotiated when they are uncomfortable with their role or feel too affected by the game's rather brutal disposition. (cf. Juul 2003) Since “The Werewolves of Miller's Hollow” do not exactly correspond to Juul's points concerning the variable outcome and the valorization of the outcome, it could be regarded as a borderline case with reference to its game status. (cf. Juul 2003) Nonetheless, as the game meets the majority of game necessities listed by Jesper Juul, it appears meticulous to question its game status. 

With regard to its educational value, “The Werewolves of Miller's Hollow” contains several features that render it ideal for certain learning processes. Even though the following aspects are originally referenced with regard to virtual games, they apply just as well to the analogue “The Werewolves of Miller's Hollow”. First of all, when learners take on a certain role, i.e. a new identity, during their game play experience, they become invested in their role, since winning equals surviving in Miller's Hollow. As one important learning principle states that “deep learning requires an extended commitment” (Gee 2007: 32) and “The Werewolves” kindle such a commitment, the setting of the game provides a suitable basis for deep learning experiences. To perform well in the game, the students (or the learners) are required to train and exercise skills such as monologic as well as dialogic speaking in general, providing a comprehensible and convincing argumentation, or taking turns appropriately in an interaction, to only name a few. The skills mentioned are primarily relevant for first and foreign language teaching and can be trained effectively in class by playing the game and, beforehand, acquainting students with speaking skills and strategies they may need to use. The players are required to actively contribute in order to participate and, most probably, feel motivated to do so due to the commitment induced by the roles they play. In addition, the gaming experience can also function as a metaphorical fish tank that furthers learning: The players are introduced to and have to train real-life competences such as holding a speech, reasoning comprehensively, voting democratically, thinking strategically or participating in a discussion. The world of Miller's Hollow offers them a simplified system in which they can train these skills and gradually learn by trial and error what they have to pay attention to. (cf. Gee 2007: 39) Thereby, the setting of “The Werewolves” also works as a metaphorical sandbox, since the situations players find themselves in may feel real and authentic, but do not have any real-life or dangerous consequences. (cf. Gee 2007: 39) Last but definitely not least, the game helps players to develop effective social skills: Whether they cooperate as a group of villagers or a pack of werewolves, or compete as villagers against werewolves, “The Werewolves” brings them together and requires them to interact and find solutions together as a group. (cf. Shaffer et al. 2005: 106) Especially, the part at the end of a 'day' when the villagers have to collectively decide whom to 'kill', the players are confronted with and, thereby, learn about democratic proceedings. Apart from cooperating, they also learn to listen to statements and information critically, and experience the power of manipulation first-hand. These (social) skills come in handy in a variety of subjects, which allows for "The Werewolves" to be implemented in areas of political or psychological education.

All in all, “The Werewolves of Miller's Hollow” do not only prove to be of entertaining value, but can also be utilized in educational contexts to learn about and train speaking skills in first or foreign languages, or social skills needed in everyday and professional life, to only name a few of the game's learning assets.

For further information on the game's procedure and an entertaining example of "The Werewolves of Miller's Hollow", you can watch the following videos:
A presentation of the rules:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8jN-O415TI
An exemplary round of "The Werewolves":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nS6Cvk8gH4

Sources:
Costikyan, Greg. “Improv and Roleplaying Games”. In: Costikyan, Greg. (ed.). Tabletop: Analog Game Design. Pittsburgh: ETC Press, 2011. http://press.etc.cmu.edu/content/improv-and-roleplaying-games-greg-costikyan
Gee, James Paul. “Good video games, the human mind, and good learning”. In: James Paul Gee. Good Video Games Plus Good Learning (Vol. 27). Chicago: Peter Lang, 2007. http://rhetoricalpeaks.pbworks.com/f/Good+Video+Games+Gee001%5B1%5D.pdf
Juul, Jesper. "The Game, the Player, the World: Looking for a Heart of Gameness". In: Copier, Marinka; Joost Raessens (eds.). Level Up: Digital Games Research Conference Proceedings. Utrecht: Utrecht University, 2003. 30-45. http://www.jesperjuul.net/text/gameplayerworld/
Shaffer, D. W.; Halverson, R.; Squire, K. R.; Gee, James Paul. “Video Games and the Future of Learning”. WCER Working Paper No. 2005-4. Wisconsin Center for Education Research, 2005. http://website.education.wisc.edu/~kdsquire/tenure-files/23-pdk-VideoGamesAndFutureOfLearning.pdf
Video source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEC_h-8lGfU

Authors:
Katharina Luftensteiner, Kathi_luft@gmx.net
Katrin Waldhart, katiwald@gmail.com