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One Night Ultimate Werewolf

Card Gamelow3–10 playersOfficial rules ↗

Objective

The Village team wins if at least one Werewolf is voted out and killed at the end of the game (or if no Werewolves are in play and no one is killed). The Werewolf team wins only if at least one player is a Werewolf and no Werewolf is killed.

The Basics

One Night Ultimate Werewolf is a social deduction party game that takes place over a single night and a single day — the entire game lasts about 10 minutes. Each player is secretly dealt a role card. Some roles wake up during the night phase to take a special action (look at cards, swap cards, etc.); others never wake up. After the night phase, everyone discusses what they think happened and votes to kill one player. Crucially: because some roles swap or move cards during the night, your role at the end of the game may not be the one you started with — your team is determined by whatever card sits in front of you when voting happens.

What You Need

A set of role cards (the box includes 16 character cards covering 12 unique roles) and matching tokens to display which roles are in play. One player (or a free companion app) serves as the Announcer, reading a script that tells each role when to wake up.

Setup

Choose a combination of role cards based on your player count — you must always include exactly 3 more cards than players (the extra 3 go to the center of the table, never dealt to anyone). For your first game with 3–5 players, a solid starter set is: 2 Werewolves, 1 Seer, 1 Robber, 1 Troublemaker, and enough Villagers to fill out the deck.

Shuffle the selected cards and deal one face-down to each player. Place the remaining 3 cards face-down in the center, within reach of everyone. Each player secretly looks at their own card, then places it face-down in front of them (not back in their hand) — this is so others can reference it during the day. Place the corresponding role tokens near the Announcer so everyone knows which roles are in the game.

Night Phase

The Announcer reads the script aloud, calling each role in a fixed wake-up order. After "Everyone, close your eyes," only the called role's player(s) open their eyes to act — about 10 seconds per role — then close their eyes again before the next role is called. Players who are not currently active may not talk, point, or otherwise signal information. Villager, Tanner, and Hunter never wake up.

Standard Wake-Up Order and Actions

Doppelganger (if in play) — Wakes first. Looks at one other player's card and immediately becomes that role and team. If the viewed card is Seer, Robber, Troublemaker, or Drunk, the Doppelganger performs that action immediately. If it's a Werewolf or Mason, she wakes again with that group when called. If it's Villager, Tanner, or Hunter, she does nothing further.

Werewolves — Open eyes and look for other Werewolves. If no other eyes are open, the remaining Werewolf card(s) are in the center. Lone Wolf option: if there is only one Werewolf in play, that player may peek at one center card.

Minion (if in play) — Wakes immediately after Werewolves. All Werewolves stick out a thumb so the Minion can identify them (the Werewolves do not learn who the Minion is). The Minion is on the Werewolf team even though they don't know who else is.

Masons (if in play, always both) — Open eyes and look for the other Mason. If they don't see one, the second Mason card is in the center.

Seer — May look at one other player's card, or two of the three center cards (not both).

Robber — May swap their own card with another player's card, then look at their new card. The other player is now the Robber (and on the village team) without knowing it.

Troublemaker — May swap the cards of two other players without looking at either card.

Drunk (only recommended if Robber and/or Troublemaker are in play) — Swaps their own card with a random center card, without looking at the new card.

Insomniac (only recommended if Robber and/or Troublemaker are in play) — Looks at their own card to see if it has changed.

After the last role's action, the Announcer says "Everyone, wake up!" and the day phase begins.

Day Phase

Players discuss openly — anyone may say anything, true or false, but no one may show their card to another player. Remember: your role for scoring purposes is whatever card is currently in front of you, which may differ from your starting role if a Robber, Troublemaker, or Drunk acted on it during the night. No one may look at any card again after the night phase ends.

After a few minutes of discussion, the Announcer counts down and everyone votes simultaneously by pointing at one other player. The player with the most votes is killed and reveals their card. Ties result in all tied players dying. If every player receives exactly one vote (no majority), no one dies — some groups deliberately coordinate this outcome.

Special Roles (No Night Action)

Villager — No ability; a reliable role to falsely claim. Tanner — Wants to die. If the Tanner is killed, the Werewolf team does not win — even if a Werewolf also dies, the village wins too (with the Tanner's death separately satisfying their personal win condition). Hunter — If the Hunter is killed (by vote), the player they were pointing at also dies immediately, regardless of how many votes that player received.

Winning Conditions

Key Rules

At the Table

Decide your role claim during the night, before discussion starts — know what you'll say and what actions you'd have taken if your claimed role were real. Roles that take no information (Villager, Hunter) are easy to claim and hard to disprove. If your card changed during the night and you don't know your new role, listen carefully: someone else may reveal information that contradicts your story before you even realize you've been swapped.