Werewords: A Unique Mash-up of Hidden Identity and Word Games

Bezier Games mixes word guessing games with social deduction in a new kind of Werewolf game, that won’t feel quite like any you’ve played before.

Gameplay

Werewords combines the classic social deduction party game Werewolf with a word guessing game. Roles are secretly dealt to each player at the start of the game, with one role being left face down in the middle of the table. The player who is dealt the Mayor role reveals the card. The Mayor then secretly looks at the role in the middle of the table. That is the mayor’s secret role.

The game is played with an app. When you are ready to begin, you start the night phase on the app and everyone closes their eyes. The Mayor then selects his secret role on the app (this might affect the difficulty of the magic word) and then the app shows the Mayor the magic word. The Mayor then closes his eyes. Next, the Seer opens her eyes and looks at the magic word before closing her eyes again. Finally, the Werewolf opens his eyes and looks at the magic word. If playing with the Minion role card, the Minion gets to know who the wolf is but not what the word is. Similarly, if the Beholder role is played with, the Beholder gets to know who the seer is, but not what the word is.

After the night phase, all the players wake up and have four minutes of guessing. All players on the Villager team are trying to guess what the word is, while all players on the Werewolf team are trying to prevent the other players from figuring out the word by slowing them down and derailing the line of questioning. Players must ask the Mayor yes or no questions and the Mayor can only answer with the use of yes or no tokens, as well as a few maybe tokens and one ‘so close’ token. If the Mayor’s secret role is evil, he is allowed to lie and misdirect the players.

If the players correctly guess the word before the four minutes are up, the Werewolf has one minute to guess which player is the seer. If he is right, team Werewolf wins, otherwise the Villagers win. If the players fail to guess the word before the four minutes are up or the Mayor runs out of yes/no tokens before the time is up, players have one minute to vote on who they think the Werewolf is. If they are right (or guess the minion), the Villagers win, otherwise team Werewolf wins.

Review

The combination of social deduction and word game in Werewords works beautifully and the two genres end up complementing each other extremely well. Having one or more players working against you, and not knowing if you can even trust the Mayor, makes guessing the word challenging, while the activity of guessing gives players information to work with when trying to find the Werewolf or Seer. You need to keep both aspects of the game in mind as you play.

Werewords is also probably the first Werewolf game in which being a villager is just as much fun as being any of the special roles. The villagers are the ones who really have to do the most work in guessing the word, as the Seer has to be very careful not to make it too obvious that they know what it is. Playing as Mayor is also fun, particularly when you're evil and you want to mislead but have to tread carefully around the Seer.

Unlike Bezier Games’ One Night Ultimate Werewolf there are no instructions for playing the game without the app. However, the app does have some nice customization, such as allowing you to adjust the length of the day phase or change the difficulty level of the words used.

Even if you already own other Werewolf games, Werewords is well worth adding to your collection as it definitely brings something new to the table. And even if you aren’t a fan of most typical Werewolf games, Werewords is worth giving a shot as it feels like a more casual social deduction game with a lot more information to work with.

Pros: All roles are equally fun, the two genres complement each other nicely

Cons: Must be played with the app

Disclosure: we received a complimentary review copy of this game.