The Werewolves of Miller’s Hollow (Les Loups-garous de Thiercelieux) is French card game that is a reimagining of Mafia, a parlor game of Russian origin. It is a more complex version of the original Werewolf, adding more characters to the mix. While it plays with cards, the real fun comes from the debates as the players try to spot the traitors among themselves.
During the first turn, each player receives a single card from the GM and must keep it a secret from the other players. This is followed by a vote among the players to choose a captain, whose function is represented by a second (non-hidden) card. The game then alternates between “night” turns and “day” turns.
- During the night, all players with a “villager” card must keep their eyes shut and remain silent, as if they were asleep, while all players with a “werewolf” card must use visual gestures to communicate with each other and choose a victim among the villagers.
- During the day, all players (real villagers plus werewolves pretending to be villagers) must condemn somebody among themselves, with the captain’s vote counting twice.
Every time a player is devoured during the night or executed during the day, his card is revealed to the other players and he must remain inactive for the rest of the game. If the captain is devoured or executed, he chooses his successor. The villagers win when all the werewolves have been executed. The werewolves win when all the villagers have been devoured or executed (the GM generally ends the game once the wolves have enough votes to block any attempt to execute them).
More roles can be introduced. Some of those, like the Fortune Teller, use special abilities to help the villagers against the werewolves. Others, like the Cupid, are here to create additional conspiracies alongside or within the initial conspiracy. There are three expansion packs, New Moon, The Village and Characters, adding new roles and game mechanics.
Has a character sheet.
This game contains examples of:
- Death of a Child: The little girl can die.
- Disaster Dominoes: If an unlucky chain of events occurs, the villagers can wipe out the majority (or, depending on the number of players left, all) of themselves in one night without exposing a single werewolf.
- Double Reverse Quadruple Agent: Some combinations of roles can lead to this.
- Driven to Suicide: If one of the lovers dies, the other commits suicide.
- "Everybody Dies" Ending: Happens if among three survivors, a pair of lovers executes a hunter who shoots one of them and causes the other to kill themselves. In this case, there are no winners.
- Flock of Wolves: Inverted in the "black death" scenario. There are no werewolves.
- Fur Against Fang: Whenever the fans imagine new roles, vampires aren’t far away.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: If no one dies on the first night (either because the werewolves chose not to kill, the savior or the witch rescues the victim), the villagers technically have no reason to suspect that there are werewolves among them, yet it's still possible to vote. Some groups avert this by starting with a day phase, with the moderator presenting themselves as the werewolves' first victim.
- Interspecies Romance: Happens if Cupid pairs two players who turn out to be a werewolf and a human. In this case, the lovers win if and only if everyone else dies.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: They transform every night but are not The Virus.
- Pyrrhic Victory: If the only people left are one or two werewolves or villagers.
- Social Deduction Game: Villagers have to root out the werewolf who is killing them by voting on who they think it is.
- Ten Little Murder Victims: It seems that Miller's Hollow is a very isolated community.
- Thriving Ghost Town: Enforced. Miller's Hollow has as many inhabitants as players. The original has enough cards to have 24 players, although the instructions advise 18 players at most. The compilation "The Pact" has enough cards to have up to 47 players.
