The Werewolves of Miller's Hollow: New Moon Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• What's in the New Moon Box?
• Contents
• The Variants
  • 1 - Moonlight
  • 2 - Community of Hamlets
  • 3 - "In Any Case, It Surely Isn't Him!"
  • 4 - The Writing's on the Wall
  • 5 - Double "You"
    • a) The Small Complication
    • b) The Great Complication
  • 6 - Harvest Festival at Millers Hollow
  • 7 - The Black Death
  • 8 - Lycanthropic Fascination
  • 9 - New Moon
  • Explanation of the Spiritualism Card
  • Help
• New Characters
  • The Village Idiot
  • The Elder
  • The Scapegoat
  • The Defender
  • The Piper

What's in the New Moon Box?

1. Moonlight: Play outdoors in a magical ambiance.
2. Community of Hamlets: Are there a great number of you? You can all play together…
3. "In any case, it surely isn't him!": Change the voting system.
4. The Writing's on the Wall: Express your feelings on the small wall behind the town hall.
5. Double - "You": The Villagers have a split personality…
6. Harvest Festival: The inebriation from the festivities strangely modifies the abilities of the inhabitants of Millers Hollow.
7. The Black Death: A surprise from the moderator, to be kept secret from all the players.
8. Lycanthropic Fascination: Now, the Werewolves fascinate their victims!
9. New Moon: The magnum opus of this expansion, 36 event cards that modify the dramatic nature of your adventures each morning with awakening of the Villagers.

And of course some new characters to enrich your collection: "the Defender", "the Elder", "the Scapegoat", "the Piper" and "the Village Idiot".

Contents

• This 32-page booklet.
• 36 event cards for the New Moon variant.
• A sheet with 5 precut self-adhesive stickers to apply to the center of 5 "Simple Villager" cards from your base game, "The Werewolves of Millers Hollow." With each new game the moderator decides whether these cards represent Simple Villagers or the role depicted on the sticker.

The Variants

There are many ways beyond the basic rules to play The Werewolves of Millers Hollow. These variants come from jokes which took place during the innumerable games that we have conducted, as well as a selection of some of your many proposals posted on our site http://lesloupsgarous.free.fr

We offer you here the best of these variants, tested and optimized to renew your joy in playing.

1 - Moonlight

This eerie atmosphere ideally emphasizes all the variants we offer below.

Set yourselves up outside under the starry sky, and form a circle around the moderator. Wear period clothing, listen to music appropriate to that ancient time.

In this arcane environment where one can almost hear the howl of the wolves, set a small lit candle in front of each player.

From now on, each morning the moderator blows out the candle in front of the victim of the Werewolves, and each evening after the vote, the victim of the village extinguishes her own candle. It will make the mood increasingly darker in the village, and the survivors will be the only ones visible, ready to be devoured.

You can also adopt a more stressful variant for the Werewolves: it is they who, in one way or another, will have to extinguish the candle of each of their victims. Note: If more than one candle dies out, there is no victim.

2 - Community of Hamlets

When you gather many friends to play Werewolves of Millers Hollow, you can create several villages. The ideal in this variant would be to have one room per village – if you are playing outside, you can play by separating the groups by about sixty feet.

Each village needs to be a complete game. It is recommended to have one moderator per village, but you can orchestrate the executions of day/night simultaneously for all the villages.

The games proceed normally, but the players can decide to leave their village at any moment of the game, except during the night and if they are designated to be eliminated by popular accusation.

A player that decides to change villages for personal convenience leaves the table with her card, which she keeps secret. She goes to another village of her choice during the day, and knocks on the door or waits until someone authorizes her to move into the new village.

In order to avoid excessive disorder, the organizers may decide to limit the comings and goings from one village to another (for example, not more than 2 departures per village).

It is possible that there will be several identical characters in a village. It's even possible that the Werewolves desert a village they consider to be too dangerous. In this case, the Villagers of the village win their game.

Note that by moving too often, you are taking an additional risk: The Villagers of the region of Millers Hollow are often narrow-minded. A stranger is always suspect... We witnessed villages in which every newcomer was systematically condemned by the popular tribunal.

3 - "In Any Case, It Surely Isn't Him!"

Here is a new way of voting to designate the victim of the popular tribunal. It is a mini-variant to use from time to time in a game.

All the Villagers still in the game rise. Then the neighbor to the left of the last eliminated player designates a Villager whom she guarantees to be innocent. This first voter remains standing: She will have to be proven innocent if she wants to survive.

The Villager who was declared innocent sits down, and then in turn designates a Villager whom he wishes to save who will then sit down as well. Continue like this until one player is left standing.

This last player is the victim of the village vote. Of course, debate is still welcome during the vote.

Caution: In this variant, the Werewolves can easily declare one another innocent, and thus escape their just punishment. Be very attentive to who clears whom. The village will only be sure to eliminate one of the Werewolves if the Werewolves are the very last to vote.

4 - The Writing's on the Wall

This variant can be used along with the others.

Before nightfall, the inhabitants of Millers Hollow have the habit of coming to read the small, anonymous graffiti written on the little wall behind the town hall.

Each Villager still in the game writes a short phrase of her choice on a slip of paper, and gives it to the moderator. The author of each graffiti must remain anonymous, but each one is free to write whatever she wants: suspicions, warnings, comments, denunciations, compliments, declarations of love...

When they've all been gathered up, the moderator reads all the graffiti in a random order.

The Villagers can then fall asleep, their minds still troubled by these short messages.

5 - Double "You"

a) The Small Complication

(From 7 to 9 players; if you wish to play with more, you will need a second copy of the base game.)

This variant permits each player to portray a true role, her character being visible to all: the Seer, the Hunter, the Witch, Cupid, the Defender, the Elder, the Scapegoat, and up to 2 Simple Villagers are the characters whom you will portray. Deal each one player one of these cards face-up.

Then deal to each player a second card face-down, called the alignment card, from the following: 2 Werewolves and 5 to 7 Simple Villagers, according to the number of players.

Each player keeps the alignment card she received secret as long as she is not eliminated.

This alignment card tells the player to which camp she belongs: Werewolves or Villagers.

The goal of the players whose alignment card is a Werewolf is to eliminate the players whose alignment card is a Villager, and vice versa.

Do not distribute the following characters: Thief, Little Girl, Idiot, Piper.

b) The Great Complication

Prepare the cards as before, shuffle them, then deal two cards face-down to each player. These cards will remain secret.

What can be done without making any changes: The Witch can be the Seer, the Hunter can be the Defender, and the Elder can be the Scapegoat.

When a player has at least one Werewolf card, she is a Werewolf. If this player has a special ability on the other card, she can use it as well.

6 - Harvest Festival at Millers Hollow

It is suggested to have more Werewolves than usual.

All the abilities are disrupted until the end of the game by excessive drink, according to the following indications:

• The Werewolves can only devour someone next to one of them.
• The Seer is drunk, and cannot distinguish between the visions that appear in her mind: The Seer, as usual, designates a player whose personality she wishes to probe, but in response, the moderator gives her the identities of 3 players: the designated player and his 2 neighbors. The moderator should not specify which player portrays which character.
• The Hunter must choose his victim from one of his two neighbors.
• The Little Girl has a hard time managing her slumber. She awakes too late to spot Werewolves and can only spy on the Witch.
• The Thief, if she has the Thief card all day, must during the first night, with the help of the moderator, exchange it with the card of the player of her choice. Each player will have to check his character the following morning.
• The Sheriff will have to vote before all the other players.
• The Scapegoat is no longer eliminated in the event of a tie, but rather in the place of one of her two neighbors, should they be eliminated by village vote.
• The Idiot drunk is no more (or less) idiotic than usual; nothing changes for her.
• The Witch is distracted, she has mislaid one potion (thus can only use her ability once), and furthermore, when she uses her ability, she is sometimes mistaken about the bottle. After the Witch has designated a player, the moderator tosses the lid and bottom of a Werewolves box, and according to their disposition on the ground, announces aloud the result of the potion:
  • Cured.
  • Cured and transformed into a Simple Villager.
  • Cured and transformed into a Werewolf.
  • Eliminated.
• Cupid chooses the two Lovers, who see each other and fall asleep again, just like normal: they are the True Lovers. After that, however, he points at one of the True Lovers and one other player. The moderator awakens them so they can see each other. The True Lover becomes the Deceitful Lover, the new lover becomes the Secret Lover, and they fall asleep again. The True Lover who wasn't selected becomes the Jilted Lover.

From then on:

• If the Jilted Lover is killed, neither of the other Lovers die.
• If the Deceitful Lover is killed, both of the other lovers die.
• If the Secret Lover is killed, then only the Deceitful Lover dies – the Jilted Lover realizes he has been jilted and does not die.

The Jilted Lover may not vote against the Deceitful Lover, though she can do it to him.

It is forbidden for the Secret Lover and the Deceitful Lover to vote against one another.

The Defender can only protect herself or one of her 2 neighbors.

The Piper charms only one player at a time.

7 - The Black Death

In order for this variant to be interesting, it must be known exclusively by the moderator of the game. With this in mind, we have rendered the text so that only a magic mirror will reveal it to you!

Source note: in the booklet, the text of this variant is printed mirror-reversed, and the printed blocks do not run in sentence order. It is reproduced here decoded (each line un-mirrored) and with the paragraphs put back in the order the sentences require; the wording is unchanged.

The great secrecy required by this variant lies in the fact that there is no Werewolf in this game!

The moderator does not indicate that she is playing a special variant, and each night, she will call upon the Werewolves as if they were really present.

The first night, she herself chooses the victim of the Werewolves. (We greatly encourage the moderator to take advantage of this variant to get revenge on particularly disruptive players who have gotten on her nerves!)

Each victim will be revealed as having been chosen by the Werewolves, although she was actually killed by the terrible Black Death!

The rest of the day and the village vote will be played normally.

During the heat of the debates, the moderator or an accomplice will discreetly inform the player eliminated the previous night that she was not the victim of the Werewolves, but of the very contagious Black Death, and that as the last plague-stricken player, must designate the next victim of the Werewolves to the moderator.

Continue this way until the village is empty of all its inhabitants (this is very rare).

In order to win, the survivors will have to realize that something is decidedly fishy in this game! Those who have already played this variant will have to specify clearly that it is the Black Death.

The spectacle of the total incomprehension of all the poor innocent villagers, who accuse in an increasingly incoherent way, is really irresistible for the other players, so unjustly eliminated!

In a long evening of play, it is always amusing to slip in a little Black Death.

8 - Lycanthropic Fascination

So that their crimes remain as discreet as possible, the Werewolves develop their faculty to mesmerize their victims, rather than devour them.

Each victim of the Werewolves is no longer eliminated from the game, but immediately loses all her abilities.

Each night, the Werewolves designate one victim who must keep her eyes closed. In order to let her know that she was fascinated, the moderator discreetly touches her head. In the morning, she remains anonymous.

Therefore, as the nights pass, there will be more and more mesmerized victims.

Note, if one of the mesmerized victims gets lynched, all the other Werewolf victims are immediately eliminated as well...

The Werewolves win if they mesmerize the second-to-last Villager.

9 - New Moon

Each morning, except the very first one, an event will upset the quiet routine of the village of Millers Hollow.

Shuffle the cards, then place them face-down in a deck between the players.

From now on, with each awakening of the village, the last player eliminated reads the top card out loud.

The event is carried out with a temporary immediate effect, temporary delayed effect, or permanent effect.

Remarks:

• The first few times that you play this variant, draw a new card only 1 morning out of 2 or 3.
• An experienced moderator can stack the deck with her preferred cards so as to enact her game in a very personalized way. She can also choose certain permanent cards and apply their effects definitively at the beginning of the game.

Explanation of the Spiritualism Card

When a Spiritualism event card is drawn, the player to the left of the last player eliminated changes to a Spiritualist. The Villagers hold hands and the Spiritualist reads out loud all of the questions on the Spiritualism card.

The Spiritualist addresses the first player eliminated, and asks only one of the questions to him. The former Villager will respond with yes or no.

Help

If you have any difficulties or questions about the application of the event cards, visit our site: http://lesloupsgarous.free.fr where a dedicated forum will be able to help you.

New Characters

Here are some new characters, and their order of appearance: the Village Idiot, the Elder, the Scapegoat, the Savior, and the Piper.

Source note: the booklet's introduction and call order name "the Savior" where no such character appears elsewhere in the text. The character described in this rulebook as "The Defender" is the one meant by that call-order slot; the printed wording is kept below.

New order for calling on the characters:

1. Thief (first turn only)
2. Cupid (first turn only)
3. Lovers (first turn only)
4. Savior
5. Seer
6. Werewolves / Little Girl
7. Witch
8. Piper
9. Mesmerized players

The Village Idiot

What village doesn't have an Idiot? She doesn't do much of anything, but she is so endearing that nobody wants evil to befall her...

If the village votes against her, the Village Idiot turns over her card. At this instant, the Villagers comprehend their error and they immediately pardon her. From now on, she continues to play, but she has lost the right to vote. What would the vote of an idiot be worth? She therefore does not get to vote again in this game.

Note:

• If the Werewolves devour her, the Village Idiot is eliminated.
• If the Idiot was the Sheriff of the village, the role of Sheriff is lost for good.
• If the Hunter shoots the Idiot, the Idiot is eliminated.

The Elder

She has victoriously lived through all the vicissitudes of life, and has acquired an uncommon resistance... The Werewolves will have to catch her 2 times to devour her...

The first time that the Elder of the village is devoured by the Werewolves, she survives and the moderator does not turn over her card. The Elder is eliminated only the second time that she is devoured.

The village vote, the Witch's potion of poison, and shooting by the Hunter will eliminate the Elder on their first blow. However, filled with despair from having eliminated such a font of learning, the Villagers lose their special abilities until the end of the game if this happens.

Note:

• If the Elder of the village is cured by the Witch, she recovers only one life.

(Variant for the courageous: If the Idiot is already revealed, she will be eliminated with the Elder, for the village, having lost its wisdom, reconsiders its decision to spare the Idiot.)

The Scapegoat

It is quite sad, but in Millers Hollow, when something goes awry, it is always upon this person that the consequences are unjustly thrust...

If the village vote ends in a tie, it is the Scapegoat who is eliminated instead of the tied parties. Thus, she would do well to avoid this sad end.

If the Scapegoat is eliminated, she still has one prerogative to exercise: she designates which Villagers may vote during the next day.

Note:

• Designating only 1 player to vote makes that Villager likely to be devoured by the Werewolves the following night. There would then be no village vote that day.

(Except, of course, if the designated player is a Werewolf, or the Werewolves intentionally do not eliminate her...)

The Defender

This powerful character can protect the Villagers from the bite of the Werewolves...

Each night, the Defender is called on before the Werewolves. The Defender then indicates a player to the moderator. (It is traditional that the Defender first reproduces the hand gesture depicted on the Defender's card.) The player designated in this way will be protected for the duration of the night (and this one only) against the Werewolves, such that even if they select her, she will not be eliminated from the game.

Note:

• The Defender has the right to self-preservation.
• The Defender does not have the ability to protect the same player 2 nights in a row.
• The protection of the Defender does not have any effect on the Little Girl.

(Nothing could keep her out of trouble, as she is in the early stages of teenage rebellion.)

The Piper

Wretchedly driven out of the village, she returned years later under cover of a false identity to exact her terrible vengeance.

Each night, when the game moderator calls upon her, the Piper designates 2 players, whose shoulders the moderator touches.

The Piper goes back to sleep. The moderator asks all new and old charmed Villagers to awake. They are recognized, and fall asleep again.

At the instant when there are no more remaining players who are not charmed, the Piper wins against all the other players. (Even if that occurs following a vote, or thanks to the Werewolves.)

Note:

• The Piper cannot charm herself.
• The charmed players still have all their abilities and characteristics.
• The charm is not transmitted between lovers.