Werewolf roles

The 14 roles in this browser version

These are the 14 roles that get dealt here. The powers and the night handling are the ordinary werewolf ones, so whatever you learned at another table carries over.

• VillagerAlso called：Townsfolk, Citizen

  Village

  No special power. Corner the werewolves with talk and votes alone

  • The role most people get. A good place to start if it is your first game
  • At night you get the same screen as everyone else and mark someone you suspect — so nobody can read your role off the way you tap
  • This is the role that moves the vote. Sitting quiet looks like hiding

• WerewolfAlso called：Wolf

  Werewolves

  Attacks one person each night. Unless the Bodyguard was covering them, they are out

  • Knows the rest of the pack from the very first night
  • However many wolves there are, only one attack happens each night
  • By day you play the Villager: talk, suspect, vote
  • An attack on someone the Bodyguard was covering does nothing at all

• SeerAlso called：Fortune Teller, Prophet

  Village

  Looks into one person each night and learns whether they are a werewolf

  • The answer is only ever “Werewolf” or “not a Werewolf”
  • The Minion comes back as “not a Werewolf”
  • You may look at the same person as often as you like. The only person out of reach is you
  • The result is shown to you and to nobody else

• MediumAlso called：Spiritualist

  Village

  Each night, learns whether the person banished by the last vote was a werewolf

  • You do not choose — it is always the person banished by the last vote
  • On the first night there is nobody to read, so no result comes
  • With a single Werewolf at the table the role never gets a turn, which is why the recommended setups add it from 7 players up
  • The result is shown to you and to nobody else

• BodyguardAlso called：Guardian, Defender, Guardian Angel

  Village

  Picks one person each night and saves them from the werewolf attack

  • You cannot cover yourself
  • You are never told whether the cover worked — the morning screen says nothing about it
  • Covering the same person two nights running is a setting, and it is allowed by default

• MinionAlso called：Traitor, Sidekick

  Werewolves

  No power at all. Lies and stirs things up so the werewolves win

  • Wins with the Werewolves, but is not a Werewolf
  • Comes back as “not a Werewolf” from both the Seer and the Medium
  • Counts on the human side when the winner is worked out — a table with this role runs longer
  • Can start out knowing the pack. That is a setting, and it is off by default

• FoxAlso called：Kitsune

  Fox

  Dies if the Seer looks into them, but survives the werewolf attack. Wins alone if still standing at the end

  • An attack leaves nothing in the morning — you cannot tell it apart from a night the Bodyguard covered someone
  • A look from the Seer is fatal and no cover stops it. It happens on the first night too, if the first-night look is on
  • Not counted in the head count that decides the winner by default — tables that do count it can switch that on

• Psycho KillerAlso called：Psycho, Spiky Kid

  Werewolves

  Anyone who uses a power on them at night — the Seer, the Bodyguard, the attacking werewolf — is out. Only a vote can remove them

  • Looked at by the Seer: the answer “not a Werewolf” comes back first, and then the Seer goes out
  • Covered by the Bodyguard and the Bodyguard goes out; attacked and the attacking Werewolf goes out. All three can land on the same night
  • Nothing but a vote, a shot, a curse or a lover’s grief removes them. Wins with the Werewolves, but the pack and the Psycho Killer never learn about each other

• Baker

  Village

  While they are alive, every morning the whole village hears that the bread arrived

  • The bread is announced from the second morning, never on the morning after the first night
  • From the morning after they go out it turns into “no bread today”. It says nothing except whether the Baker is alive
  • With no Baker at the table, the bread line does not appear at all

• LoverAlso called：Lovers, Couple

  Lovers

  Two people who know each other from the start. If one is out, the other goes too. If both are still standing at the end, the lovers win

  • Takes two seats at once — one switch deals both, and neither of them holds another role
  • The grief follows any cause: an attack, a banishment, a hunter’s shot, a nekomata’s curse
  • If both are still standing when the game ends, the lovers win by default — a setting puts them back on the Village instead

• Nekomata

  Village

  If banished by the vote, drags one random survivor down with them. If a werewolf attacks them, the attacker goes out too

  • The curse only fires when the vote banishes them. Being shot or dying of grief sets nothing off
  • Whoever is dragged along is picked at random from the survivors — the Nekomata does not choose
  • If the Bodyguard was covering them, an attack does nothing at all: neither the Nekomata nor the wolf goes out

• Hunter

  Village

  On the way out, may take one surviving player along

  • “Take nobody” is a legal answer. The turn comes whatever put them out
  • If the game is already decided before the shot, there is no shot
  • Who was taken is announced to everybody — which tells the table the role. That is part of the rule, not a leak

• Vampire

  Vampire

  A side of their own. Wins alone if still standing at the end. The Seer sees what they are, and the werewolf attack kills them

  • No night action. Staying alive is the whole job (a setting turns it into a nightly bite instead)
  • The Seer sees “Vampire” outright. The opposite of the Fox: the werewolf attack does kill them
  • Not counted when the sides are compared. Wins alone if alive the moment the game is decided

• Mason

  Village

  A pair who know each other from the start. Each can vouch for the other as a villager, and build out from there

  • No night action. All you have is knowing your partner is a villager
  • No follow-death, unlike the Lover. If one goes, the other stays
  • Claiming together gives the village two confirmed people — and tells the Werewolf exactly who to bite

Sides — who wins with whom

The Minion sits oddly in that table. They win with the Werewolves, but they are not a Werewolf — which is why the Seer and the Medium both report “not a Werewolf”, and why the win check counts them on the human side. Tables with a Minion run longer for exactly that reason.

The Werewolfs know each other from the first night. Whether the Minion knows them is a setting, and it is off by default. It never runs the other way: the pack is never told who the Minion is.

The bottom two rows are third sides of their own. The Fox wins alone if it is still standing the moment either of the other sides meets its condition; the Lover wins if both of them are still standing when the game ends. When both qualify at once the Fox takes it by default — that order, and whether the Fox counts in the head count, are settings. The Psycho Killer sits with the Werewolves but never learns who the pack is, and the pack never learns about them.

Other names for the same roles

Role names drift from group to group. Only the name changes; the power is the same. If you learned this game under a different set of names, here is the map.

Coming from Mafia? The nearest matches are Detective for the Seer and Doctor for the Bodyguard. We keep the werewolf names so that one table is not half werewolf and half Mafia.

The words for what happens during a game — attack, banish, out — are mapped on the rules page.

Which werewolf role is the strongest?

No single role is the strongest. It moves with the size of the table and with how well the person holding it talks. That said, the role that swings the result most is the Seer.

• Seer — the only role that can produce hard information. It also becomes the pack’s next target the moment it speaks up, so the whole role is really about when you claim.
• Werewolf — removes one player every night and knows who its allies are. The only role whose strength is its number.
• Bodyguard — played well, it keeps the Seer alive for days. You are never told whether a cover worked, so it is also the role with nothing to show for its work.
• Minion — no power whatsoever, and yet it can split the table by claiming to be the Seer. Reading as human means it never loses a claim war. In the hands of a talker it is the scariest role at the table.
• Medium — tells you every night whether yesterday’s vote was right. Quiet work, but when two players claim Seer it is the only role that can settle it.
• Villager — no power, but the biggest bloc. The votes are here, which means the outcome is too.

For a first game, take the Villager or the Seer. Getting the Villager wrong costs the table very little, and the Seer has an obvious job: report last night’s result.

Which roles to deal at 4–8 players

The counts small groups play most. The table is generated by the same code the game runs on, so it is exactly what the settings screen starts with.

This table is generated by the same code the game runs on (recommendedSetup()). It is also what the settings screen starts with.

• The Seer is always in. Without one the Village have nothing to work from.
• The second Werewolf arrives at 7, and the Medium arrives with it — with a single wolf, the vote that finds it ends the game before any reading happens.
• The Minion comes in at 8. Any earlier and the village’s information breaks.

Every count from 4 to 20, nine and up included, is on the rules page. And all of it is only a starting point — change whatever you like.

Roles you will only find in the Dokopa app

The app deals 13 roles and every one of them is free, with no cap on how many games you play. These three of them are not in this browser version (and, the other way round, the Baker and the Nekomata here are not in the app).

• The UncleApp only

  Village

  • Every night he hugs one person to tell them “I am human”
  • Only the person hugged learns who the Uncle is
  • Nothing about it is announced to the table

• The DeludedApp only

  Village

  • Has no power at all, but is convinced they have one
  • Acts like the Seer, the Bodyguard or the Uncle and gets a result back
  • The result is imaginary: random every time, even on the same person

• CookApp only

  Village

  • While the Cook is still in, the morning smells of their kitchen
  • The smell stops once they are out
  • With more than one Cook there is more than one smell

What the app has that this site does not is the player count, the chat and the presets — rooms for up to 4〜50 players, a chat for players who are out, a private chat for the Werewolfs, and ready-made setups. It is on Dokopa.

Common questions

What is the strongest role in werewolf?

No role is strongest in every game, but the one that swings the result most is the seer, because it is the only role that can produce hard information. The catch is that claiming it makes you the pack’s next target, so the whole role comes down to when you speak. In the hands of a good talker the scariest role is actually the minion, which has no power at all.

How many roles does the werewolf game have?

This browser version has 14: Villager, Werewolf, Seer, Medium, Bodyguard, Minion, Fox, Psycho Killer, Baker, Lover, Nekomata, Hunter, Vampire, Mason. All of them are free. Six of them — the fox, the psycho killer, the baker, the lovers, the nekomata and the hunter — stay out until you switch them on under “more settings”. The werewolf game in the free Dokopa app has 13, three of which — the Uncle, the Deluded and the Cook — are not in this browser version.

What is the difference between the seer and the medium?

The seer chooses. Every night it picks someone still in the game and learns whether they are a werewolf. The medium does not choose: it learns whether the person banished by the day vote was a werewolf. The seer goes and gets information, the medium checks whether the table voted correctly. Both results are shown to that player alone.

What does the minion actually do?

It has no night power. It wins with the werewolves without being one, which is exactly what makes it useful: the seer and the medium both report it as not a werewolf, so it can claim to be the seer and hold that claim. In the head count that decides the winner it is counted on the human side, so a table with a minion lasts longer. Some groups call the same role the traitor.

Which role is best for a beginner?

The villager or the seer. The villager has no power, so mistakes cost the table very little and you can concentrate on the conversation. The seer has one clear job: report last night’s result. The hard one is the minion, which has to win the game for the werewolves with no power of its own.

Can we play the Fox or the Hunter in the browser?

Yes. The fox, the psycho killer, the baker, the lovers, the nekomata and the hunter are all dealt in this browser version. They are off to begin with, so pick your player count, open “more settings” and switch on the ones you want; the lovers take two seats at once. The only roles that stay app-only are the Uncle, the Deluded and the Cook, in the free Dokopa app.

How are roles dealt? Can the person next to me see mine?

The screen deals them. Online everyone is on their own device, so your role only ever appears on your screen. When you pass a single phone around, a hand-over screen comes between every player and the private information is cleared before the phone changes hands. The villager gets the same kind of night screen as everyone else, so nobody can read your role off the way you tap either.