Pyramid Review
Are You A Werewolf?
Written & Published by Looney Labs
Illustrated by Alison
16 cards, six-page rules booklet; $4
Are You A Werewolf? is not a question that you are going to be asked all that often . . . unless of course, you just happen to live in a village beset by the nightly predation of the lycanthropic kind, which happens to be the setting for the latest game from Looney Labs, the publisher best known for award-winning titles such as Fluxx, Chrononauts, and Icehouse, as well as Cosmic Coasters. Are You A Werewolf? is a micro game for lots of players that involves a lot of finger-pointing, the opening and shutting of eyes on a regular basis, the repeated reading of a litany, the rending of a villager limb from limb, a little negotiation, and then the jolly lynching of an innocent victim or (if the village gets lucky) a werewolf.
This is not really a new game, but a variation upon a card game called "Mafia," a history of which, and expanded rules for which can be found at http://www.eblong.com/zarf/werewolf.html. Further the actual rules for this game are included on the Looney Labs website. As to the physical game itself, Are You A Werewolf? comes in a small ziplock bag, which contains:
- A six-page rules leaflet that doubles as the game's front and back cover, so that the rules run to a grand total of four pages
- A set of 16 black-and-white cards consisting of one Moderator, one Seer, two Werewolf, and 12 villager cards, printed on a light glossy card stock . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: December 13, 2002
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