Werewolves in the Lunch Room

“Sleep-Keeper, return to sleep. Defender, awaken! Who do you choose to defend?”

Sprawled in something like a circle on the worn, back-room couches, kids and adults are covering their eyes, small, white squares of paper in front of them. Open-eyed and speaking, a Game Master paces among them calling out cues, conducting murders and rescues, tallying elections, holding knowledge, and weaving a narrative that keeps players hooked. Will they kill the werewolves before the werewolves kill them? If Cupido makes two werewolves lovers, which one should the villagers kill first? Who’s really The Little Girl?

Werewolves is a storytelling game that was introduced to the ALC-NY kids while we visited Cloudhouse in early September. There Milo, a Cloudhouse teen, twirled multi-colored cards, mesmerizing the city kids while he explained: each player would receive a character card, each character has a specific role in the story, some players would be murderous werewolves, and players who “die” or speak out of turn lose their vote at werewolf-execution-time. Hooked, the ALC-NY kids made their own card deck for our school and have been playing regularly ever since.

I could explain the rules in detail, but more interesting is this “interview” in which Douglas explains “Werewolves” and does a much better job than I could, as he speaks with the experience of a Game Master. What I can say that Douglas doesn’t is that “Werewolves” — and all the spin-offs it has inspired the kids to create — is one of my favorite games to watch. It requires players to listen to each other, puzzle together clues, and practice not-taking-things-personally. It requires Game Masters / Narrators to create a story that communicates relevant information while keeping players’ interest, to keep track of lots of information in their heads, to practice pacing their storytelling to hold their audience’s attention, and to figure out how to manage a group.

All play is learning, but with “Werewolves” I can watch that learning happening. And it’s awe-some.