Author's Note: The game of Werewolf, as described by the kids, is real and is commonly played wherever students are bored and lack access to alcohol. Some readers may also be familiar with it under the name of Mafia. Many variants exist, but this is the one I have played most often.


A wide number of CHARACTERS are assembled in an UNIMPORTANT LOCATION. All those present are currently ALIVE, AS SANE AS CAN BE EXPECTED and none of them have ANYTHING BETTER TO DO. As a consequence, they are rapidly succumbing to BOREDOM.

Inevitable: Happen

John: hey, guys. you know what we should do?

Karkat: NO. WHY DON'T YOU SHARE WITH US WHAT I'M CERTAIN WILL BE AN UTTERLY BRILLIANT IDEA.

John: we should play werewolf.

Jade: yes! :)

Dave: no

Dave: that's a terrible idea

Rose: Actually, it isn't.

Rose: Werewolf would be a good way to pass the time.

Dave: no it isn't

Dave: werewolf is always a terrible idea

Dave: and you only like it because you take it as an excuse to psychoanalyse everyone

Dave: even more than you normally do

Tavros: uHH, gUYS, wHAT ARE YOU, tALKING ABOUT

Jade: it's a role-playing game!

Nepeta: :33 yay!

Tavros: iM NOT SURE –

Vriska: Is it FLARPing?

Aradia: FLARPing has been something of a pr0blem in the past. 0_0

Rose: It isn't live action.

John: one person is in charge of everything and they're called fate.

Karkat: OKAY EVERYONE STOP WHINING.

Karkat: WE ARE PLAYING THIS GAME.

Karkat: IT'S A FUCKING WINNABLE GAME AND WE'RE GOING TO PLAY IT.

Equius: D- But –

Karkat: I AM THE LEADER. WE ARE PLAYING THIS GAME.

Karkat: AND I AM GOING TO BE FATE.

Karkat: WHAT ARE THE OTHER RULES?

John: everyone who isn't fate is living in a village together.

John: and some of them are werewolves!


Karkat: WHAT IN GOG'S NAME IS A WEREWOLF?

Rose: A construct demonstrating the widespread desire for the separation of the id from the ego.

John: a monster!

John: they come out at night when everyone is asleep and attack people

John: but in the day they look like normal humans

Karkat: LIKE A RAINBOW DRINKER?

Kanaya: I Had Been Led To Believe The Human Equivalent Of Rainbow Drinkers Were Known As Vampires.

Kanaya: And Were Fictional.

Rose: The human psyche is capable of creating multiple constructs to mask identical issues.

Dave: werewolves are a lot like vampires in every way that counts including being total bullshit

Dave: and there are a whole bunch of stupid books and films where they fight and date girls and take their shirts off and completely fail to be even ironically interesting

Jade: actually…

Jade: i like twilight!


Karkat: SO EVERYONE IS IN A VILLAGE AND SOME OF THEM ARE WEREWOLVES WHO INEXPLICABLY REMOVE THEIR CLOTHING AT SUNSET

John: umm, no

John: that's something else

John: the werewolves are just like normal people in the day and then at night they attack people

Sollux: why ii2 everyone a2leep at niight?

Kanaya: It's A Human Thing.

Kanaya: Although Since Twelve Trolls Are Present And Only Four Humans The Convention Is Questionable.

John: okay so when it is night werewolves are normal people and everyone is awake.

John: then in the daytime everyone goes to sleep and each of the werewolves points at someone to attack.

John: and if two werewolves attack the same person that person dies.

Vriska: It seems this game is 8ased heavily on luck.

John: no, because the werewolves all know who each other are.

John: so they have to communicate during night when everyone is awake.

John: but without the normal villagers knowing what they are doing.

Dave: because if they suspect you then you get lynched

Terezi: TH3R3 4R3 L3G1SL4C3R4TORS?

Dave: don't be ridiculous

Dave: that would make some kind of sense

Dave: this game is as close to sensible as karkat is to chilled

John: anyone can call to lynch someone anytime in the day

John: i mean night

John: when everyone's awake

John: if someone seconds then it goes to a vote

John: everyone including the person shuts their eyes and holds a hand in the air

John: open to kill them, closed to let them live

John: majority wins

Terezi: FOR HUM4NS TH4T SOUNDS V3RY R34SON4BL3

Rose: It's barbaric.

Dave: precisely.

Dave: why do you even like this game?

Rose: Observing the base nature of my fellow players as they are systematically reduced to an uncivilised mob is –

Dave: forget I asked

Rose: And it's fun watching you get lynched.

Dave: there is nothing fun about me getting lynched

Jade: there is when it happens every time! :)


Karkat: SO IS THAT THE ENTIRE GAME.

Karkat: EVERYONE KILLING EACH OTHER.

John: it depends.

John: it can be just werewolves against villagers

John: and the villagers win if they kill all the werewolves and the werewolves win if they kill all the villagers

Rose: But no-one ever plays it like that.

Karkat: SO HOW DO YOU PLAY?

John: we play with special characters

Jade: like the cult!

John: the cult is a group of villagers who all find out that each other are innocent

John: but they can't say they know because of the cult or they die

Karkat: WHY?

John: umm…

Dave: because the cult meet up to worship horrorterrors who kill you if you mention them

Karkat: THEY'RE GRIMDARK

Karkat: WE ARE NOT PLAYING A GAME WHERE THERE ARE GRIMDARK VILLAGERS

Rose: Maybe the cult could be about something else.

Jade: frogs!

Jade: the cult is breeding frogs!

Jade: but there are derse agents in the village

Jade: so they can't mention the frogs!

Jade: or the frogs will get killed :(

Dave: harley

Dave: that was actually brilliant

Jade: duhhh!


Karkat: WHAT OTHER SPECIAL CHARACTERS ARE THERE.

Karkat: OR IS IT JUST FROG BREEDERS?

John: there are also Seers

Terezi: S33RS OF M1ND?

John: i don't know

John: maybe

John: actually, more like Seers of Wolves

John: because they can point to someone every night and find out if they're a werewolf or not

John: and then there are wolfsbanes

Karkat: WHY DOES EVERYTHING IN THIS GAME HAVE A STUPID MADE UP NAME?

Dave: it just does

John: wolfsbanes point to someone else every night and protect them from wolves for that night.

Karkat: WHY AREN'T THEY CALLED SOMETHING SENSIBLE THEN?

Karkat: LIKE 'WITCH OF SAFETY'?

Rose: What if the Wolfsbane is male?

Karkat: WIZARD. OF. SAFETY.

Karkat: WHAT WAS SO HARD ABOUT THAT?

Eridian: yay

John: also there are vigilantes

John: they only get one bullet

John: but they can shoot anyone in the d

John: in the time when people are awake

John: instead of having to get everyone to vote on lynching

Dave: let me guess were going to call that something really original

Dave: like knight of death or something like that

John: if you insist


Karkat: IS THAT ALL OF THE RULES YET.

John: mostly

John: except for the romance deck

Dave: we are not going to play with a romance deck

Dave: it just isn't going to happen

Jade: why not?

John: there's nothing that complicated about the romance deck.

Karkat: WAIT.

Karkat: WHAT QUADRANT DO HUMANS HAVE AGAIN?

John: in this game there are two kinds.

Karkat: I AM SURE YOU TOLD ME HUMANS ONLY HAVE ONE.

Rose: Romantic relationships in this game are notoriously complex.

Rose: In fact, there are many fascinating parallels with troll culture.

John: there are lovers and there are rivals.

Karkat: I AM ONE HUNDRED PER CENT SURE YOU TOLD ME HUMANS DID NOT HAVE KISMESIS.

Dave: normal humans don't

Dave: only stupid idiots who play this game have to deal with all this quadrants shit

John: the lovers are in love.

Jade: duuhhh

Rose: I believe the correct terminology is "red-rom."

John: and if one of the lovers dies then the other one has to commit suicide.

Karkat: WAIT.

Karkat: THAT IS JUST FUCKED UP.

Karkat: HUMAN ROMANCE IS SO WEIRD.

Kanaya: I Am Forced To Concur.

Kanaya: Surely This Is Severely Detrimental To The Human Population.

John: the lovers aren't always human

John: they can be humans or werewolves.

John: and if one is a human and one is a werewolf they can only win by killing everyone else in the village.

Karkat: THERE SEEMS TO BE A LOT OF DEATH IN THIS GAME.

Dave: dude

Dave: way to state the completely fucking obvious

John: then there are the rivals

John: they hate each other.

Rose: The concept of devoted rivals is very close to the troll ideal of black romance.

Rose: It occurs to me now that several elements of this game suggest a troll influence in its creation.

Kanaya: An Interesting Theory

Karkat: WHATEVER.

Karkat: SO WHAT HAPPENS TO THE KISMESIS PAIR.

John: well one of them has to die


Karkat: OKAY

Karkat: I KNOW HUMANS HAVE NO CONCEPT OF HOW ROMANCE IS MEANT TO WORK

Karkat: BUT EVEN YOU SHOULD KNOW

Karkat: YOU ARE NOT MEANT TO ACTUALLY KILL YOUR KISMESIS

John: that's how the games works

John: neither of the rivals can win if the other is alive

John: if their side wins and they are both alive then they both die

Karkat: NO WONDER THE HUMAN QUADRANTS ARE SO FUCKED UP

Karkat: LISTEN UP IDIOTS

Karkat: IF YOU KILL THEM THEY AREN'T YOUR KISMESIS ANY MORE

Karkat: IF YOU EVEN MANAGE TO THEN THEY WEREN'T A VERY GOOD KISMESIS TO BEGIN WITH

Karkat: I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT THIS SCREWED UP HUMAN RIVALS THING IS

Karkat: BUT IT IS NOTHING LIKE BLACK ROM

Karkat: NOT EVEN A TINY BIT

Nepeta: :33 wait there are only two quadrants?

Nepeta: :33 what about pale rom?

Nepeta: :33 i bet all these werewolves need is a good feelings jam :33

John: maybe that would help

John: i don't know

John: how would it work

Nepeta: :33 well you and your palest buddy sit in a pile and talk about –

Karkat: UNLESS YOU CAN THINK OF A GOOD GAME MECHANIC FOR IT

Karkat: IT ISN'T HAPPENING

Karkat: BESIDES I DON'T THINK ADDING MOIRAILS IS GOING TO DO ANYTHING TO SAVE THIS TRAIN WRECK OF A QUADRANT SYSTEM

Dave: bisect


Karkat: WHAT

Dave: there are only two kinds dude

Dave: it cant be quadrants with only two types

Dave: it would be a bisect

Rose: Technically, I believe he is correct.

Karkat: OKAY BISECT.

Karkat: WHATEVER.

Karkat: HAVE WE FINALLY GONE OVER ALL OF THE RULES FOR THIS RIDICULOUS GAME.

Rose: I believe we have covered in detail the bylaws invoked by our favoured variant.

John: yeah, pretty much

Karkat: THEN SHUT THE FUCK UP AND LET'S PLAY

Jade: yay!