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How to Host a Werewolf Themed Game Night
October 2024
Rachelle Mobley
With Halloween just around the corner, I've been thinking about themed parties. Specifically, what is required to host a werewolf themed game night? I planned music, snacks, and games all centered around a werewolf theme. I also included a review of the game One Night Ultimate Werewolf. Take advantage of my planning and throw your own werewolf themed game night.
Werewolf Theme Music
First, lets set the vibe with a little music and ambiance. If you're looking for some creepy background noise that's still family friendly, Ambient Method created a mix called Werewolf Ambience with a good mix of howling and forest noises. The mix is three hours long, so it should last the entire game night.
However, if you are looking for something more musical The Wolf and the Moon by BrunuhVille is a hopeful adventure music with a Celtic feel. The song is nearly four minutes long. Wolf Blood by Adrian von Ziegler also has a Celtic feel, but the rhythm is more driving. This song is only a little over three minutes. The songs are both instrumental, so there are no lyrics to interrupt your game night conversations.
Snacks for a Werewolf
Every good game night requires snacks. So a werewolf game night not only requires snacks, but themed snacks. For our game night, I will provide werewolf kibble, a sweet and salty snack mix; Wolf Paw cookies; and Wolf Punch.
Werewolf Kibble
There is no need to reinvent the wheel, just use your family's favorite snack mix and name it appropriately. However, if your family doesn't have a favorite snack mix or you want to try something new, Imperial Sugar and Home Made Interest created werewolf themed snack mixes. Both do feature peanut butter.Wolf Paw Cookies
The key to werewolf cookies is the chocolate frosting piped or "combed" to look like fur and the cashews or almond slivers that act as claws. Any round cookie will do as a base. My family prefers the Lofthouse cookies by Preppy Kitchen with the chocolate frosting from Natasha's Kitchen. But for a great tutorial on werewolf cookies check out the Food website.Werewolf Punch
This is just a variation on our family punch recipe, which is very simple. Combine ginger ale and sherbet and sprinkle with coconut. The coconut acts as wolf fur. If you don't want the texture simply use straws because the coconut floats.
Werewolf Themed Games
We chose three games for our game night. To open and close the night, we will play One Night Ultimate Werewolf with the Daybreak expansion. In between we will play a version of the card game Scum, redressed as Alphas and Omegas, and Wolf, a themed trick taking game.
Wolf Card Game
Wolf revolves around taking tricks, that is a round of cards, by playing the highest value card. (For more information about trick-taking games check out the article by DarkJjay on Board Game Geek.) In the result of a tie the first to play the high card wins.
Spades are the wolves and the trump suit.
Clubs are the forests or habitat of the wolves.
Hearts are the health and food for the wolves.
Diamonds are garbage or a slough suit.
Each player plays with their own deck of cards and holds seven cards in their hand at a time. The goal is to acquire the most wolves. However, you must also have enough habitat and health for your wolves. There are two options with the diamond suit. You can either ignore them for end of game scoring or take a negative of your choice for every two diamonds.
Note: for younger players or players with shorter attention spans I recommend only playing with half a deck.
Alphas and Omegas
If you are unfamiliar with Scum, it is a social positioning game. Bruce Gourley has a thorough run down of the rules, variations, and strategies. However, I will give a brief run down here as well as explaining the theming of the game.
You need one deck, including two jokers, for every four players. The lowest ranked player, the Omega, is responsible for shuffling and dealing. One card is dealt to each player in turn until all cards are dealt.
After the cards are dealt the two lowest players give up cards. The Omega gives two cards to the highest position, the Alpha, and receives back two cards of the Alpha's choice. The second lowest position gives a card to the second highest, the Knight, and receives back a card of the Knight's choosing. (If you are playing with a larger group consider including the three lowest positions and trading 3 cards, 2 cards, and 1 card.)
After all the cards are exchanged play begins with the Alpha and moves around the table ending with the Omega. Players must follow the starting player's lead with a single, pair, three of a kind, or four of a kind. They must also play a card, or cards, of higher value than the card(s) just played.
Card values are as follows:
Wilds are the highest and the only single card that can be played upon a group of cards.
Aces become Alphas
Kings become Knights
Queens remain Queens
Jacks become Jackals
At the end of each round positions change according to the order in which players finish playing all their cards. First out becomes Alpha, second Knight, all the way to the last player out who becomes the new Omega.
Social positioning games are particularly fun if you really lean into the roles. For example, demanding that players below you get a new round of drinks for the table or bring snack refills.
One Night Ultimate Werewolf and Daybreak Expansion
The rules for this game are in the box, so I wont go over them here. Instead I will give a break down of the various roles and which work best.
Villager - Outside of teaching the game, don't bother with this role.
Tanner - This role adds a fun layer to strategy because now there is a player trying to get chosen as the werewolf. It adds a good increase in complexity without increasing the night portion of the game.
Hunter - This role doesn't add to the night, but doesn't add a lot of complexity to the game. However, younger boys seem to enjoy this role.
Insomniac - We don't often play with this role, as the certainty it provides reduces the strategy required for the game and if your role doesn't change in the night it is disappointing.
Drunk - This role can be a lot of fun with the right players, however, some people find this particular role highly irritating as you really have no idea what you are.
Troublemaker - Always play with at least one role that moves the cards. Without movement the game is dull. However, be aware that to much movement results in people simply trying to deduce what cards went where. This is not a problem if you are only using the base game.
Robber - This role provides movement plus awareness of which roles went where. Again always choose at least one role that provides movement.
Seer - This role is often the first to speak up during the day and provides starting information for discussion.
Masons - This is not a role we play with often because it's only useful if both masons are chosen.
Minion - This can be a fun role, however, it is best not to use unless you are playing with a larger group (six or more) as it can throw of the balance of the game.
Doppelganger - This role adds an incredible level of complexity that can be a lot of fun. However, it does significantly increase the night portion and because of the complexity would not be recommended for newer players.
Bodyguard - This role is similar to the hunter as it doesn't add to the night or complexity, but it can be fun for younger players.
Dream Wolf - Unless you are playing with a large group it is best to substitute this role for a basic werewolf as it can throw off the balance of the game. This role is fun to play with occasionally to mix things up, but otherwise it does not add much to the game.
Mystic Wolf - This role can add a little more strategy to the werewolf role. Again, substitute for a basic werewolf unless you are playing with a large group.
Alpha Wolf - Don't use to many werewolves in your mix or it will throw off your game. This role doesn't add a lot of strategy, however, it is fun to have someone discover they won or lost without realizing it.
Curator - The artifacts add a level of complexity without really adding much strategy.
Revealer - This card can provide a little to much information. Moreover, if you have sibling rivalry it can become problematic.
Village Idiot - You always want to include at least one movement role. However, because the idiot is moving everyone else's cards it can become more deduction than strategy.
Witch - This is another movement card and, like the robber, allows the roles to be known by the same player doing the moving.
Paranormal Investigator - This is not a bad role, however, the others are typically more interesting.
Apprentice Seer - As this role is basically seer lite, only use it if you are playing with a large group or want to make the game a little more difficult.
Sentinel - Because their job is to keep someone's card from being changed it tends to limit the fun of the game rather than add to it. However, in a very large group it can be helpful.
This game is fast and easy to teach by playing. Six to eight players tends to work best as with to few players there is not enough back and forth and with to many the game gets bogged down with competing chatter.
Now you have your games picked out, snacks to prepare, and theme music to keep people in the spirit of the party. Please drop us a line and let us know how your themed game night went. Have fun as you journey from bored to board!
Five Reasons to Set a Specific Family Game Night
September 2024
Rachelle Mobley
There are many reasons to have a family game night and many people have written articles about why it is important. There are articles by PBS, the Society of Behavioral Medicine, the All In Therapy Clinic, as well as a variety of others. Many people can and have given reasons why you should have a family game night. That is not what this is. These are the reasons why it is important to set a specific, reoccurring date on your family calendar.
1. Confirms Everyone's Commitment
Setting a specific date, that everyone agrees to write on their calendars, forces everyone to make a commitment to game night. As stated in the Harvard study Making the Best Laid Plans Better: How Plan-Making Increases Follow-Through, forming specific, concrete plans will increase follow-through. A concrete plan will force you to address and overcome logistical obstacles. Aside from just when and how often to have game night, you can address who will host. How long should it last? Should there be food served? Who will provide the food? And a variety of other potential logistical problems.
Also, going through this plan-making will help everyone remember game night and develop strategies to overcome anticipated obstacles. Obviously not every obstacle can be anticipated, but game night will now be on the calendar and everyone will have to consider that commitment when choosing to pencil in another activity.
2. Build Consistency which Builds Memories
Memories are created when synapses connect neurons in our brains. And, as stated in the John Hopkins article Inside the Science of Memory, the more we're exposed to an activity the stronger our connections grow. Thus the traditions that your family builds, those activities you revisit again and again, will create positive memories that will stay with you all.
And aside from the joy of having something positive to look back on, happy memories are in and of themselves valuable. In her Nautilus article The Lasting Power of Good Memories Lauren Gravitz discusses the importance of positive memories. These memories can lift our mood, improve our self-image, and encourage more social interactions. In fact, a 2017 study by Mauricio Delgado and Megan Speer, Reminiscing about positive memories buffers acute stress responses, suggests that positive memories can actually inoculate us against stress.
So a consistent family game night can help build good memories. Those good memories can, in turn, improve moods, self-image, social interactions, and stress responses. Apparently there is a lot riding on your family game night. No stress.
3. Maintain the Habit
Even with a set date that everyone agreed upon, unexpected things happen and people can be prevented from attending. However, if you have a set date, it will be rare that more than one or two people will miss attending. Therefore, having a set night allows the remainder of attendees to maintain the habit of game night even when these unexpected absences occur. Moreover, maintaining that habit despite absences will help prevent the collapse of game night due to a build up of missed nights.
4. Introduce New People to the Family Dynamic
A traditional family game night that has become a part of your family dynamic provides a fun and low key way to introduce new people to the family. As your children develop new friends they will inevitably ask to stay the night at a friend's house. Family game night is an easy way to vet the new people in your child's life before giving the green light for overnight visits. Moreover, as your child gets older family game night provides a nonthreatening way to let dates know that you are invested in your child's life and you will be checking up on them, so they'd best be careful. While it might not be as fun as polishing your gun collection, at least for you, it's a lot less likely to get you sued. I highly recommend requiring all dates to attend a family game night before being allowed to take your child out.
5. Foster Communication
Whether through the initial negotiations, or through the on going adjustments that will inevitably be required because of changing family commitments, the members of your family will learn to communicate better. Sharing what is important to them, based on how they want to spend their time, and arguing for the day that they think best for family game night will teach your children valuable negotiating skills that will aid them for the rest of their lives. According to the World Journal of English Language article The Role of Effective Communication Skills in Professional Life, communication skills are becoming increasingly important in the workplace.
Even the minor discussions that arise during a typical game night can aid in communications. Which game is the best choice for the night? How do you convince the rest of the family that your choice is the right choice? Depending upon their age you can even give your children a say in what food or snacks are served. This would also be a good time to encourage them to learn to make their favorite snacks or meals as a further argument for choosing their food. As stated in the above mentioned article, determining the underling motivations of the people you are negotiating with is a critical component of communication and the simple family arguments about food choices can help your children understand this. Besides actually playing the games, family game night provides plenty of opportunity to foster communication skills.
Family game night is a great habit to develop for your family, and the best way to establish that habit is by working out a plan with your family and setting a specific reoccurring date with which everyone can agree. Whether you are meeting weekly or monthly this tradition will build positive family memories. This habit will foster communication skills and provide a fun and low key way to introduce new people into the family dynamic. Go out and establish your game night.
Ten games enjoyed most by B.F.G. family members
September 2024
Rachelle Mobley
From card games to classic board games, dice games to European style games, my family has tried them all. Every family get together includes at least one game and usually more. But we also each have games that we tend to gravitate toward again and again. This is the list of games most often enjoyed by my family. Hopefully, you'll find a game you can enjoy with your family as well.
Rook
The elder generation (i.e. my parents) prefer more traditional games. My father has always loved Rook. Even when I was a kid, I can remember him playing this game. In fact, the first time I saw him playing this game I asked loud enough for the whole table to hear, "What does the birdie do, Dad?" Everyone groaned and threw their cards down, but it is still a story we laugh about today.
Rook is a trick taking card game for four players. The deck used for this game was designed by George and Grace Parker to accommodate people who objected to a standard card deck because of its association with gambling and cartomancy. The cards are numbered 1 to 14, use colors instead of suits, and have a rook for a joker. Players form teams and work together to gain points by capturing 5s, 10s, 14s, 1s, the rook, and the last hand.
Chinese Checkers
My mother has always enjoyed Chinese checkers. As a girl, her mother taught her to play with her brother, just like she had played with hers. Then when she had kids, my mom taught us. Now she gets to play with her grandkids. The game is great for a variety of ages because even kids can come up with a simple strategy, while adults can employ more complicated strategies.
Chinese Checkers is an abstract strategy game. The game was actually invented in Germany, but a 1928 marketing scheme by Bill and Jack Pressman provided the name. On a star shaped board, 2 to 6 players are trying to move their marbles to the other side before the other players.
Resistance
My oldest daughter loves the game Resistance. Once when we were playing she got to be the spy with her little brother. She was found out early, so she used the opportunity to throw shade on her uncle and pull attention from her poor innocent brother. They laughed so hard when they won.
Resistance is a bluffing party game for 5 to 10 players. The resistance, the majority of players, is trying to work together to complete missions. At the same time the spies, 2 to 3 players, are working to sabotage the efforts of the resistance. The semi-cooperative nature of this game makes it a great option for family game night.
Codenames
My youngest daughter always enjoys a round of Codenames. It's all about knowing the people you are playing with and what stories they will connect with your words. As a naturally empathic person, my daughter excels at this game. This is a great game connecting with people as it is lighthearted and full of laughs.
Codenames is a party game for 4 to 8 players. The idea is that each team, there are two, is a set of spies. Using a single word you are trying to get your teammates to guess your team's codewords without alerting the assassin. The first team to guess all their words wins.
Risk
For my son, the game of choice is Risk. He loves learning about military history and this game provides him with the perfect opportunity to share what he has learned while attempting to battle for supremacy. It is fun to watch him light up as he shares the details of historical battles.
Risk is a war strategy game for 2 to 6 players. This is a longer game with a play time of 1 to 8 hours. It was invented in 1957 by a French filmmaker named Albert Lamorisse. The game was bought by Parker Brothers and released in the United States in 1959. The object is to maneuver your troops in such a way that you achieve world domination.
Dungeons & Dragons
My husband enjoys classic role playing games, in particular Dungeons & Dragons. We've been telling stories together this way for years. One of our favorite was when he played a dwarven warrior who was not very bright and a very heavy sleeper. He once charged into battle without his armor and only one shoe because he'd slept through most of it. But the funniest thing he did was to use a wish to grant his pet chicken intelligence, making the animal smarter than he was.
Dungeons & Dragons is a tabletop role playing game that utilizes 20-sided dice. The game was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. Unlike wargame tabletop games, D&D is a cooperative storytelling game with one person playing the narrator (i.e. game master) and the other players each creating individual characters to interact with the narrator's world. For family games we like to use our own world creations.
Firefly
Sad to see the show Firefly canceled, my brother was excited to share his love for the show through the board game. The best part was that his daughter learned she could enjoy a game with him that she thought she wouldn't. She learned it's not always about what game you play but who you play it with and his love of the Firefly universe translated into a fantastic game experience for both of them.
Firefly is a thematic adventure game for 1 to 4 players. Based on the television show, players find a crew, find a job, and keep on flying. During game play many of the people and items from the show will make an appearance. I will note that we use the house rule of three actions per turn - otherwise the game tends to drag.
Clue: Museum Caper
While it is also an older game, my niece loves Clue Museum Caper. She loves the strategic thinking involved in plotting her caper. Once through detailed planning and meticulous execution she nearly managed to steal every painting and escape. She'd stolen all the paintings but one and still hadn't been spotted. All the other players were huddled around the one remaining painting and she decided to go for it. As she grabbed the painting she was spotted, so she made a break for the window. She reached the window without being caught, but the window was locked! It's the closest any of us have come to the perfect caper.
Clue: Museum Caper is a semi-cooperative deductive game for 2 to 7 players. One player is the thief, whose goal is to steal paintings and escape. The other players are museum guards, who must work together to capture the thief before they escape with any paintings.
Kingdomino
As for myself, I tend to jump from game to game always looking for the next new thing. Honestly our collection of board games is getting out of hand. However, for the purposes of this list I chose Kingdomino because I liked how different the game play was from many of the other games we have. The specialty dominoes are artistically appeal and make for a different game dynamic. Whenever my oldest daughter plays she likes to design the prettiest kingdom rather than worry about points.
Kingdomino is a strategic tile laying game for 2 to 4 players though there is an expansion that allows for more players. The game was designed by Bruno Cathala and produced by Blue Orange Games in 2016. It won Spiel des Jahres that year. Players take turns selecting specialty dominoes that are used to construct their kingdom and the best kingdom wins.
One Night Ultimate Werewolf
Finally, to get us to the nice round number of ten we agreed on the game One Night Ultimate Werewolf. This game is a favorite because it's easy to set up, easy to explain, and can be played in minutes. So it makes a nice game for when people are arriving, when they have to leave at staggered times, and anytime your time is limited. So it gets played a lot.
One Night Ultimate Werewolf is a bluffing party game for 3 to 10 players. The game pits the werewolves, 1 to 3 players, against the villagers, all the other players. The game takes place in a single "night", which lasts about 5 minutes. The players take turns arguing their case as to why they are not the werewolf, which usually involves throwing the blame on someone else. After everyone has had their say there is a vote with majority rule. If a wolf is killed the villagers win and if a villager is killed the wolves win. Simple, fast, and fun.
Hopefully these games will give you some inspiration for your next family game night. And if you don't see your favorite here, drop me a line and let me know what it is. Maybe you can add a game to our family game night.
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