Do You Worship Cthulhu?

Have you ever played the game Mafia? What about Village? How about Are you a Werewolf? If you answered “yes” to any of these you’re answering “yes” to all of them since they’re the same game. I was introduced to this party game as Loony Lab’s Are You a Werewolf, but apparently the game’s been around since the late eighties.

In Werewolf, players sit in a circle like they’re playing duck-duck-goose. All the players are villagers, except for two who are werewolves and one person who runs the game. Rounds are divided into day and night. During the day, the players converse, trying to determine who the werewolves are and, thus, who deserves to get lynched (expelled from the game). At night, all the players close their eyes, then the game master tells the werewolves to awake (the werewolf players open their eyes) and, by silently pointing so not to reveal their identities, they choose a villager to change into a werewolf. Then it’s day again and the process repeats. The point of the game is for the villagers to guess who all the werewolves are and lynch them, or for the werewolves to kill all the villagers. Overall, the game is pretty basic. What makes it fun is the interplay between the participants as villagers try to guess who the werewolves are while the werewolves try to mislead them into killing other innocents. A lot of versions even pull in additional roles, like seers who can detect werewolves or monster hunters who can kill multiple werewolves.

It’s these variants that bring me my point. Toy Vault is putting out an alternate version of Are You a Werewolf called Do You Worship Cthulhu. Instead of werewolves, players face off againt cultists who make nightly sacrifices to the Great Old Ones. While the game is currently slated for release late next month, you can check out its website and a preview of the rules at the Toy Vault website here.