GROWL
GROWL Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- Bite cards – slowly turn a human into a werewolf
- Wound cards – slowly kill a human or a werewolf
- Charm cards – negate a Bite
- Salve cards – negate a Wound
- Gold cards – worth points at the end of the game, carried over to the next game
- Night cards – trigger the Night phase (3 in the deck, including the Final Night)
- Final Night card – the last Night card; triggers "The Growl" once resolved
- Objective tiles – one per player, showing the Human side and the Werewolf side; also serves as the "home area" onto which cards are placed during the Night phase
- Setup tile – shows how many Wounds and Bites to remove from the deck for the current player count
Game Setup
1. Deal an objective tile in front of each player. These are all the same, but it is important each player have one as a "home area" onto which you'll place certain cards during the Night phase (more on this later).
- Human objective tile: Your goal is for at least 1 Human to be alive at the end of the Final Night. Reminder: Humans can't pass Bite cards at Night!
- Werewolf objective tile: Your goal is to convert or kill all Humans. Werewolves win if no humans are left alive at the end of the third Night.
Wolf Zero. "Wolf Zero" is the start of the infection, the first werewolf, but probably not the last. There's one Wolf Zero in a 4 or 5 player game and two in a 6-7 player game. There's always a small chance of even more Wolf Zeroes if other players happen to start the game with 3 Bite cards!
2. Remove the Night and Final Night cards from the deck (they have a border around the edge of the back) and set them aside for now.
3. Build the "setup deck." Remove several Gold cards from the deck and one Bite card (or two Bite cards if playing with 6 or 7 players). You are making a small setup deck with cards equal to the number of players, with all the cards Gold except for the Bite card(s). Shuffle the setup deck. Deal one "starter card" face-down to each player. Players look at their starter card and secretly determine if they are a Human (if their card is a Gold) or Wolf Zero (if their card is a Bite).
Players on the human team might be turned into werewolves later, but once a werewolf, always a werewolf.
4. If playing with fewer than 6 players, remove excess Wounds and Bites (according to the setup tile) to the box.
5. Shuffle and deal. Make sure the deck is shuffled well. Deal 3 additional cards to each player. Each player now has a 4 card hand and knows if they are a werewolf.
6. Check for "dead" players. In the rare case any player now has 3 Wounds, they shuffle the 3 Wounds (but not the secret starter card) back into the main deck and redraw 3 new cards, so all players begin the game alive.
7. Prepare the Night cards. Shuffle the Night and Final Night cards. Place one of the Final Night cards face-down on TOP of the (face-down) deck. Place one Night card about a THIRD of the way through the deck, and a second Night card about TWO-THIRDS of the way through the deck. Put the remaining Final Night and Night cards back into the box without looking at them. Flip the deck over (so the Final Night card that was placed on top will become the last card drawn at the end of the game). The deck is now face-up!
8. The hairiest player, or the player who had the most Gold in the last game, goes first. Play proceeds clockwise (Day phase) until a Night card is revealed. Nights are resolved as a special turn, then play proceeds in Day phase again until the Final Night is resolved and "the Growl" occurs.
Objective
- Humans want to protect each other from being turned into werewolves. Humans all win (even dead humans) if at least 1 human is still alive at the end of the Final Night. Humans cannot pass Bite cards during the Night phase.
- Werewolves want to convert (or kill!) the humans. Werewolves all win (even dead werewolves) if no humans are alive after the Final Night is resolved. You can't turn back into a human once you are a werewolf. When a human turns into a werewolf their objective permanently changes.
You achieve your goals by passing cards to players to alter their hand and socially manipulating other players to send cards where you want those cards to go.
How do I know if I am a werewolf?
- If you started as Wolf Zero (you received a Bite during setup deal): you are a WEREWOLF for the rest of the game (regardless of your cards).
- If you ever have 3 or more active Bite cards: you are a WEREWOLF for the rest of the game (regardless of your cards).
- Otherwise, you are a HUMAN.
Death
If a player ever possesses 3 Wound cards that aren't negated by Salves, the player has "died." They declare death and flip their objective tile to the "I Died" side, without revealing whether they are a human or a werewolf. Don't worry, you can still win even if you die, as long as your team (human or werewolf) wins!
NOTE: When players are eliminated through death, their neighbors are considered to be adjacent to each other, so when passing cards to the left and right during Night, dead players are skipped over and do not take part.
Day Phase (Player Turns)
The player whose turn it is looks at the top card of the face-up deck. Players may slide the whole deck towards themselves but may not take the top card off (because it reveals cards underneath) until they have decided who to give the top card to. All players see the card and may discuss or make their case as to why they should receive or not receive the card.
You cannot keep the card for yourself, you must give it to another player, and it goes into their HAND. It does NOT go in front of the player on the table. Play proceeds clockwise.
The primary cards in the game are Bite (slowly turns humans into werewolves), Charm (negates a Bite), Wound (slowly kills humans and werewolves), and Salve (negates a Wound). Gold gives points at the end of the game that are carried over to the next game.
Special Definition: In this game, an "active" card is a card that has not been negated by another card. Cards negate automatically and in realtime. If you receive a Bite or a Wound at the same time as a card that negates it, they effectively cancel each other. You reconcile which team you are on (whether you've turned into a werewolf) secretly and constantly.
Night Phase (Special Turn)
There will be 3 Night cards in the deck, including the Final Night. The moment a Night card is revealed, a special power is triggered by the active onto the objective tile in front of each of their neighbors:
- The player whose turn it is takes the Night card's special action.
- Players who are still alive secretly select a card to pass to the player on their left and a card to pass to the player on their right (skipping over dead players). These cards are placed face-down DIRECTLY ON TOP of your neighbors' objective tiles - they are not passed directly to their hand. Be careful not to set your hand of cards down near your tile - don't confuse your hand with the 2 cards you are receiving.
Humans CANNOT pass Bite cards during the Night phase! All other cards can be passed by all players, including Wounds.
- Shuffle the 2 cards you received so that you aren't sure which card came from which neighbor. Then look at the 2 cards and add them to your hand.
- Then discard the Night card from play (unless it says otherwise).
NOTE: Once a Night card has been revealed, a discussion is allowed. But after the active player takes their special Night action, there is no communication (other than to enforce the game rules) until Night is over. The active player taking the Night action (and other players affected by the action) may not speak about what occurred, unless to say they have died.
NOTE: Cards received at Night are considered to arrive in your hand simultaneously. For example, if you receive a Wound and a Salve, the Wound would be negated prior to it taking effect. Or, if you receive your third Bite and a Charm during the same Night, then both cards resolve at once and the Bite is negated. It is possible to purposely turn into a werewolf by getting rid of Charm cards that have been protecting you.
Play continues with the next player taking his or her turn on the new Day phase. When the Final Night has been resolved, The Growl is triggered.
Killed at Night?
When the Night is over, players who died in the Night must IMMEDIATELY declare themselves dead, prior to other communication occurring. If a Night action such as Silver Bullet kills a player, the death would occur prior to the card-passing, so that player's neighbors would pass to each other.
The "Growl"
After the Final Night action is taken and the final card passing is resolved, the game is over. Wolf Zero(es) begins to growl aloud.
Slowly other werewolves (living or dead) join the growl. If ALL the players who are still alive are growling (and therefore werewolves), that means that all werewolves (living or dead) win! If there's at least 1 human still alive, all humans (living or dead) win!
Wolf King/Wolf Queen
When playing multiple rounds of GROWL, track the amount of gold each player on the winning team had in their hand (regardless of whether or not they were alive). You can use pennies, tokens or pen and paper. Each subsequent round, players begin the game with that number of points. At the end of the game night the player with the most points is crowned Wolf King or Wolf Queen!
Playing with More Than 7
This basic print and play version isn't properly balanced for more than 7 players, but the final version of the game will allow full support for up to 10 (or even more) players with extra cards and special bonus cards.
Here are some recommendations when playing with 8-10 players for now.
Find the cards with the 8+ player symbols and remove excess cards if needed:
- 10 players: Play with all the 8+ player cards.
- 9 players: Remove 2 Wounds and 2 Bites.
- 8 players: Remove 4 Wounds and 4 Bites.
THE SNIFF: When playing 8-10 players, after players receive their hand of 4 cards, all players close their eyes and Wolf Zeroes get to peek at each other. Then the game proceeds.