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The game begins with players receiving their secret role card, determining whether they’re on team villager, trying to track down a possible werewolf in their midst before it’s too late, or team werewolf, trying to lie low and avoid detection. Certain village team roles come with special powers, giving players nuggets of information to help put them on the scent, while others act as instruments of chaos adding extra layers of intrigue.

Cue the night time phase: all players place their character cards face down in front of them and close their eyes. The various roles then trigger one at a time, letting the relevant players peak at other cards around the table, swap roles around, or perhaps lock eyes with a fellow werewolf. The game comes with a handy app to talk you through the steps, complete with (optional) spooky disco soundtrack. Then daybreak arrives, giving players a matter of minutes to exchange information, hurl accusations, and finally… decide who to lynch! If the majority vote for a werewolf, it’s victory for the villagers, but if not, the werewolves win the day.

This game needs 5+ players to shine, and the range of roles in the box leaves you with plenty of options for switching things up.

Codenames

If you haven’t yet played this absolute blockbuster of a modern classic, consider your party plans sorted! There are no hidden roles here, just plenty of tension and occasional opportunities for feeling like a genius… or the opposite.

The game set-up is a five by five grid of word cards in the centre of the table, selected randomly from a sizeable stack. Players form two teams, red and blue, then each team selects a ‘spymaster’ who will be their clue-giver for the rest of the game. The two spymasters sit where they can both see a card which allocates each word in the central grid to either the red team, the blue team, a decoy beige category… or one final option which I’ll come back to.

Spymasters take turns to provide a clue to their teams in a specific format: a single word that relates to one or more of the words of their colour in the grid, plus a number which indicates how many words the clue links to. Coming up with the clues is fiendishly tricky, but once that’s done, spymasters simply sit back and maintain a poker face as their team members decide how to interpret their new information, and make a guess at which word(s) in the grid the clue relates to. Each word guessed correctly is covered by a card of the team’s colour, bringing them one step closer to victory. Incorrect guesses either end the turn (beige words), give points to the other team (words of the opposing colour) or, possibly… LOSE THE ENTIRE GAME, in the case of the one black word on the grid: the DEADLY ASSASSIN.

With so much at stake, there’s no shortage of tension here, and few moments in gaming are as satisfying as thinking up or cracking a particularly great clue… or as nerve-wracking as watching your team confidently take hold of the wrong end of the stick. This game works well with four players and brilliantly with six, and if you can’t get together in person there’s an awesome free online version here.

If you’ve mastered Codenames and aren’t put off by the idea of getting your head around a few more rules, we’d strongly recommend Decerypto – check out the review here to find out why.