Kickstarter Pick of the Week – Ultimate Werewolf Deluxe Edition

Ultimate Werewolf Deluxe Edition

A re-imagining of the best-selling werewolf game: a new design, dozens of roles, and a brand new expansion for up to 75 players.

Ultimate Werewolf is an interactive game of deduction for two teams: Villagers and Werewolves. The Villagers don’t know who the Werewolves are, and the Werewolves are trying to remain undiscovered while they slowly eliminate the Villagers one at a time.

The game is incredibly simple: Each player gets a card which indicates their team and their special role, while one of the players acts as a moderator to keep the game running smoothly. Each day and night, the number of players gets smaller and smaller until either all the werewolves are voted out, giving the victory to the village team, or the werewolves equal (or exceed) the number of villagers, allowing the werewolf team to win.

What results is an incredibly engaging game of lies, deception and trust. Most people who play Ultimate Werewolf once can’t wait to play again. And every game is different, as there are dozens of special roles for both teams which can help out their side in a variety of ways.

Ultimate Werewolf: Ultimate Edition was universally praised as the best version of werewolf ever produced. Here’s the review posted by Tom Vasel on this version (and this new Deluxe Edition is even better):

And here is a detailed review on BoardGameGeek.com.

Ultimate Werewolf has been the best-selling, highest rated version of Werewolf of all time. But we weren’t satisfied.

A new artist, Jade Holt, was commissioned to do the background of the cards to give them just the right feel for the game and also to provide diagrams for the rules. And the graphic design of the cards was totally redone to make them feel more modern, yet still capture the right atmosphere for Ultimate Werewolf.

The rules have been rewritten and reformatted to make them easier to read and reference. The scorepad has been redesigned. The backs of the cards have been entirely redone. The card stock has been upgraded.

Here’s what you can expect in the box:

Dozens of unique roles on standard-size sleevable cards. Each card has the name of the role, a concise description, and a positive or negative number that helps you to balance the game.

The following cards are included in every backer’s set of Ultimate Werewolf Deluxe Edition (some artwork may change in the final version):

Getting Started Guide: The quickest and easiest way to get started playing Ultimate Werewolf.

The Ultimate Werewolf Rules with advanced and optional rules, details and alternates on all the roles, tons of scenarios, a Team Building guide, Moderator guide, and much more!

Moderator scorepad for keeping track of players and roles

The brand new Wolfpack expansion (see details below)

Your choice of ArtPacks (see below).

The Wolfpack Expansion contains six new wolf character cards that are included in EVERY reward level:

Who are the most famous werewolves? Ultimate Werewolf: Wolfpack has them all, in ways you’d never expect. This expansion for Ultimate Werewolf has six new roles for your werewolfing fun. Think werewolves are too meek? That’s because your villages have never had The Big Bad Wolf, who leads the werewolves to eliminate villagers twice as fast while he’s in the game. On the opposite end of the spectrum is the terrifyingly-confused Fruit Brute, who is, of all things, a vegetarian. And every game you’ll want to know who in your group is actually afraid of Virginia Woolf. And there are 3 more famous wolves, including one that coincidentally shares a name with one of the X-Men.

The artwork on the cards is stunning, but we’ve gone a step further: we’ve commissioned artwork from some of the world’s top artists, in several different styles, which can be added as an “ArtPack” to your game. You might recognize some of the artists: Debbie Ridpath Ohi (“InkyGirl” on BGG) is the best-selling, award-winning children’s artist for I’m Boredand Naked!. Klemens Franz is the artist for a few popular boardgames, includingAgricola and Suburbia. George Patsaurus is the artist for Agents of SMERSH andFlashpoint: Fire Rescue. The most famous boardgame illustrator of all, Doris Matthäus(El Grande, Tigris & Eurphates, Carcassonne, Primordial Soup, and dozens more) is supplying an ArtPack in her signature style. And finally, Gus Batts, the children’s book artist who illustrated One Night Ultimate Werewolf has an ArtPack too!

These ArtPacks contain 10 cards: 1 Seer, 2 Werewolves and 7 Villagers, allowing you to swap out the standard artwork for something a little different. You get one ArtPack of your choice with the base game for free. The different reward tiers allow you to have either your choice of 1, 5, or ALL of the available ArtPacks (up to 16).

You’ll notice that several of the stretch goals unlock even MORE ArtPacks, and some even introduce new BONUS special role cards (in addition to the 10 cards you’re already getting in each ArtPack). The higher the funding goes, the more ArtPacks and additional cards from those artists will be available!

Each backer will receive a copy of the Deluxe Edition before it is available in stores, including the brand new Wolfpack expansion and an ArtPack of your choice.

You can also pick five or even ALL 16 of the ArtPacks. And there’s even an Everything Werewolf tier that gives you all of the ArtPacks and all of the other Ultimate Werewolf games/expansions!

If you’d like more than one of any of these rewards, just add that amount to your pledge (for instance, if you’d like 2 Games and 2 ArtPacks, pledge $50 at the $25 Game & 1 ArtPack reward level). You’ll be able to choose which ArtPacks you’d like when the survey is sent out after the project is funded.

If you love Ultimate Werewolf, you know, really love it, so much that you have almost a restraining-order-kind-of-obsession, then you might be interested in these reward levels:

VANITY CARD – get everything in Everything Werewolf, plus YOUR image and name on a card (both subject to approval) that will be included in an ArtPack. Choose from one of three special roles, and choose which of the Ultimate Werewolf: Deluxe Edition artists you want to create it. Your card will ship with the ArtPack of that artist! You’ll also get 25 additional copies of that ArtPack to share with your friends.

NARCISSIST CARD – get everything in Everything Werewolf, plus YOUR image and name (both subject to approval) on a card that will be included with ALL Kickstarter copies of Ultimate Werewolf Deluxe Edition. Choose from one of three special roles, and choose which of the Ultimate Werewolf: Deluxe Edition artists you want to create it. You’ll also get 25 additional copies of that card to share with your friends.

Artists available for these reward levels are:

Mirko (ArtPack #2)

Azzedar (ArtPack #3)

Sarah (ArtPack #4)

Witek (ArtPack #7)

Brianna (ArtPack #9)

Chris (ArtPack #10)

Erica (ArtPack #11)

Klemens (ArtPack #13)

George (ArtPack #14)

Timing is critical on this kickstarter, and files need to get to the printer pretty much immediately after it funds. Therefore, anyone backing at this level must get in touch with me right away to supply an image and to choose an artist and role. If this is something you want to do, please change to that reward level sooner than later so that the project doesn’t run a risk of delay.

Backers will be able to review sketches of illustrations and provide feedback, but the final decision on the art will be with Bezier Games, Inc. Of course, we’ll do our best to make the cards (and you) look as good as possible!

The great thing about these reward levels is that each person who backs them is making more cards available for the rest of the backers! The ArtPack lists will be updated before the survey goes out so everyone will know which ArtPacks have those extra cards, and what those roles are.

Ultimate Werewolf Artifacts is an expansion that can be played with ANY version of werewolf (though you should play it with Ultimate Werewolf, of course). This redesigned version is going to match the new Deluxe Edition design stylistically, and come in a nice solid box (the previous version comes in a very tiny tuckbox). And, it will have a few new artifacts, including the amazingly awesome Shroud of Shame, which has been an absolutely huge hit with playtesters.

So, what is the Artifacts expansion? It’s an expansion that allows all players to have a special ability in the form of an artifact. Each player chooses to reveal his Artifact whenever he or she chooses to activate it.

When Artifacts was first introduced, we did a little promo video for it, and Mad Men’s Rich Sommer gave us several great quotes (he loves Ultimate Werewolf, which is so very cool):

Do you need Artifacts to play Ultimate Werewolf? No, but it’s a whole lotta fun, and will shake things up a bit from “regular” games. Here’s Tom Vasel’s ridiculously-glowing review of Artifacts:

There are still many copies of the current version of Artifacts available, and this version will not be in stores until those other copies are gone, so you’ll have this version before anyone else!

Everyone at the EVERYTHING WEREWOLF level will get this new version automatically instead of the old version now that we’ve achieved this stretch goal, and all backers at every level can add it as an add-on for $15 (plus $5 for international shipping).

There are all sorts of amazing Stretch Goals planned for this kickstarter. Everything from additional artwork packs to new alternative artwork cards to entire expansions. All unlocked expansions will be included with EVERY backer reward level. New ArtPacks can be selected (after funding, during the survey process) if you chose them at those reward tiers. Additional character cards are added to specific Artpacks. If you back at the EVERYTHING WEREWOLF or GAME+ALL ARTPACKS levels, you’ll get all the unlocked ArtPacks and all the extra cards.