Activity

NO PREP - Modified Werewolf/Mafia

This is a modified version of Werewolf/Mafia for my junior high school students with low English levels!

I LOVE Werewolf/Mafia but I never got to play it with my kids because their English levels are so low, so I finally came up with a modified version that mostly follows the same rules.

Please note: This is more of a listening activity for the kids to play as a reward (like after their midterms/finals), the ALT will be doing most of the talking. However, this is just for my middle school kids with extremely low level English, so please feel free to add more elements to the game as you see fit! And if you have any advice to make them use more English, please leave a comment as well:)

Roles:
- Villagers (normal people, sleeps at night)
- Werewolves (will each take away ONE person per night)
- Witch (will choose to either take or save ONE person per night)
- Doctor (will choose to save ONE person per night)
I have around 30 students per class, so I always have 4 werewolves, 1 witch and 1 doctor. You can modify the number of werewolves depending on your class size!
It is best to leave 5-10 minutes to go over the roles and rules of the game, as well as how you will run the game so the students know what to pay attention to and what they need to do. It took me just a little under 35 minutes to go over everything and run one game. I made my own cards for each role, but you can also just have them close their eyes and assign students for roles by tapping them on the shoulder!

Rules:
- The villagers win if they find all the werewolves
- The werewolves win if the number of villagers equal to (or less than) the number of werewolves (the doctor and witch are not considered to be villagers)
- One person will be voted out each round (voting system will be explained later) and the game will continue until one side wins

Steps:
Everyone will sit in a circle with their eyes closed and cards will be given out (or roles will be secretly assigned by tapping).

After everyone received their card, the game will start by the ALT announcing →"It is night time, everyone please close your eyes."

Once everyone have their eyes closed, the ALT will announce→ "werewolves, please open your eyes and choose who you want to take tonight."
- The students with the werewolf cards will open their eyes and stand up to tap who they want to take away on the shoulder and move back to their position and close their eyes (I found it more fun this way because they have to move around and it makes noises)

After the werewolves closed their eyes, the ALT will announce→"Witch, please open your eyes and make a choice. Do you want to save someone or take someone?"
- I usually write "SAVE" and "TAKE" on the board and point to it, they will nod or shake their heads
- Once they make their choice, the ALT will announce→ "The witch has chosen to SAVE/TAKE someone tonight. Please make your choice"
- They will also go tap on the person they want on the shoulder, go back to their position and close their eyes

After the witch closed their eyes, the ALT will announce→ "Doctor, please open you eyes. Who do you want to save?"
- The doctor will tap the person they want to save, move back to their position and close their eyes

The ALT will announce→"It is day time, everyone please open your eyes."
- Once everyone has their eyes open, first announce (this is where you can be as dramatic as possible) → "Unfortunately, 4 villagers were taken from us today by werewolves, if you were taken, please stand up."
- These students are (as of now) OUT of the game, I usually have them sit somewhere outside and circle to observe

  • depending on the witch's choice, make the following announcements
    If the witch chose to TAKE → "I am sorry. Actually ONE MORE villager was taken from you by the witch. If the witch took you, please stand up." This student is also (as of now) OUT of the game and will sit outside the circle
    If the witch chose to SAVE → "The witch chose to save someone last night. If the witch saved you, please stand up." If this student is someone that was taken by werewolves, they may rejoin the game. If it is a villager that wasn't taken, you can just make some announcement about how they are extra lucky but nothing happens.

  • The ALT will then announce → "If you are saved by the doctor. Please stand up." Same procedure as the witch, if they were taken by either the werewolf or the witch, they can rejoin the game. If it's a normal villager, nothing happens.

Then, the voting will begin. The ALT will then announce → "Does anyone want to make a report?"
- I usually just give students one minutes to discuss and then they can raise their hands, pick one student and this student has to say "I think it's _________." and everyone will vote. If the majority thinks that student is guilty then that they are out of the game and have to reveal their identity.

Continue to next round
- Before the game starts, the ALT will announce→ "It is now night time, before you go to bed, I want to tell you that there are still X werewolves among you. (and let them know if the doctor and witch are still in the game)"
- Begin next round

NOTES:
- If the witch chooses to take the werewolf, then the werewolf is just out of the game (hooray for the villagers). Of course if they choose to save the werewolf, nothing will happen and during the daytime announcement the werewolf will be treated as a regular person.
- I personally made the game so that each unique characters (werewolf, witch and doctor) MUST make a choice per round
- @DjinntoTonic's suggestions
1. English Powerpoint explanation of the roles
2. Some sample English phrases for students to say when making a report/prove their innocence
3. Voting in small groups
4. "Out" students getting bored- for this, I think some kind of crossword puzzle/3 hint quiz for them to solve to get back to them game would be fun!

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Submitted by unocgull November 29, 2024 Estimated time: 35min to whole class
  1. rileyrj42 December 4, 2024

    I was literally thinking today about how badly I wanted to play mafia with the kids. Thank you so much for putting this together!

  2. DjinntoTonic December 4, 2024

    I agree that Werewolf is a fun social game, but I’m a little concerned that there’s no real use of English in this activity apart from just listening to the ALT talk? I can’t really figure out how to encourage the students to actually debate who is suspicious or how to defend themselves in English without severely raising the bar to entry on enjoying it or slowing the game down to a snail’s pace.

    Perhaps some kind of PowerPoint explanation of the roles with some key vocabulary words for them to use during the game to at least encourage them to use some English terms while they are debating their innocence in their native language?

    I also worry about the students who are “out” having nothing to do anymore. They will get bored really fast for a game that takes this long.

    Perhaps this could be modified to work in a Team setting? So instead of 30 individual students, you have 9 teams of ~4 who act as a unit and have to decide how to vote together?

  3. unocgull December 5, 2024

    @DjinntoTonic
    The reason this modified version is mostly the ALT speaking is because this is more of a reward activity for my kids with very low English levels:) But your suggestions on how to use more English in this game are all very good and I will add them for people's reference, thank you so much! I originally also worried about the students that are "out" will be bored, but my students also had a lot of fun seeing who the werewolves/witch/doctor are and how they make their choice, and after a new round they have fun seeing new people's reactions to the character reveals. But I will definitely think about how to make it fun for them, too. Thank you for your feedback:)

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