I've had this game for a couple years now (during which I've moved cities several times), and have played it with many groups of people - it has consistently been a hit. I first played in university with other late teens/early twenties. There were periods of time when we got together to play a couple times a week, and of course played several games in a row. Tonight, I just introduced it to a new group of classmates (new program, new university), and we had a blast - playing it 7 times in a row and stopping only because it was getting quite late.

My point? This game has proven to have great universality and replay ability. It can be explained and learned quickly (especially when the more simple cards are used in the first game), and built on after that. The gameplay changes enough from game to game that it remains interesting and the puzzle of discovering who is who is maintained. It is, of course, fun to try to bluff your friends and strategize (I've even seen werewolves kill themselves in order to place suspicion on certain people). I've had a lot of success with this game, and it's great for getting conversation going.

Having said that, I've found that there are some conditions that it doesn't work as well - It really doesn't work with fewer than 8 players, and it's important that the moderator (narrator) be familiar enough with the game to keep it running smoothly and also give some "ambiance" to the story. However, don't let that deter you - after playing a game or two, most people feel ready to try being the moderator, so it's a small learning curve, and the instructions that come with the cards are very clear and give a "walkthrough" of the dialogue.

Again, overall, I can't say just how pleased I am with this game. It has tremendous value (I'm sure I have played it over 100 times, providing hours of fun and social interaction), and is a great large group game (while many board games tend to cap off around 4 or 5 players). The theme is variable enough to keep it interesting from game to game, and I'm always pleasantly surprised at how well-received it is by new groups.

The Werewolves of Miller's Hollow is a very simple game (exactly the same as "Mafia") but it is blast to play. All the players are the residents of a village beseiged by werewolves. At night, the werewolves kill one player. During the daytime, the villagers debate and decide to lynch one player. The game ends when the villagers have eliminated all the werewolves or vice versa. Each player is given a card at the beginning of the game which tells your true identity, so you never know who is friend or who is foe.

Here's how good "Werewolves" is:

I had a bunch of friends over at my apartment last weekend. Most of them came to play poker and drink. But I said, "I know you will probably hate this, but I'm going to make you play one game of 'Werewolves.'" I had just received the game in the mail that day, and was anxious to play. After figuring things out in a quick first game, we played a second game and had a lot of fun. Then my friends started calling other people in the apartment complex to come over and play the game. We ended up playing for about three hours straight.

Buy this game, and get the expansion pack, too, which has some great suggestions for variants. You'll have hours of fun, guaranteed.