Ultimate Werewolf sinks its teeth into a legacy game this summer

If you’d asked us whether we expected more legacy spin-offs to follow in the wake of Risk, Pandemic, Betrayal at House on the Hill, Burgle Bros, Aeon’s End and Android: Netrunner (to name just a few), we would’ve said yes, absolutely – but we probably wouldn’t have put lycanthrope-hunting party game Ultimate Werewolf near the top of the list.

Clearly we’re missing something, though, because Ultimate Werewolf Legacy has just been revealed for release this summer, co-designed by Ultimate Werewolf master Ted Alspach and legacy game godfather Rob Daviau, best known for Risk Legacy, Pandemic Legacy, SeaFall and pretty much every other legacy spin-off going.

Ultimate Werewolf Legacy is pitched as spinning out the social deduction of the original game – in which a group of villagers attempts to weed out the moon-loving dog-people hidden in their midst before they all get eaten – to a 16-game campaign with evolving elements over the course of a preface match and five chapters.

Each chapter is said to take around an evening to complete, and players will be able to jump in and out of a campaign, so you won’t have to get your entire group together for every single match. (Although it’s probably best if you do.) One person will need to be the game moderator – it’s not clear whether this will need to be the same person every time.

As well as being assigned a secret role like normal, players will also be given a public family card that groups them into teams – but with the risk that one of their team members is secretly a werewolf.

The players will be able to gain special abilities that carry across the entire campaign, with the village also changing as a result of players’ actions and how each match plays out, with a variety of different outcomes and possibilities.

All of this will be tracked in an 80-plus-page diary that records what’s happened, and will be able to be reset with replay packs being sold separately to the main game that include a new diary and fresh family cards – so it seems that you’ll be tearing them up or stickering them. Y’know, like in a legacy game.

Ultimate Werewolf Legacy will cost $60 (£43) over in the US and is planned for release this August.