How to Play Werewolf on Zoom or Discord

The call is already up. Everyone is on screen. All that is left is to actually play werewolf — and this is exactly where it stalls.

“Wait, how do we deal the roles?”

Zoom and Discord are built for talking, not for running a game. Get stuck here and the energy you spent gathering everyone drains away in ten minutes.

The short answer: there are only two ways

• A person runs it

  1. Join the call
  2. Pick one person as GM
  3. GM sends roles by DM
  4. GM narrates night and day
  5. GM tallies the votes

  Result Six people show up, five get to play

• The game runs it

  1. Join the call
  2. Share a URL
  3. Everyone opens it
  4. It runs itself

  Result Six people show up, six get to play

Running werewolf over a call comes down to two options.

1. One person becomes the moderator and runs it by hand — flexible, but that person does not get to play
2. Keep the call and let a game handle the mechanics — share a URL and everyone plays

If you are in a hurry, take the second one. Leave the call running, paste a link to a browser-based werewolf game into the chat, and your setup is done. If you have time and want the full experience, the first is worth it.

Here is what each one actually involves.

Option 1: run it yourself with a moderator

The traditional approach. One person handles the game while everyone else plays.

Dealing the roles

This is the part people get stuck on. Using nothing but the call app, you have a few choices.

• Send a direct message to each player — both Zoom chat and Discord DMs can target one person. Reliable, but the moderator types one message per player
• Use a random generator and relay the results privately — a simple randomizer is enough to assign roles
• Use playing cards — the classic method, but it only works in person

Handling the night phase

This is the cycle the moderator runs every single night.

1. Night

   Werewolves & roles

   The werewolves pick a target. The seer and others act too

2. Morning

   Everyone

   The attacked player is announced and leaves the game

3. Discussion

   Survivors

   Cross-check contradictions and suspicious silence

4. Vote

   Survivors

   Most votes is eliminated. The day ends here

Repeats until one side wins

In person you just say “everyone close your eyes.” On a call, everyone has to turn their camera off or look away.

On Discord, a common trick is to create two voice channels and move the werewolves into the second one during the night. Zoom’s breakout rooms do the same job. Either way, the moderator is clicking through a membership change every single round.

The moderator’s load is heavier than it looks

Deal the roles, narrate night and day, count the votes, call the winner. One person does all of it.

Which means that if six people show up, only five actually play. The smaller your group, the more that hurts.

Option 2: let the game run itself

Use the call only for talking, and let a game handle the mechanics.

Role assignment, the night phase, and vote counting all happen automatically, so you do not need a moderator. Everyone joins as a player.

Zoom or Discord?

Both work. The differences show up in group size and how casual the session is.

	Zoom	Discord
Seeing faces	Strong — video by default	Possible, but audio-first
Barrier to joining	Anyone with the link	Easier if you already have an account
Free time limit	Limited for three or more (40 minutes at the time of writing)	Effectively none
Hanging out casually	Good	Better — easy to leave running

In practice: Zoom if you want to see faces, Discord if you plan to play for hours. Werewolf uses expressions as evidence, so Zoom tends to work better when the group includes people who have not met.

One caveat: Zoom’s free time limit sits badly with werewolf. A long, serious ruleset will get cut off mid-game and everyone has to rejoin.

How many people do you need?

• 3 if automated / 6+ with a moderator
• 10–40 min per round
• Remote drinks, after a video meeting

Standard werewolf rules assume five or six players for the role balance to hold. Add a moderator and you really need six or seven people before a serious game works.

On a day when only three or four can make it, pick something designed for that size instead. Werewolf With 3 or 4 Players covers the options, and Werewolf With 5, 6, or 7 Players covers role setups above that.

Photo Werewolf, built for this setup

Photo Werewolf — the game on this site — is designed to be played exactly the way option 2 describes.

• Runs in a browser — no install. Keep your call open and just open a URL
• No moderator — everything is automatic, so everyone plays
• Works with three players — usable on a thin night
• About 10 minutes per round — comfortably inside Zoom’s free limit

What makes it different is that the evidence is not only what people say — it is the photos on their phones. Everyone submits one photo for the same theme, but the werewolves quietly have their submissions swapped with each other. A werewolf has to explain a photo they never chose as if they had.

The number of werewolves changes every round: there may be none, or two or more — never exactly one. A round with zero werewolves is a “peaceful village”, and nobody’s photo gets swapped.

Play video

Photo Werewolf Play Photo Werewolf free in your browser A new kind of online Werewolf where you bluff with photos on your phone. Grab some friends. Play a round for free

Starting without dropping the call

Here is how one round actually ends. The theme was “something delicious.” Of the five photos, the three labeled as werewolves were not chosen by the person presenting them.

Common questions

Q. Is it heavy to run a call and a game at once? A. Doing both on one phone means switching back and forth. Calling on a computer and playing on your phone is much more comfortable.

Q. Does everyone need an account? A. No. People joining from an invite link do not register. Only the host who creates the village needs an account.

Q. Should cameras be on? A. Werewolf uses expressions as evidence, so cameras on is livelier. Photo Werewolf still works with them off, because the photos themselves are the evidence.

Summary

Once the call is connected, the hard part is already behind you. All that is left is deciding who runs the game.

To try a round now, use the button below. There is nothing to install. Invited players join without registering; only the person creating the village needs an account.