Nightwolf is a multiplayer competitive strategy game with token awards to be deployed on the Ethereum blockchain. It utilizes an accretive utility token (AUT) issuance model to incentivize players and proportionally reward the developers. Similar to the social game Mafia (aka Werewolf), the premise of Nightwolf is that in Saga-era Iceland, a longhouse with thirteen inhabitants has settled into a long dark winter, but a secret faction of four predatory shapeshifters - the nightwolves - prey upon one of the inhabitants each night. One seeress is able to distinguish nightwolf from innocent, but the nightwolves wish to eliminate this threat to their secret. Alternating between day and night turns, the players are whittled down until only one faction survives, with newly minted tokens going to the survivors.
Each game of Nightwolf has thirteen players - nine of which are innocents and four of which are shapeshifting, predatory nightwolves. The nightwolves know who each other are but the innocents do not know who the nightwolves are. One of the nine innocents - the seeress - has the gift of second sight and may learn whether one player is either nightwolf or innocent per turn.
The game alternates between Day Turns (eleven minutes long) and Night Turns (four minutes long), with the game beginning on a special Day Turn without a purge vote.
In order to prevent improper out-of-game collusion in Nightwolf, players are randomly assigned a game-specific avatar that is not connected to their player profile. For example, player unicornlvr981 may be assigned to play under the avatar Sigrid in one Nightwolf game and as Gunnar in the next. Except in Friendly games, players do not know anything about who the other players are.
If players were able to communicate with one another outside of the game communication channels, it would make the game unfair. For example, while it would be fine if two nightwolves tried to forge a plan to eliminate a third nightwolf before the game ends in order to split the award two ways instead of three while using the game's communication channels, it would be less likely to succeed than if they did their plotting over email. The restriction of using the game's communications channels to carry out strategems is a key aspect of the balance of the game.
In Nightwolf, there are two separate communication channels that act as group chats.
The Longhouse channel is open during the Day Turn and is visible to all remaining players, including the nightwolves. Players use the channel to discuss how to choose who to vote to purge from the game as a suspected nightwolf.
The Nightwolf channel is open during the Night Turn and is visible only to the remaining nightwolves. The nightwolves use the channel to decide who to prey upon and also to plan their strategy to survive the Day Turn.
Except for the first, vote-less turn, each Day Turn begins by the announcement of what happened the previous Night Turn - usually the identfication of the player who was preyed upon by the nightwolves and eliminated from the game. There are two phases to each Day Turn, followed by a reveal.
The Longhouse communications channel opens up for ten minutes, with each remaining player able to make the case for who they believe to be a nightwolf or to try to defend themselves against any accusations. Players may make nominations for who to put up for a purge vote. Nominations are publicly tied to the player that makes them.
At the end of the ten minute Longhouse discussion phase, a one-minute long voting phase begins, where players may cast their ballots to purge one of the nominated players. Players may abstain from voting.
At the end of the voting period, there is a reveal phase where three things happen:
- Everyone's votes, including abstentions, are published,
- A player who received the most purge votes is eliminated from the game, and
- The purged player's status is revealed to everyone and the nightwolf/innocent ratio is updated. If the seeress is purged, his or her seeress status is not revealed.
- If no player is nominated on a turn, there is no voting phase and no one is purged
- If only one player is nominated, they are purged if they receive at least one vote, but remain in the game if they receive no votes
- If there is a tie vote between two players, neither one is purged
- If three players are nominated, and the top two vote recipients tie, the third player is purged as long as he/she receives at least one vote
The Night Turn begins 30 seconds after the reveal. There are two segments to the Night Turn that proceed at the same time but separate from each other - the Nightwolf segment and the Seeress segment
The Nightwolf Segment is similar to the Day Turn and has two phases.
The Nightwolf communications channel opens up for three minutes and allows the remaining nightwolves to discuss who to prey upon and eliminate from the game. However unlike the Day Turn, nominations are not part of the prey vote and so are not part of the communications phase.
At the end of the three minute Nightwolf discussion phase, a one-minute long voting phase begins, where the nightwolves may cast their ballots to prey upon any of the remaining players. Nightwolves may abstain from voting. Nightwolves may also vote to prey upon another nightwolf. Unlike ballots cast during the Day Turn, nightwolf voting ballots are not revealed to the nightwolves.
- If no nightwolves vote to prey upon any player, no one is preyed upon that turn
- If there is a tie vote between two players, neither one is preyed upon
During the four minute long Night Turn, the seeress may scan a single player and learn whether that player is a nightwolf or innocent. Only the seeres receives this information. He or she may of course disclose this information on the Longhouse communication channel but this would obviously make him or her a target for the nightwolves.
Nightwolf ends when players from one faction - either innocents or nightwolves - have eliminated the other faction, or when only one player is left from each faction. The surviving players split the token award evenly.
Thirteen tokens are minted for each standard Nightwolf game. Per the accretive utlity token issuance model, the surviving players at the end of the game split 7/8ths (11.375) of those tokens while the developers receive 1/8th (1.625) of the tokens.
A standard token-generating game of Nightwolf requires anonymity to prevent collusion and ensure fairness, but Friendly games are those set up by a set of players known to one another who wish to compete against each other.
Friendly games differ from standard Nightwolf games in the following ways:
- Games do not require thirteen players, but may be created with anywhere from 7 to 64 players
- Day and Night Turn lengths may be customized
- Additional custom rules may be utilized (eg, multiple seeresses, modify the nightwolf/innocent ratio)
- Players compete under their actual player profile names instead of using avatars
- Games do not generate new tokens
- Starting a friendly games requires that the collective players post one token per player, though each player need not post their own token - a generous benefactor may agree to post all the tokens necessary to set up a game with her friends
- The surviving players in a Friendly split 7/8ths of the posted tokens, with 1/8th going to the developers
Staked games are identical to standard Nightwolf games, except that they do not generate new tokens and require participating players to stake some amount of tokens to enter. The surviving players split all the staked tokens - the developers do not receive 1/8th of the staked tokens.
Staked games may appeal to successful players to try their hand against other proven players, with commensurate risks and rewards.
Staked games could also fuel tournaments to crown champion Nightwolf players.
- uPort Digital Identity Requirements -
- Eligibility Conditions - require some minimum conditions of participation in order to be eligible for token awards (eg, players who do not vote or communicate or otherwise take any action during the game are ineligible to receive token award)
- Grievance Process/Court System - if players believe that something improper occurred during the game, such as out of game communication, they may initiate a grievance process to seek proportional relief (including the redistribution of the tokens awarded) for the impropriety
- Staked Re-Entry - before the end of the turn following a player's elimination, the player may re-enter the game by posting a one token bond, which is added to the tokens to be awarded. Upon re-entry, the player does not automatically return to whatever status he or she had before, but is randomized to either nightwolf or innocent status based on the then-existing ratio (eg, if there is only one nightwolf and four innocents remaining, the re-entered player has a 1/5th chance of re-entering as a nightwolf instead of 4/13ths as at the game's start). Re-entered players cannot become seeresses.
- Sign up system, requiring creation of player profile with assigned Ethereum address to which awarded tokens should be deposited (with uPort registration in the future)
- Althing (player forum), including:
- Ability to enter next available Nightwolf game
- Player profiles and token balances
- Discussion boards divided into topics (resources, strategy)
- Grievance process mechanism