So right now on Experience Michiana, we always say there's lots to experience, lots happening.

This is something that I hadn't heard about before, but I'm joined right now, as you can see by Sam and by Josh, to talk about Ultimate Werewolf and Blood on the Clock Tower.

They're the co-founders.

So, Sam, tell me a little bit about this.

It sounds a little bit more like Halloween.

But what exactly is it and why is it called Ultimate Werewolf?

Yeah.

It is it is a great game to play at Halloween.

But also at all times of the year.

So there's social there's social deception games, the basis of them was, a social experiment to figure out if a, an informed minority, can beat an uninformed majority.

And pretty often the answer was that the majority almost always loses.

But these games are balanced in a way, so that there's, in theory, an equal chance of, of everybody winning.

And you have a, you have an evil team who know each other.

And with both of these games, an ultimate werewolf, they are werewolves.

In blood on the clock tower, there's, demons and the demons minions.

But they work together to eliminate the townsfolk who, during the day, are trying to talk and figure out and who they think, are.

The wolves or the demons and and vote them, out of the town.

When you said that the majority always loses, it made me think of politics.

It is.

It does it does have, political, undertones.

But we, we are certainly not, affiliated with any political organization.

And our goal is to, to help people have fun and grow as, as so that they can be productive members of society.

No.

Absolutely.

Yeah, I'm sure it is fun.

And, Josh, you're out and about.

Looks like you're working here today.

That's why we're we're doing it like this just to catch up with you guys.

But, what is it about this that is kind of enticing to you or exciting to you?

Like how what's the point of it?

For me, it's just a great way to get out and meet new friends.

It's, a way to, get out and have my basically, like, learning to debate for those who might not be as extroverted as, some others, it's a great way to kind of get your, thoughts across against conflicting views and stuff like that.

And just a great game to experience that before you get into, like, all takes, like you had suggested earlier, whatever.

So it's just a fun game to, to do that.

And is it nice to, I mean, often all the outlets, salmon which for us to go out and meet people is always based around alcohol.

And I don't know if that's part of this, but it's it's kind of hard to find things that are kind of fun, that are outside of a bar setting and things like that.

So is that kind of why you guys went down this road as well?

Yeah.

We, we wanted to we fell in love with these games at a convention in Atlanta.

And that's sort of what led us down, down this route.

But it has, the reason we started was because we wanted to play these games more and here in Michiana, but for us, it's really become so much more.

We do have a place where, where our community we've got we have families and lots of different people.

So if you're not, if you don't drink and don't feel comfortable at bars, we hold events at a coffee shop here in South Bend, where you, where you're not allowed to drink alcohol there.

And so, and there's a family friendly environment that we, that we try and facilitate for our players in our community.

And you mentioned that that's at well and the well in South Bend.

And then you do also have it at Niles Brewing Company and things like that.

And, you have events scheduled at the Niles District Library as well, right?

Yes.

Yeah.

So we do, the well, we're there twice a month.

We're at Niles Brewing Company.

Once a month we are at, the Niles Public Library about every other month and once every couple to 2 to 4 months.

We are at, the Saint Joseph County Public Library as well.

And so does this kind of, bring in a similar crowd to, like, say, like a traditional trivia night or like, who are the kind of people that go along to this?

Is it the same kind of feeling like, are there scoreboards out there?

Like, do people are there like returning champions or is it just one off all the time?

We've got a, a very large community.

It's not there's we've got people as young as eight.

I think there's people in their 60s who attend our events.

And you it when you're looking at it, if you've never done it, if you're looking at it from the outside, it sometimes seems a little weird because half the time we spend with our eyes closed, sitting in a circle, but you get, lots of lots of conversation and lots of jokes and, Yeah.

And and Josh, you know, Sam mentioned that it's it's fun and, and, it's a good time for everybody.

What's it like for people that do actually come along and experience that, like for the first time, is it kind of awkward coming in to this, to this setting for the first time, or is a pretty easy to get to get the hand?

Yeah, the handle of it.

I think for the most part, most of our new players say they have a great time.

Some people might find it overwhelming at first, but we generally are able to accommodate them and make them feel welcome.

We always teach new players the game.

We never feel like it's, hassle for us to go over the rules.

I actually am one of the fans of doing the rules over and over again because it's fun for me.

But, you know, we we welcome everyone.

We always talk about, bringing all new players, no matter your experience level, if you're brand new, if you've never heard of the game before, we we bring everyone in.

We have a lot of friendly faces who will also welcome them in, just as from player's perspective.

So it's always a great time.

And usually they leave, with smiling faces.

And am I wrong in thinking that it's kind of a similar to a murder mystery kind of vibe?

Or is it totally different to that?

It is.

I mean, that's that's 100%, 100%.

You've got, you've got, you've got the wolves or the demon who are going around murdering townsfolk, and you are you're trying to figure them out.

So, there's a there's a roleplay aspect that, that, you can get into, with, with the different characters and roles that are, that are in the game.

Nice.

And, you guys set this up as a nonprofit group, right?

What was the reason behind setting this up as a nonprofit instead of just being like an entertainment company going around doing this for us?

Michiana is is, is a huge part of of who both me and Josh are as, people, we've both been born and raised here.

We went to school here, and, we are, we're building, we're building our, our adult lives here.

And so to, we really when we started this and, and it became more than, just a a, you know, a Friday night hangout sesh to play our favorite, our favorite games.

It became important for us that we, that we keep this focused on, the Michiana community that's been so impactful for our lives and our development.

And so we wanted to do it as a way to give back to our community.

Nice.

Awesome.

So for anybody watching this, you mentioned all the different locations that it's on.

And, and I know you have an event schedule for January.

Is there somewhere that people can just go online and see where the next one is, like, is that all online or where can people go just to see it and go, okay, let me go along to that one and give it a try.

Yeah.

If you Google Ultimate Werewolf Michiana, we are the first result.

I believe it's our Facebook page.

And our, our events are on there, as well as a link to our, our link tree, which has a Google calendar that you can, sync up to yours.

And it has all of our, there's links to videos on there to learn how to play the games.

If you want to do that before you come.

And, to all our social media and stuff like that, and the games do take a little bit of time, right?

Like sometimes you could be there for a couple of hours, if not more.

Right?

So there is a little bit of an investment in time to coming to any of these events.

Yes.

There is.

Yeah.

We have there is a version of Ultimate Werewolf called One Night that can take about ten minutes.

But, a regular game of Ultimate werewolf or blood on the clocktower can take anywhere from 30 minutes to hour and a half.

I think the longest I've ever seen is two hours.

Okay, awesome.

And, Right.

Well, sounds like.

Yeah, you got lots going on.

I'm looking at the schedule here for January, so plenty of opportunities from, you know, the well in South Bend to Niles Brewing Company, to the district libraries and things like that.

So, so as you mentioned, search for Ultimate Werewolf Michiana and you'll find you on Facebook.

We'll put a link in this story, of course, as well.

But, but thank you so much to you guys for talking to me about it.

And, yeah, hopefully lots of people will head along and try this out and, Yeah.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Thanks for having us.