Last night we played Ultimate Werewolf at my good friend Zack’s birthday party. That’s not much in the way of news; it has been our default party game whenever there are more than ten people gathered. But last night I decided to try something new as moderator.

In Werewolf there are a number of roles that require people other than the werewolves to wake up at night. The problem has always been that calling them out to wake up each night also alerts the rest of the group to the presence of that role (or their absence if they are not called). Last night we started getting a little crazy with the roles we were doling out, including using the vampires for the first time, and I didn’t want people to know what I was throwing into the mix each game. The solution was pretty simple: each special role was called out by some letter, so that the seer might be A, the bodyguard might be B, and the werewolves might be C.

This was massively successful. The first game with this mechanic was also the first time with vampires, and no one knew that half the town was either vampires or werewolves. There was a bit of an upfront cost as I assigned each role its letter. I had each player start with their eyes closed and their card held up facing me as I walked around calling out, “If I tap you now, you are A,” et cetera. It was worth it. Then whenever a player needs to use an ability at night, since most of these simply involve picking one or more targets, I said, “pick a target.”

There are just so many great roles that work best as surprises. If you play Werewolf, try this next time, and throw in the doppelgänger, vampires, and whatever other curveball you want. Maybe you can figure out an elegant way to work Cupid in too. That’s my favorite card.