Wink Murder - "Judge" Variant

"Judge" Variant

In one variation of the game, cards are used to secretly identify townspeople from the other roles in the game. A mayor controls the game and is the only one who knows the identity of the killer, but a judge makes the final recommendation to the mayor as to who the town believes to be the killer.

The townspeople elect a mayor before the game begins (someone who knows all the rules make the best mayors). The mayor deals out cards to all the players except himself. Whomever was dealt a Joker is designated as the Judge and should be immediately identified. (Both the mayor and the current judge cannot be killed) The mayor will tell all the townspeople (including the judge) to lower their heads and close their eyes, no cheating! He then asks only the killer to raise his head and quietly point out a person to "kill". The mayor then instructs the killer to lower his head and close his eyes. The mayor then asks the nurse to raise his head and quietly point out a person to "save". (The nurse can save himself, or also unknowingly prevent the killer from killing if he happens to unknowingly pick the killer to be saved) The mayor then asks the nurse to lower his head. Finally, the mayor instructs all the townspeople to raise their heads. If the person selected by the killer was not saved by the nurse, and the killer himself was not prevented from killing by the nurse, the mayor announces the regrettable "death" of the player that was "killed". An "attempted murder" would occur if the nurse happened to either save the same person chosen by the killer, or if the nurse unknowingly saved the killer himself, thus preventing the kill. The mayor must NOT disclose who the target was in the case of an attempted murder. (This way the nurse will not know whether he saved the target or the killer.) If the nurse was killed, he can no longer participate in the game. However, the mayor must pretend that the nurse is still in the game, asking the now non-existing nurse who should be saved, even though the real nurse can no longer participate. (That keeps everyone guessing!)

Similar to the "Detective" variation, the job of the Judge would be to hear all the accusations against all the players, and come to a final decision to accuse a single player. All the townspeople must convince the judge of the identity of the killer. When the judge has made his decision, he informs the mayor of who he believes to be the killer. If he is correct, the killer is jailed and the game ends. If not the mayor simply instructs the townspeople to lower their heads, and the game continues.

An optional "double agent" or sometimes called "accomplice" would secretly prevent the townspeople from coming to any agreement by attempting to convince everyone that someone else did it when he sees that the crowd is leaning in one direction. But, like all the other townspeople, including the judge, he actually does not know the true identity of the killer.