One Night of the Werewolf

We recently played both One Night of the Werewolf and Story Cubes with some friends and it was the most fun I've had playing games in ages. I was thinking about why games like those can be so much more memorable than more intricate, more traditional board games. What I concluded is that it's just so much fun to see someone's imagination at work. What it reminds me of is the one time that I was involved in a true D&D campaign and got to see the Game Master weave tales and ad-lib and think on the fly.

Granted, Werewolf is a far cry from a months-long D&D campaign, but even so, just the tiniest bit of story-telling atmosphere ("you're tired from a long day of work..", "there was a murder last night!") had everyone laughing and engaged. I've heard repeatedly that we are story-based creatures and I believe it, but I still found it incredibly striking how much a few sentences, or a dramatic flourish or inflection could transformed a basic game into a memorable event.