Secret Hitler

This game is without a doubt the best board game you can bring to game night. First, the reactions of your friends and family when you pull it out is hilarious. You will get weird looks, and people will question it, but as soon as you get them playing they love it, too. It's a very simple social deduction game that you can play practically anywhere with a level surface for the game board. Speaking of the game boards, they are built amazingly. The box itself is great quality, as well. I would recommend playing this game with as many people as possible, but even at 5 players, this game is really fun.

Secret Hitler is an astoundingly well-crafted, beautifully designed, and balanced party game for 5-10 grownup players. Since buying it a month ago, Secret Hitler instantly became the number one game of choice at the embassy here in Afghanistan. It's based on building trust in a scenario where the liberals in the majority only have access to small pieces of the truth and need to use it to find out who the fascists are and stop them. The fascists know almost everything and can lie, sow distrust, and manipulate in an attempt to tilt the whole game in their favor. In games with 7-10 players, Secret Hitler is out of the loop, so he/she doesn't know who to trust and it's up to the fascists to send covert hints.Everyone in the game proclaims to be a liberal, so there can be such delightful moments of outrage -- both real and faked -- when the fascists and liberals clash and point fingers at each other. Even well-intentioned liberals can be duped and unwittingly help elect Secret Hitler as chancellor.It's easy to explain the rules to new players, and the short game time (about 45 minutes) makes playing multiple rounds a compulsive necessity. The most infuriating part of it is that you don't know who to trust from round to round since past allies become enemies and vice-versa. Pondering the tactics and motivations in discussions following intense games leads to developing new strategies and styles of play. The rules change when the size of the group playing changes, making new dilemmas as the game moves into the later rounds.It's a game made for grownups, but it's not at all vulgar. There's nothing in it that is particularly unsuitable for kids, except that it works well when all the players are mature and rational. Plus, who wants to lie to children?You can print this game for free, but I don't recommend it. The makers offer printable files for the full version of the game on their website if you want to try it out, but you'd really be missing out in the experience as the pieces in the retail version of the game are well made. There's even a free smartphone app where Wil Wheaton will helpfully narrate the critical discovery phase at the start of the game.In sum, this game is a true gem, and once you start playing, you'll never want to stop.

Arguably the best party game I've played. This is a social deduction game that plays up to 12. Each player will receive the role of a Liberal or a Fascist. However, one player will receive the role of Hitler, who is also part of the Fascist team.....makes sense. Hitler does not know who his Fascist comrades are, but the other Fascist know which player has the Hitler role. Meanwhile, the Liberals are all left in the dark and have to figure it out as the game goes. The goal of the game is for the Liberals to either assassinate Hitler, or get more policies voted in than the Fascists. The Fascists win if Hitler becomes elected Chancellor, or if they have more policies voted in over the Liberals. Each round, the next player, in clockwise rotation, runs for president, they choose who they'd like as their chancellor running-mate. The players will vote on this tandem to be okay or not okay. If voted okay, these two players receive 3 face-down policies, which will be labeled fascist or liberal. The policies don't do anything, they're just labeled. The president will secretly eliminate one policy, then the chancellor secretly chooses which one will be voted in from the remaining 2. This repeats each round until on of the win conditions in met. This game is so much fun. The first time our group got it to the table, it was played probably 7 times consecutively. There was shouting, controversy, couples arguing, laughs, shifty eyes, and paranoia. By the end of the game you assume no one is trustworthy! I like to think there's two types of tension in gaming, good and bad. This game brings out the good, and it brings out a lot of it! It's created plenty of inside joking to the point where our group is claiming another player being a fascist during a completely different game. I can't recommend it enough. Easy to learn. The rule book is straight forward. The only recommendation I have is to play with 7+ players. That's a tall order because it's not always easy to get that many together, but there are a couple of extra abilities given to the liberal players as more fascists policies come in. Those abilities are reduced when playing with fewer. The game shines with more, which is a rare thing to say, but trust me here. If you have the opportunity of 7+ players, this game will do the trick!

Fun and challenging game!

I wish I could give 10 stars. The only downside of this game is the 5-player minimum. It’s an amazingly well balanced game, and everyone loves it. Plus it’s just fun to accuse friends and family of being fascists!