Secret Hitler
Secret Hitler is a hidden identity social deduction party game that has everyone questioning one another. Think you’re up for it?
✍️ November 9, 2021
- 😎 What is Secret Hitler
- 😋 How to Play Secret Hitler
- 😇 Gameplay of Secret Hitler
- 🥳 Rules for Secret Hitler
- 🎦 PsyCat Games’ Secret Hitler Video
- 📱 Playing Secret Hitler Online
- 🤪 Games like Secret Hitler
What is Secret Hitler? 🤔
Developed by Goat, Wolf, & Cabbage LLC, Secret Hitler is a hidden identity social deduction party game. The game can be played with 5-10 players of ages 13+
In Secret Hitler, you can either receive the role of a Liberal or a Fascist and someone, among the fascists, is Hitler. One whole game can take about 45 minutes.
How to Play Secret Hitler 🤓
Secret Hitler can be quite confusing at first because there are so many things to understand. For example, there are things such as Term Limits and Candidate Eligibility.
So sit back, and just read through! We’ll try to explain it in the best way we can! 😊
Setting Up for Secret Hitler
Upon opening the Secret Hitler, here’s what to expect:
- 1 rule book
- 3 Liberal/Fascist boards (which you choose from depending on how many players there are)
- 17 policy tiles (6 liberal and fascist policies)
- 10 Secret Role cards
- 10 Party Membership cards
- 1 each of Draw and Discard pile card
- 10 Card envelopes
- 10 Ballot cards
- 10 Ballot cards
- 1 President placard
- 1 Chancellor placard
- 1 Election tracker marker
To start, choose the fascist board that corresponds to the number of players. You can find the instruction on which board to use written on the board itself.
Next, pack your envelopes. Each envelope should contain:
- 1 Secret role card
- 1 Party Membership card
- 1 Ballot card
- 1 Ballot card
Take note that liberal secret role cards should be packed with a liberal party membership card. The same goes for fascist roles.
Use the table above to determine the correct distribution of roles for the game. After it has been determined, distribute the filled envelopes randomly to all players. Everyone should then look at their role in the game 🔎
There are only 3 things that can happen in a single round: The election, the legislative session, and the executive action.
Playing Secret Hitler
Once ready, randomly select the first Presidential candidate and pass that player both the president placard and the chancellor placard. This player now gets to pick their partner for the round: the Chancellor 🤝
After passing the chancellor placard to the chosen player, all players now get to vote on the proposed government.
1. Voting on Government
Cast your vote by submitting either a ja! or a nein ballot card in the center of the board or by agreeing to reveal your ballot cards at the same time.
The proposed government wins if 50% or more of the votes are ja! Otherwise, if it’s either a tie or there were less than 50% that voted ja!, the vote fails.
📖 Suggested read: Exploding Kittens: Video Review & How to Play
The election tracker is now advanced by one election. If the group rejects three governments in a row, the first policy tile must be revealed and enacted. The election Tracker is now reset and existing term limits are forgotten (all players are eligible to be chancellor in the next election)
Once there is a new government in, the game can move on to a legislative session.
2. Legislative Session
In a legislative session, the president must first draw the top 3 policy tiles. After looking at them, the president should discard one, and pass the other two to the chancellor.
The chancellor must now look at the two policy tiles that were given, discard one, and enact the other.
There are 4 presidential powers that only the President can enact. These are:
- Investigate Loyalty
- Call Special Election
- Policy Peek
- Execution
- Investigate Loyalty
The President chooses a player to investigate. The chosen player must hand over their party membership card (not secret role card). The President now gets to check the player’s loyalty in secret, then return the card.
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The President may choose to share their investigation or even lie about it
- Call Special Election
The President may choose any other player to be the next Presidential Candidate by passing the President Placard to that player.
With this Presidential Power, any player can become the next President - even those that are term-limited.
- Policy Peek
The President may look at the top three tiles in the policy deck then return them afterward.
The President cannot shuffle the deck after enacting this power.
- Execution
The President chooses to execute one player by saying “I formally execute [player name]”
3. Veto Power
Veto power is a special power that comes into effect after 5 fascist policies have been enacted.
In Veto Power, the Chancellor has the option to veto the policy tiles. This happens if the Chancellor says “I wish to veto this agenda” and the President may allow this by saying ”I agree to this veto”
If the President agrees, the two policies are discarded and the round ends. Pass the President placard to the next player and continue on as usual. If not, the Chancellor must enact a policy as usual.
Rules for Secret Hitler
Here are some special rules or things to look out for while playing Secret Hitler.
1. President and Chancellor cannot communicate 🗣🚫
Whether it’s verbally or non-verbally, the President and Chancellor cannot communicate to each other about the policy tiles.
The President should also pass both policy tiles to the Chancellor at the same time.
2. The President must use the newly granted Presidential Power before the next round
can begin 👁 The President can decide when and how the Presidential Power will be used, but it must be used before the President placard is moved to the next player.
3. Discarded Policy Tiles cannot be revealed to the group at any time ❗️
Players can only rely on the President and the Chancellor (of that round) who are allowed to lie 😉
While all of these are just the basic things to know when playing Secret Hitler, make sure to still read through the rule book provided or the PDF version of the rules before playing to make sure you don’t miss out on anything.
Tip: How to win at Secret Hitler
The liberals win by executing Secret Hitler and the fascists win by either enacting 6 fascist policies or electing Hitler as the Chancellor.
❗️Pro Tip: Fascists are more likely to win by enacting the 6 fascist policies, not by electing Hitler as the Chancellor. So focus on that!
If the President uses the Presidential Power “Execution” and ends up eliminating Hitler, then the game ends with liberals as the winner. If not, the table cannot learn if the recently executed player is a fascist or a liberal.
Secret Hitler Review Video
Phew! That was a lot of information! 😅
If you’re a person who is better at visuals, don’t worry! We prepared a video especially for you. Head over to our video to get a better look at the game!
Playing Secret Hitler online
If you’re not totally decided on buying Secret Hitler just yet, might we suggest playing Secret Hitler Online? You can get a feel of how the game will work by playing on Secret Hitler IO.
Secret Hitler IO is an online web version of the game (with slight alterations) but following the same gameplay. It’s completely safe! It might even be a great way to test it out before buying our own pack!
Games like Secret Hitler
If you like the thrill that you will get from Secret Hitler, then we recommend these games too!
1. Exploding Kittens 💣
While Exploding Kittens 💣 is not a social deduction game, it uses a russian-roulette-like gameplay. So just like Secret Hitler, you don’t know who will be put out of the game and when. 🧐
In Exploding Kittens, you play cards, execute action cards, and continue to draw cards. Just pray that you don’t draw an exploding kitten card! If you do, we hope you have a diffuse card!
👉 If you’re interested to learn more about Exploding Kittens, you can learn more about the game and how to play it here: Exploding Kittens!
2. Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza 🦍
Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza also has the thrill of not knowing who’ll be put out of the game. Plus, you get to smack your friends in the process. What’s more fun with that? Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza is a fast-paced card game that comes with its very own twist 😉
It’s actually a tongue-twister that mixes a word relay with a matching game, as well as some physical actions that definitely leads to chaos! Here’s a brief introduction to the game. Everyone takes turns to say “Taco,” “Cat,” “Goat,” “Cheese,” and “Pizza”
Once the word said and the card that was discarded matches, everyone has to slap the pile. The last person to slap the pile has to take everything and put it in their own deck.
But remember, there’s a twist to it 😉 There are also cards that prompt a certain physical action!
👉 Here you can find out more about Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza!
