OBJECTIVE OF SECRET HITLER: The objective of Secret Hitler is to win the game by advancing the board for your party or if you’re a fascist, by electing Hitler as chancellor.
NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 5-10 players
MATERIALS: A rule book, 17 policy tiles (11 fascists and 6 liberal), 10 role cards, 10 membership cards, 10 player envelops, 10 Ja (or yes) cards, 10 Nein (or no) cards, 1 election marker, 1 draw pile marker, 1 discard pile marker, 3 two-sided boards, 1 president marker, and one chancellor marker.
TYPE OF GAME: Hidden Roles Game
AUDIENCE: 13+
OVERVIEW OF SECRET HITLER
Secret Hitler is a game where you are either playing as a liberal or fascists. If you are a fascist there is also a chance you will be Hitler. The goal of the game is different depending on which party you are in.
If you are a liberal, you win the game by advancing the liberal board by passing liberal policies. Once the end of the board is reached you have won.
If you are a fascist there are a couple of ways to win. You can either advance the fascist board by passing fascist policies. Once the board is full you have won, or you can win by electing the player who is Hitler to the chancellor position once the fascist board is halfway full.
Either way, roles are secret, and players may say what they are but can never reveal. Players want to seem liberal for the game purposes for as long as possible.
SETUP
To get the game ready grab the fascist board that corresponds to the number of people playing and one of the other liberal boards. These will both be placed in the center of the table. Take all the policy tiles and shuffle them placing them on the draw pile marker.
Next, you will set up the envelopes for the players. There will be one for each player and following the graph in the rule book, you will find the corresponding number of fascist vs liberal party cards needed. Then gather the same number of fascist and liberal role cards, making sure one of the fascist spots is left open for the Hitler card.
Then in each envelope will go, one membership card, one corresponding role card, one “Ja!” card, and one “Nein!” card. Then the envelopes should be shuffled and randomly passed out to each player.
Players will then secretly look at their membership and role card to know their win condition of the game.
There is a script to be read at the start of the game so that certain roles can know each other, this should be done now.
GAMEPLAY
Once the script has been read the game can begin. The first president can be chosen any random way, and then the first president will follow the instructions on their president marker.
The president chooses another player to be chancellor and then all players secretly vote with their Ja or Nein cards whether or not they want the player to be chancellor. If the majority is Ja, then the player becomes chancellor and the game continues. If the majority of votes are Nein or there is a tie the chancellor is not elected. The election marker is advanced on the tracker on the liberal board and the next player to the left becomes president.
This process continues until a chancellor is elected. Then the president will pull from the draw pile three policies, they will discard facedown one and hand two to the chancellor. The chancellor then picks one of the two to discard facedown and one to put into action. Players cannot talk during this but after they may discuss what was given and discarded, but none of the information needs to be true or can be confirmed.
The policy that is played will cover up the corresponding spot on the board of its type if it covers a spot on the fascist board that has an ability the current president gets to take that action.
The game continues this way, the presidency always passing to the left.
Special Rules
If the election marker reaches the end of its track on the liberal board the top policy gets revealed and put into play. This means if players constantly try to vote down a chancellor and president the liberals will most likely lose.
When the president is picking a chancellor on their turn, they may not pick the previous president or chancellor of the last turn.
The discarded policies are never revealed and will be reshuffled and placed under the draw pile when there are three or less in the draw pile.
END OF GAME
The game can end in three ways. Two ways result in a win for the fascist and there is only one way for the liberals to win.
For the liberals to win, the liberal board must have all the policy spaces filled. This will result in a win for the liberals immediately.
For the fascists to win they can either fill the fascist board resulting in a win for the fascists or when it is half full if Hitler is ever elected chancellor successfully then the game is won by the fascists as well.
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