I have had the honor— or maybe “horror”— of playing Secret Hitler with many members of the Track & Field team. And, I’m gonna be honest, when I first heard the name of the game my teammates suggested we play, I was… confused to say the least. What kind of game could this be? And, spoiler alert, it actually was the fun kind.
Secret Hitler is an analog game that marries board, card, and mystery games all in one very verbally interactive game. At the start of the game, small, orange envelops are distributed among players that include two cards: your role and your party. For the latter, players are either Liberal or— you guessed it— Fascist. The only important “role” to note is whether or not you are— as you might have also guessed— Hitler.
Gameplay
Before gameplay begins, all players close their eyes as the narrator gives instructions. Essentially, all the Fascists, minus Hitler, get to open their eyes and acknowledge each other. They also get to know who “Hitler” is, as Hitler is instructed to put their thumb up. Everyone else remains oblivious. Gameplay involves someone being President and then nominating another player to be Chancellor (these positions rotate once a round goes).
Once the President picks their Chancellor, everyone votes (thumbs down or up) for the pairing (do note, three fails in a row is an automatic Fascist policy… more on those later). If the pair passes, the President selects three, flipped-over policy cards and looks at them (with a poker face!). The President then discards one and hands the remaining two to the Chancellor who will then pick one to pass while discarding the other.
Policy cards are either Liberal or Fascist. Both the Liberals and the Fascists want to get five policies passed to win, although it’s not always advantageous to put down a Fascist card, even if you are one (because you don’t want the current President to out you, especially if they know they gave you a choice and you chose Fascist). Other fun details of the game include one turn where the last President of a round gets to see someone’s party card and another where they get to choose someone to kill off!
How to Win
Gameplay ends when either (a) one side passes five policies, (b) the President kills off Hitler (Liberal Victory), or (c), three Fascists policies have been passed and the people upvote a Chancellor who is Hitler (Fascist Victory).
To Lie or Not to Lie
The biggest aspect of this game is this: LYING. The Fascists don’t want to be outed— although you can argue that being outed might be a strategy if you don’t want people suspecting who the real Hitler is— therefore they will lie to get the Liberals to think they’re good. You can lie at any point of the game, even when talking about what policies you picked up/were given. For example: the President can lie and say they discarded a Fascist policy when in reality they discarded a Liberal one.
The lying is real in this game, and, play it enough times, you will no longer trust your friends. This aspect is honestly what I find to be the most engaging part of the game because, knowing anyone can be lying, creates this level of mistrust that really puts you on the edge of your seat as you’re trying to think of who to trust (if you’re Liberal, of course). Playing as Liberal can be fun, however, I must admit, it is fun to play as a Fascist who knows who everyone is and can essentially wreck havoc!
To End
Overall, this is a really fun game, and one where I’ve seen the most human conversing and involvement in any game I’ve ever played. So, if you haven’t played it yet, I highly suggest you do.
Go Liberals (from someone who’s totallyyyyyy not a Fascist or anything)!
