This Monday, I had the opportunity to play a game of Secret Hitler with eight others. The players were Ross, Aiden, Austin, Abu, Shelby, Casey, Tomas, Yashik, and myself.
First, a summary of what the game is. Secret Hitler is a board game with two teams, Fascists and Liberals. The fascists contain one player who is Hitler. The fascists all know who the other fascists are but Hitler does not know the roles of anyone. The liberals also don’t know the roles of anyone else.
The goal of the fascists is to get all six policy cards on their side of the board or to have Hitler get elected as chancellor after three fascist policies have been played.
The goal of the liberals is to get Hitler killed, or to have five liberal policies on the board. The policies are heavily stacked against the liberals with there being only six liberal policy cards and eleven fascist policy cards.
Each round the players elect a president and chancellor. The president role gets rotated among players but the chancellor gets picked by the president. If the players majority vote is NEIN, the president role rotates to the next player and they choose a chancellor. If the presidency and chancellor combo get voted NEIN three times, the next player is forced to be the president and they can pick whoever they want as chancellor. Once a president and chancellor are voted into office, neither player can be in office the next round.
If the players have majority vote JA, the president grabs three policy cards from the top of the stack. They choose to discard one policy and give the remaining two to the chancellor. The chancellor then picks which one to play on the board and which one to discard.
Fascist policies also gives the current president special abilities depending on how many fascist cards are in play.
With the summary and rules out of the way, here is a video of my play through of Secret Hitler.
For those who don’t have time to watch the full hour of gameplay, below is a session report of what happened.
The first player to be president is Casey.
Everyone randomly gets a pack of cards. The pack contains their identity, their party, and two voting cards.
Then we all close our eyes.
Casey, Tomas, and Ross are regular fascists. They are asked to open their eyes and identify each other.
Yashik is Hitler and is then asked to raise his thumb up so that they know who Hitler is. After a few seconds, he lowers his hand, and the regular fascists close their eyes again.
Everyone is then asked to open their eyes, and the game begins.
Casey chooses me to be the first chancellor. We get elected with 8 JA’s and 1 NEIN. Austin was the 1 NEIN. Casey picks up three policy cards. She discards a fascist policy and gives me the choice between a liberal and fascist policy. I choose to play the liberal policy and everyone claps.
Ross points out that 3 fascists voted JA so it is highly possible that I am either Hitler or a fascists laying low. And that is exactly what Casey is doing here in the beginning. She could have discarded the liberal card, but she chose to give me the choice.
Tomas is now president and chooses Austin to be his chancellor.
Casey points out the Tomas chooses the one person who voted NEIN last round.
The vote closely passes with a 5-4 vote. Casey, Ross, Aiden, and Abdu vote NEIN.
Austin plays a fascist card. He says that he was given 2 fascist cards and Tomas says he discarded a fascist card. There is now 1 liberal card and 1 fascist card on the board.
Tomas gets to investigate someone because of the fascist policy. He chooses to investigate Abdu. But he strangely chooses to withhold the information of his role, for now. This makes me and others suspicious.
The presidency now moves onto Yashik. He chooses Aiden as chancellor.
Before votes are cast, Abdu says that he believes Tomas is a fascist and that Yashik is a liberal.
It’s another close 5-4 vote and Aiden is elected chancellor. Aiden then plays a fascist card, claiming to have received two fascist policies. Yashik claims he discarded a fascist policy so there wasn’t a choice. There are now 2 fascist policies and 1 liberal policy.
Aiden has a feeling that Yashik discarded a liberal policy. Ross then asks me what choices I had when I was chancellor. I tell the truth saying I had the choice between a fascist and a liberal policy. Ross states that if everyone is telling the truth, there should be 5 liberal policies in the remaining stack.
Before Yashik decides who to investigate, Abdu points out that if Tomas were liberal, he would reveal that Abdu was a liberal as well, and that the reason Tomas remained silent is because Tomas already knows who is good and who is bad. So this is making Abdu believe that Tomas is a fascist.
Tomas then lies saying that Abdu is a fascist. Confirming for Abdu that Tomas is a fascist.
Abdu is saying that he is a 100% liberal, which he is, however myself and the other liberals are skeptical because of his gameplay so far. He’s been talking quite a lot so far and it’s been causing some chaos.
Yashik decides to identify Tomas. Yashik being Hitler doesn’t know who his fellow fascists are. By identifying Tomas, he now knows that Tomas is a fasicst, but he lies saying that he is a liberal. This makes Abdu know that Yashik is a fascist as well and he points this out.
Ross is now president. I am staring at him indicating that I want to be the chancellor. Austin also states that he wants me to be the next chancellor.
Ross notices how I’ve been staring at him and says “why are you looking at me like that.” And we all laugh. I reply in an evilish voice “I wants it.” and we laugh again.
Ross then chooses me as president saying that he wants more blue to be on the board. The election goes through with an 8-1 vote. I am given 2 fascist cards, so I play a fascist policy onto the board. There are now 3 fascist policies and 1 liberal policy.
Ross states that he drew 3 fascist policies and I say that there’s no way that 3 fascist policies have been drawn 3 times in a row. This makes me pretty suspicious. And I say that there better be a lot of liberal policies coming up.
Ross gets to choose who the next president is. He chooses Casey. With 3 fascist policies on the board, if Hitler gets elected chancellor, the fascists automatically win.
Casey points out that if everyone was telling the truth, there should only be liberal cards left in the stack.
Aiden says he should be the next chancellor and Casey chooses him. The vote is 8-1. Aiden says he is not Hitler. Aiden plays a liberal card saying that he was given 2 liberal cards. Casey says she discarded a liberal card so 3 liberal cards were picked up. There are now 2 liberal cards and 3 liberal cards on the board.
I say I should be the next chancellor. I am very power hungry, what can I say. Austin agrees. Aiden chooses me and the vote is unanimous JA. I state that I am not Hitler. I receive 2 liberal cards, so I place a liberal card on the board without a choice. Aiden says he discarded a fascist card. I tell him that he should have given me the choice so that he would know my allegiance better. There are now 3 liberal cards and 3 fascist cards.
Abdu brings up Tomas’ investigation again saying that if Tomas were a liberal, he would bring up that Abdu was a liberal as well. But Tomas didn’t say anything, and when he did he lied.
Casey brings up that Abdu has been very talkative which in a game like this can come off as suspicious.
Ross says that Tomas was just confused, and that it is 2v1 against Abdu.
Austin is now president. He elects Casey. She gets elected with a unanimous JA vote. She states that she is not Hitler. She plays a fascist card. She was given two fascist cards. Austin says he discarded a fascist card so there wasn’t a choice. There are now 3 liberal cards and 4 fascist cards. Austin now gets the power to kill any player. He takes a shot in the dark and shoots Shelby. Shelby is not Hitler.
I am now the president. I pass the role of chancellor to Aiden. The votes pass 7-1. Abdu was the 1 NEIN. He is definitely playing the chaotic good in this play through. I discard a fascist card and give Aiden the choice between a fascist and liberal card. Aiden plays the liberal policy making there 4 liberal policies and 4 fascist policies.
Abdu, the chaotic good president, elects Casey as chancellor. The votes pass 6-2. We already know that Casey is not Hitler. Abdu discards a fascist card and gives Casey the choice between a liberal and fascist policy. Casey plays the fascist policy surprising Abdu. He knows she is a fascist now.
There are 4 liberal policies and 5 fascist policies on the board. Both sides just need 1 more policy to win.
Casey claims that she wasn’t given a choice, but she has a slight smile and I point it out. Abdu gets the choice of someone to kill now, he chooses to kill Casey. Casey is out of the game.
The next president is Tomas. Tomas says that I am trustworthy, trying to blend in as a liberal. He chooses Yashik as chancellor. Austin, Aiden, and I instantly turn down that idea and vote NEIN. It is 2-4 and Yashik is the next president.
I am chosen next chancellor 6-1. I was given a choice. I play the last liberal card making us liberals win the game.
This game was a lot of fun. I hope I get the chance to play it again in the near future.
Programming and Games 
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