Ready for International Games Week? We are getting ready by highlighting games that are available as free print and plays. This week we are highlighting Secret Hitler designed by Mike Boxleiter, Tommy Maranges, and Cards Against Humanity creator, Max Temkin. Secret Hitler is a social deduction game for 5 to 10 people, takes about 45 minutes to play, and is recommended for ages 13 plus.
In Secret Hitler, players are taking the role of politicians in 1930s pre-WWII Germany. Similar to other social deduction games such as The Resistance and Werewolf, the secret to Secret Hitler is deducing who among the players are liberals, who are fascists and who is … a secret Hitler. During the game, players take turns as president and all need to elect (vote for) a chancellor for the round. The President and newly elected Chancellor work “together” to choose a policy (either fascist or liberal) to enact.
Players are going to *seem* to be your normal run-of-the-mill German politicians. However, when the game begins, each player is provided with a secret identity and allegiance — Fascist, Liberal, or Hitler. Fascists will attempt to keep themselves concealed while working to get other Fascists elected to Chancellor to enact fascist policies and generally sow discontent. Maybe they can point a few fingers to plant some seeds of doubt. Liberals will attempt to suss out the fascists and keep them at bay.
In order to win, the liberals need to pass five liberal policies or kill Secret Hitler. The fascists need five fascist policies to win or get the Secret Hitler to be elected as Chancellor with three fascist policies already enacted. But the fascist policies are strong and tempting so even a liberal president may be tempted to enact one for the greater … good?
Secret Hitler is a game about bluffing, misdirection, deduction, and voting. The print and play option of the game provides you with the added bonus of customization. Don’t like the Liberal/Fascist bent of the game? Play as the Ministry of Magic with a secret He-Who-Should-Not-Be-Named. Need to pass the time while Game of Thrones is on hiatus? Play as the Small Council in Secret Spider. Love Star Wars? Play as the Galactic Senate with a Secret Sith Lord. Or make your own and share it with us on the League of Librarian Gamers.
This is the perfect game for large groups. If you enjoy bluffing games such as Werewolf, Mafia, The Resistance, and the Resistance Avalon, then the subtle lies, sabotage, and secret roles of Secret Hitler will no doubt appeal to you. Secret Hitler is free under a Creative Commons license and available from their website.
We have the Secret Hitler game and play it all the time — one of the sets of cards was lost at the last party we attended — any way to get 2 replacement cards and one of the paper envelopes?
That’s a very good question! If you’re using the print and play version, you can easily just print new ones, but if not, you’d likely have to contact the publisher – try emailing them at SECRETHITLERGAME@GMAIL.COM.