So, you've set up your board and are now prepared to play Secret Hitler (if you haven't finished setting up your board, check out our article on how to set up the game to play). There are several phases to a game like this, but it isn't as complicated as it may seem and sound.
Your Roles
Every player has received a secret role. Each player can choose to tell the truth about their role or lie about it to try to throw the other players off their trail. You cannot show any other players your role card before or during the game. Every player needs to know their role before you begin playing.
Fascists
The fascist team includes Hitler and at least one fascist. If you have 7 or more players, Hitler doesn't get to know who the fascists are. If you have 5 or 6 players, Hitler gets to know who their fascist(s) are, unless you want the fascist team to have an even more challenging game, which is how me and my friends often choose to play.
Liberals
The liberals do not get to know who any other player is before the game begins. The liberal team always starts the game with more players than the fascist team.
Eyes Shut Phase
Before the game begins, you need to complete an eyes closed phase. Generally, everyone should follow the instructions of a single player who makes the announcements in the eyes closed phase. Below are basic scripts of how my eyes shut phases normally go.
5 to 6 Players
"Everybody close your eyes and make some *noise...Hitler stick out your thumb...Hitler and the fascist, open your eyes...see each other, acknowledge each other, know who each other are...okay, that should be enough time for you to know one another, everybody close your eyes...Hitler put down your thumb...okay, everybody open your eyes."
7 to 10 Players
"Everybody close your eyes and make some *noise...Hitler stick out your thumb...fascists, open your eyes...see Hitler, acknowledge Hitler, know who Hitler is...okay, that should be enough time for you to know one another, everybody close your eyes...Hitler put down your thumb...okay, everybody open your eyes."
*noise should be made using a hand on the table, it shouldn't be verbal and ideally it won't be louder than the announcer.
Election Phase
Every round, one player is the president and the president nominates a chancellor. Presidency always passes to the player on the left.
Chancellor
The chancellor is nominated by the president every round, and the nominated chancellor cannot be the president or chancellor from the last elected pair.
Voting Once a president has nominated a chancellor, all players will vote using their Ja or Nein cards to determine whether or not the president and chancellor pair will be elected for the round.
If majority of the players vote Ja, the president and chancellor are elected and the play proceeds to the legislative phase.
If the majority of players vote Nein, or the vote is split evenly, the election fails. When the election fails, the blue piece on the election tracker is moved forward and the presidency passes to the left. If the election fails three times, the election tracker is reset to 0 and the top policy on the draw pile is enacted no matter what the policy is.
Legislative Phase
The elected president will now draw three policy tiles from the draw pile. They cannot say what they drew yet, and they aren't supposed to make any facial expressions or noises that could potentially indicate what they drew. The president will then select one of the three policies to discard before passing their remaining two policies to the chancellor.
Chancellor
The chancellor will then decide between the two policies that the president passed to them. One of these policies will be placed face down on the discard pile, while the other tile will be placed face up on the board that matches the policy.
Executive Phase
This is the phase where the policy is played and powers could potentially be used.
Powers
If you look at the fascist boards, they all include spaces that aren't blank, like all of the liberal boards are. All of these spaces have descriptions on them that tell the players what happens. When a fascist policy is played on one of these special spaces, the president that turn gets to immediately use a special power.
The special policy power slots include:
Magnifying Glass: the current president gets to look at the party card of a single player of their choosing. This is on both of the boards for 7 or more players.
Hat: The current president selects who the next presidential candidate is. This space allows for the presidency to be passed to someone who isn't the next player in line to receive the presidency. This is on both the boards for 7 or more players.
Bullet: The bullet allows for the current president to shoot a player of their choosing. If the current president shoots Hitler, the game ends. The player who got shot is asked if they are Hitler, they have to say whether or not they were but they aren't allowed to say what their role is if they aren't Hitler. This is on all boards.
Stack of Cards: The president gets to examine the top three policy cards. They can't change the order and may decide whether or not they want to tell everyone what those three policies are. This is only available on the board for 5 to 6 players.
Tips
Liberals
It is significantly more challenging for the liberals to win the game, since they have to figure out who their allies and enemies are. Deception plays a large part of this game, which makes it hard for the liberals to be able to decide who to trust. Several people determine who to trust based on gut instincts or through knowing how their friends typically lie. Since there is a finite number of policy cards on the table (11 fascist policies, 6 liberal policies), counting the policies to determine the odds someone is telling the truth about what they drew can be an important aspect of the game.
Fascists
Fascists have some advantages over the liberals in this game. Success relies heavily on deception. You have to convince the liberals that you are on their side while still managing to play fascist policies or get Hitler elected as the chancellor after three fascist policies have been enacted. Keeping up with how many policies would realistically be in the deck can be a good thing for the fascist team too, and it can be used to cast doubt on another player. If three players in a row claim that they drew three fascist policies in a row, then people are going to be suspicious of those players. The powers can also be used to cast doubt on other players. Getting creative with your deceptions can help you significantly. It is highly recommended that you lie about your role. However, I have successfully won a game as Hitler by announcing I was Hitler before checking my role and maintaining that I was Hitler throughout the entire game.
Game End
There are a few different ways that a game can end.
Liberals
Five liberal policies are enacted, filling the board before any fascist win condition is met.
Hitler is shot before a fascist win condition is met.
Fascists
Six fascist policies are enacted, filling the board before a liberal win condition is met.
Hitler is elected chancellor after the third fascist policy is enacted and before a liberal win condition is met.
It is very important to go into the game with a strategy in mind, even though your strategy will probably have to adapt to the other players in order to win.
If you don't have a copy of Secret Hitler, I highly encourage you to go to their website, where you can order a copy or print a copy of the game for free: https://www.secrethitler.com/
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