Professional Documents
Culture Documents
GAME CO NTENT S
The year is 1932. The place is pre
-WWII Germany.
In
Secret Hitler
, players are German politicians
attempting to hold a fragile Liberal government
together and stem the rising tide of Fascism. 17 .......... Policy tiles
Watch out though—there are secret Fascists among (6 Liberal, 11 Fascist)
you, and one player is Secret Hitler. 10 .......... Secret Role cards
10 .......... Party Membership cards
10 .......... card envelopes
OV ERVI EW 10 .......... Ja! Ballot cards
10 .......... Nein Ballot cards
At the beginning of the game, each player 1 .......... Election Tracker marker
is secretly assigned to one of three roles: 1 .......... Draw pile card
Liberal
, Fascist
, or Hitler. The Liberals have 1 .......... Discard pile card
a majority, but they don’t know for sure who 3 .......... Liberal/Fascist boards
anyone is; Fascists must resort to secrecy and 1 .......... President placard
sabotage to accomplish their goals. Hitler plays 1 .......... Chancellor placard
for the Fascist team, and the Fascists know
Hitler’s identity from the outset, but Hitler
doesn’t know the Fascists and must work to SET U P
figure them out.
Select the Fascist track that corresponds to
The Liberals win by
enacting five Liberal the number of players and place it next to any
Policiesor
killing Hitler
. The Fascists win by Liberal track. Shuffle the 11 Fascist Policy
enacting six Fascist Policies
, or
if Hitler is tiles and the 6 Liberal
Policy tiles into a
elected Chancellorafter three Fascist Policies single Policy deck and place that deck face down
have been enacted. on the Draw
pile card.
Whenever a Fascist Policy is enacted, the You’ll need an envelope for each player, and
government becomes more powerful, and the each envelope should contain a Secret Role card,
President is granted a single-use power which a corresponding Party Membership card, one Ja!
must be used before the next round can begin. It Ballot card, and one Nein Ballot card.
doesn’t matter what team the President is on; in Use the table below to determine the correct
fact, even Liberal players might be tempted to distribution of roles.
enact a Fascist Policy to gain new powers.
Liberal Secret Role cards must always be packed
together with a Liberal Party Membership card,
OBJ ECT and Fascist and Hitler Secret Role cards must
always be packed together with a Fascist Party
Every player has a secret identity as a member Membership card.
of either the Liberal team or the Fascist team.
Secret Hitler features an investigation • Everybody close your eyes and extend your hand
mechanic that allows some players to into a fist in front of you.
find out what team other players are • All Fascists who are NOT Hitler should open
on, and this mechanic only works if their eyes and acknowledge each other.
Hitler’s special role is not revealed. • Hitler - keep your eyes closed but put your
To prevent that from happening, every thumb out into a thumbs-up gesture.
player has both a Secret Role card • Fascists, take note of who has an extended
and a Party Membership card. Hitler’s thumb - that player is Hitler.
Party Membership card shows a Fascist [Take a long pause]
party loyalty, but gives no hint about • Everyone close your eyes and put your
a special role. Liberals who uncover hands down.
Fascists must work out for themselves • Everyone can open your eyes. If anyone is
whether they’ve found an ordinary confused or something went wrong, please tell
Fascist or their leader. the group now.
For games of 5-6 players, give the following 1. Pass the Presidential Candidacy
directions to all players: At the beginning of a new round, the President
placard moves clockwise to the next player, who
• Everybody close your eyes.
is the new Presidential Candidate.
• Fascist and Hitler, open your eyes and
acknowledge each other. 2. Nominate a Chancellor
[Take a long pause] The Presidential Candidate chooses a Chancellor
Candidate by passing the Chancellor placard to
• Everyone close your eyes.
• Everyone can open your eyes. If anyone is
any other eligible player. The Presidential
confused or something went wrong, please tell
Candidate is free to discuss Chancellor options
the group now.
with the table to build consensus and make it
more likely the Government gets elected.
Eligibility:
The last elected President and Chancellor are
“term-limited,” and ineligible to be nominated
as Chancellor Candidate.
ON ELIGIBILITY:
• There are some other rules that affect Ask if the new Chancellor is Hitler. If
eligibility in specific ways: the Veto Power so, the game is over and the Fascists win.
and the Election Tracker. You don’t need to Otherwise, other players know for sure the
worry about those yet, and we’ll talk about Chancellor is not Hitler.
each one in its relevant section.
Proceed as usual to the Legislative Session.
3. Vote on the government
Once the Presidential Candidate has chosen an LEGISLATIVE SESSION
eligible Chancellor Candidate, players may During the Legislative Session, the President
discuss the proposed government until everyone and Chancellor work together to enact a new
is ready to vote. Every player, including the Policy in secret. The President draws the top
Candidates, votes on the proposed government. three tiles from the Policy deck, looks at them
Once everyone is ready to vote, reveal your in secret, and discards one tile face down into
Ballot cards simultaneously so that everyone’s the Discard pile. The remaining two tiles go to
vote is public. the Chancellor, who looks in secret, discards
one Policy tile face down, and enacts the
If the vote is a tie, or if a majority of remaining Policy by placing the tile face up on
players votes no: the corresponding track.
The vote fails. The Presidential Candidate Verbal and nonverbal communication between the
misses this chance to be elected, and the President and Chancellor is forbidden. The
President placard moves clockwise to the next President and Chancellor MAY NOT pick Policies
player. The Election Tracker is advanced by to play at random, shuffle the tiles before
one Election.
discarding one, or do anything else clever to
Election Tracker: If the group rejects three avoid secretly and intentionally selecting a
governments in a row, the country is thrown into Policy. Additionally, the President should hand
chaos. Immediately reveal the Policy on top of both Policies over at the same time, rather
the Policy deck and enact it. Any power granted than one at a time to gauge the Chancellor’s
by this Policy is ignored, but the Election reaction. Attempting to telegraph the contents
Tracker resets, and existing term-limits are of your hand using randomness or any other
forgotten.
All players
become eligible to hold unusual selection procedure violates the spirit
the office of Chancellor for the next Election. of the game. Don’t do it.
If there are fewer than three tiles remaining in
the Policy deck at this point, shuffle them with Discarded Policy tiles should never be revealed
the Discard pile to create a new Policy deck. to the group. Players must rely on the word of
the President and Chancellor, who are free to
Any time a new Policy tile is played face-up, lie.
the Election Tracker is reset, whether it was
enacted by an elected government or enacted by
the frustrated populace.
ABOUT LYING: Often, some players learn loyalty in secret and then returns
things that the rest of the players the card to the player. The President
don’t know, like when the President and may share (or lie about!) the
Chancellor get to see Policy tiles, or results of their investigation at
when a President uses the Investigate their discretion. No player may be
power to see someone’s Party Membership investigated twice in the same game.
card. You can always lie about hidden
knowledge in Secret Hitler. The only time Call Special Election
players MUST tell the truth is in game- The President chooses any other
ending, Hitler-related scenarios: a player player at the table to be the next
who is Hitler must say so if assassinated Presidential Candidate by passing
or if elected Chancellor after three that player the President placard.
Fascist Policies have been enacted. Any player can become President—even
players that are term-limited. The
If there are fewer than three tiles remaining new President nominates an eligible
in the Policy deck at the end of a Legislative player as Chancellor Candidate and
Session, shuffle them with the Discard pile to the Election proceeds as usual.
create a new Policy deck. Unused Policy tiles A Special Election does not skip any
should never
be revealed, and they should
not
be players. After a Special Election,
simply placed on top of the new Policy deck. the President placard returns to the
left of the President who enacted the
If the government enacted a Fascist Policy that Special Election.
covered up a Presidential Power, the sitting
President gets to use that power. Proceed to the If the President passes the
Executive Action. presidency to the next player in the
rotation, that player would get to
If the government enacted a Liberal Policy or run for President twice in a row:
a Fascist Policy that grants no Presidential once for the Special Election and
Power, begin a new round with a new Election. once for their normal shift in the
Presidential rotation.
EXEC UT IV E AC TI O N
Policy Peek
If the newly-enacted Fascist Policy grants a The President secretly looks at the
Presidential Power, the President
must use it top three tiles in the Policy deck and
C R E DI T S & LI C E NS E
Secret Hitler was created by Mike Boxleiter,
Tommy Maranges, and Mac Schubert.