Secret Hitler is one of my favorite games to play with friends, both new and old. As a social deduction game, it does a great job of establishing fellowship among players, which is both the core aesthetic of the game design and the reason I now have trust issues.
So what are the game mechanics that create the dynamics which ultimately produce fellowship? Well, fellowship is established by the very premise of the game: Fascists vs. Liberals. You only win if your team wins. Fellowship among Fascists, specifically, is immediately and explicitly founded at the onset of the game, when Fascists are allowed to open their eyes, reveal their identities to each other, and discover who Secret Hitler is “during the night.” Liberals, on the other hand, remain in the dark. Here, the sharing of critical information among only an exclusive subset of players creates a strong sense of fellowship — eyes close again, poker faces return, and the Fascists are now fully aligned on their shared goal. For the remainder of the game, they must collectively work to pass Fascist Policies and elect Hitler.
Similarly, Liberals are also trying to advance the Liberal agenda while identifying each other’s secret identities, without getting fooled by lying fascists. The game introduces a few mechanics to help with this:
- Liberals can “signal” their secret identity by playing liberal cards on their turns (if possible). Though this is also a common Fascist strategy to throw Liberals off their scent, the element of choosing and playing Policies serves to further promote fellowship.
- When a Fascist Policy is played, the current President is allowed to peek at another player’s secret role card. If the President is a Liberal, this means they will be able to either out a Fascist or identify a fellow Liberal. In the case of the former, chaos generally erupts. But in the case of the latter, camaraderie is established, albeit very cautiously because this whole game is about social deception.
- After 3 Fascist Policies have been played and the game enters Hitler-election territory, Liberals have an opportunity to prove themselves as trustworthy comrades — “Trust me, I’m NOT Hitler! I’m our [the Liberals’] best chance!” you’ll hear. But mama didn’t raise a fool. This point in the game gets pretty intense, and everyone waits in suspense as Ja and Nein votes are counted (except for the Fascists — they’re faking it). When the Chancellor is elected, they must reveal whether or not they are Secret Hitler. If not, Liberals can breathe a sigh of relief, and typically, they grant that player their trust for future Chancellor elections as they’ve been cleared of being Secret Hitler.
Ultimately, the MDA of Secret Hitler boils down to the fact that fellowship is directly created among Fascists who know each other’s secret identities and work to collectively further a common agenda, while for Liberals, the gameplay revolves around uncovering and distinguishing between their true comrades and enemies in disguise.
