Social Deduction Games can be the hit at your next party but not all games are created equal with some of them becoming widely popular. One of these games to gain popularity over the last few years is the resistance.

What is The Resistance

So what is the Resistance it is a party game of social deduction It is designed for five to ten players.

The Resistance

Each game lasts about 30 – 45 minutes and has no player elimination elements keeping every player engaged into the very last second. 

The Resistance is inspired by games like Mafia, yet the game itself it is unique in its core mechanics, which increase the resources for informed decisions, intensify player interaction, and eliminate player elimination.

The Core Elements of The Resistance

With all these factors in mind, this game has three core elements that we can use to work out games like it.

Its A Social Deduction Game

It Involves Uncovering a Hidden Player

It does NOT Eliminate Players

So let’s look at 10 Different games from this Genre and see how they stack up to these three factors

The Resistance Avalon

Its A Social Deduction GameYES
It Involves Uncovering a Hidden PlayerYES
It does NOT Eliminate PlayersYES

A follow up to the Orignal Resistance Game The Resistance: Avalon pits the forces of Good and Evil in a battle to control the future of Medieval civilization.

King Arthur represents the future of the British empire and is a promise of prosperity and honour, yet hidden among his brave warriors are Mordred’s unscrupulous minions.

Just like in the Resistance These forces of evil are few in number but have knowledge of each other and remain hidden from all but one of King Arthur’s servants. The Wizard Merlin alone knows the agents of evil, but he must speak of this only in riddles. If his true identity is discovered, all will be lost.

This Game is a Thematic Follow Up to the Resistance Game with a few additional twists so if you are looking for something identical with a hint of something new this game is perfect for you.

Secret Hitler

Its A Social Deduction GameYES
It Involves Uncovering a Hidden PlayerYES
It does NOT Eliminate PlayersNO

The Board Game Secret Hitler (not anything else) is a dramatic game of political intrigue and betrayal set in 1930s Germany pre World War two.

Each one of the players is randomly and secretly assigned to one of the two political parties liberal or a fascist, and one player is designated as the Secret Hitler.

The fascists will work together to coordinate to sow distrust and install their cold-blooded leader; the liberals must do everything they can to find and stop the Secret Hitler before it’s too late.

The liberal team always has a majority.

At the beginning of the game, the players will close their eyes, and the fascists reveal themselves to one another. Secret Hitler keeps his eyes closed, but puts his thumb up so the fascists can see who he is. The fascists learn who Hitler is, but Hitler doesn’t know who his fellow fascists are, and the liberals don’t know who anyone is.

Each round, players elect a President and a Chancellor who will work together to enact a law from a random deck. If the government passes a fascist law, players must try to figure out if they were betrayed or simply unlucky. Secret Hitler also features government powers that come into play as fascism advances.

The fascists will use those powers to create chaos unless liberals can pull the nation back from the brink of war.

The objective of the liberal team is to pass five liberal policies or assassinate Secret Hitler. The objective of the fascist team is to pass six fascist policies or elect Secret Hitler chancellor after three fascist policies have passed.

Coup

Its A Social Deduction GameYES
It Involves Uncovering a Hidden PlayerNO
It does NOT Eliminate PlayersNO

In the Social Deduction Game Coup, you will want to be the last player with influence in the game, with influence being represented by face-down character cards in your playing area.

Each player starts the game with two coins and two influence (two face-down character cards) the fifteen card deck consists of three copies of five different characters, each one has a unique power that needs to be mastered to play the game effectively.

On your turn, you can take any of the actions listed above, regardless of which characters you actually have in front of you, or you can take one of three other actions:

  • Income: Take one coin from the treasury.
  • Foreign aid: Take two coins from the treasury.
  • Coup: Pay seven coins and launch a coup against an opponent, forcing that player to lose an influence. (If you have ten coins or more, you must take this action.

If you are caught out using an ability that your character is not naturally allowed to do or somebody calls you out and you are lying then you lose a character.

The last player left standing wins this game so make your guesses carefully because if they are telling the truth then you will lose a character card.

Mascarade

Its A Social Deduction GameYES
It Involves Uncovering a Hidden PlayerYES
It does NOT Eliminate PlayersNO

Mascarade is a relativity simple social deduction game that has you really relying on your memory. The players in a game of Mascarade start with six coins and a randomly dealt character card.

Your character card will remain face up just long enough for you to memorize it, The card is then turned face down and you must spend a turn to find out what it is.

Your goal is to be the first player to hold 13 coins, and while you start nearly halfway to that goal, you can go down just as surely as you can go up!

Your card will change throughout the game as well so you just never know what will happen next

Mafia de Cuba

Its A Social Deduction GameYES
It Involves Uncovering a Hidden PlayerYES
It does NOT Eliminate PlayersYES

In Mafia de Cuba the Board Game, each one of the players takes the role of Mobsters and will take the cigar box, open it and choose to do one of two actions.

  • Betray and steal some diamonds,
  • Remain a faithful and “honest” mafioso, be a driver, or act as an undercover CIA agent.

In the evening after each player has chosen an action, the Godfather will recover his cigar box.

He blows a fuse when he finds the disappearance of diamonds. He must find his treasure and punish offenders by providing them cement shoes before throwing them in the bay.

After heated debates and perilous deductions, The Godfather, with the help of is faithful henchmen will try to find all his stolen diamonds.

Will he find them? or will they end up in a CIA vault.

Werewolves of Miller’s Hollow

Its A Social Deduction GameYES
It Involves Uncovering a Hidden PlayerYES
It does NOT Eliminate PlayersNO

Werewolves of Miller’s Hollow is a fantastic social deduction game that feels just like mafia and takes place in a small village which is haunted by werewolves.

Each player is secretly assigned one of the three main roles Werewolf, Ordinary Townsfolk, or special character such as The Sheriff, The Hunter, the Witch, the Little Girl, The Fortune Teller and so on…

There is also a Moderator player who controls the flow of the game. The game alternates between night and day phases.

At night, the Werewolves secretly choose a Villager to kill. During the day, the Villager who was killed is revealed and is out of the game. The remaining Villagers (normal and special villagers alike) then deliberate and vote on a player they suspect is a Werewolf, helped (or hindered) by the clues the special characters add to the general deliberation.

The chosen player is “lynched”, reveals his/her role and is out of the game. Werewolf is a social game that requires no equipment to play and can accommodate almost any large group of players.

Spyfall

Its A Social Deduction GameYES
It Involves Uncovering a Hidden PlayerYES
It does NOT Eliminate PlayersYES

The Game Spyfall is a party game unlike any other, one in which you get to be a spy and try to understand what’s going on around you. It’s really that simple!

At any time during a round, one player may accuse another of being a spy. If all other players agree with the accusation, the round ends and the accused player has to reveal his identity.

If the spy is uncovered, all other players score points. However, the spy can himself end a round by announcing that he understands what the secret location is; if his guess is correct, only the spy scores points.

This game is the ultimate exercise in imposter syndrome and you will love every second of it.

One Night Ultimate Werewolf

Its A Social Deduction GameYES
It Involves Uncovering a Hidden PlayerYES
It does NOT Eliminate PlayersYES

One Night Ultimate Werewolf is a fast-paced party game for 3-10 players in which everyone will get a role at the start of the game and play that role in there quest to win.

From roles like one of the dastardly Werewolves, the tricky Troublemaker, the helpful Seer, or one of a dozen different characters, each with a special ability you will be spoilt for choice feeling like every game is different each time you play. In the course of a single morning, your village will decide who is a werewolf and put them down because all it takes is lynching one werewolf to win!

Because One Night Ultimate Werewolf is so fast, fun, and engaging, you’ll want to play it again and again, and no two games will ever be the same.

10′ to Kill

Its A Social Deduction GameYES
It Involves Uncovering a Hidden PlayerYES
It does NOT Eliminate PlayersNO

10′ to Kill is a fantastic little deduction game from a Kickstarter campaign a few years ago for 2-4 players that’s played in about ten minutes.

In the game, there are 16 characters on the board, and each player secretly embodies one of them. Each player also has three secret targets they must eliminate, without being discovered.

The players have three different actions each turn from the following choices: move any character anywhere on the board, eliminate a character (different ways of doing this), or make an identity check by the police. The trick is that when a character is eliminated, nobody says by whom or how! You must apply yourself in blending your true hitman in a crowd of possible suspects, or guess which character is the hitman of the other players.

As time goes by in 10′ to Kill, you will feel pressure and suspicion weigh on your shoulders. Ten minutes is a short time, but it can sometimes be very long when all eyes are on you!

Players will have to bluff and use discretion to eliminate your targets and maybe even find yourself on route to take out the competitor’s hitman!

This is a Social Deduction game with a twist but one you will remember.

One Night Revolution

Its A Social Deduction GameYES
It Involves Uncovering a Hidden PlayerYES
It does NOT Eliminate PlayersYES

The Resistance One Night Revolution (formerly One Night Resistance) is a super-fast game of secret identities for 3 to 10 players that does a great job in combining all the deductive and chaotically fun elements of the One Night Ultimate Werewolf series with more structured gameplay found in the resistance series.

It also has no player elimination element

The result of combining these two different game series is a very addictive game that is easy to learn and will be played over and over again.

Every player starts with a specialist role and an ID (either Government Informant or Rebel Fighter).

During the night phase the Informants reveal themselves to one another (assuming any exist this is possible), that is, as at all player counts between zero and three Informants are in play.

Then all players complete their specialist action in a clockwise order (removing the need for a rigid script/app and reducing the potential to accidentally reveal your role).

The different specialist actions include gathering information, switching roles, and helping players in their attempt to identify the Informant(s) before the day is over.

If a majority of players identify an Informant, the Rebels wins however if at the end of the day the Informant(s) remain hidden, they win the game.

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