Secret Hitler - story time

I was playing the game Friday night and nearly managed to clutch out a win as liberals.

We were playing with 9 people. First, somebody I strongly suspected as Fascist became chancellor and was able to kill somebody. I killed him in return so we were down to 7 people, 4 liberal, and 2 fascist + Hitler. The game came down to the final draw and I was able to convince people that they should veto the next two appointments, just so that I could be made president. Since I was essentially confirmed liberal and I knew one other person who was likely liberal and for sure not Hitler, I figured we could win. I had it all planned out, but when I was finally president, one of the liberals got nervous and voted against me. This made it so we had 3 denies in a row and had to turn over the top card to decide who wins, and it was a fascist.

I'm disappointed that I played so well, figured out almost everybody on the table and came up with a clear plan for a guaranteed win, but one person screwed it all up with their lack of faith. Oh well, really fun game either way.

Oh yeah, I like this game. It doesn't have huge replay value once your group has got the tactics down but it's still a great party game. Especially if you have a few people who haven't played it before. It's easy to pick up and play, and the narration Wil Wheaton does via the (free) app adds a nice touch as well.

One of my friends is incredibly nice, almost to a fault, and she's awful at it. She's fine when she's a Liberal but as soon as she draws Facist or Hitler she just cannot lie or mislead anyone. It's totally adorable but really doesn't help you get Hitler into power...

I don't really have any good stories about the game itself, more so the antics the players themselves got up to as we played, ranging from singing (very loudly) the German national anthem after every liberal policy went into effect to one of the players (my boss at the time) throwing a knife into the table (at his house) after having a few too many drinks. In fact, most of the fun of those games was alcohol fueled. We played with the house rule of open voting (as it you place your card face up when ready to vote) which introduced some very interesting dynamics in addition to the hilarity of hearing 5 drunk people in a voting block yell "NEIN!" in unison.

I miss that group but we have all gone our separate ways and there has been a lot of falling out between some group members so it's unlikely the gang will ever get back together.

I know secret hitler as a very, very different game.

Secret Hitler the way it is meant to be played, not some variation on Mafia, is a game where you do Hitlery things IRL. Note that all acts must be properly witnessed to count.

The point system can be as complicated or as simple as you like. I prefer the multiplier system. On the 1 hand, you have the acts themselves (additive):

2 points: finger under the nose
3 points: hand out in fascist salute
4 points: doing the chest hit before the above salute
5 points: goose step
10 points: audibly saying 'sieg heil'

On the other hand, you have the audience (only the largest number counts):

2: Just randoms of no consequence, who is not part of the game
3: Co-workers (peers or underlings)
4: Co-workers (close superiors)
5: Co-workers (top superiors - think executive roles)
10: Special Category (includes veterans, Jewish community leaders, etc)

And finally you have the difficulty rating:

1: Nobody is paying attention to you (i.e. at your desk)
2: You are part of a group, attention on somebody else
3: You are having a conversation with a single person
4: You are having a conversation with multiple people
5: Formal settings (i.e. during a presentation)
10: You are being filmed

So your score is (sum of acts) * (audience) * (difficulty).

Secret Hitler is played in a 'trump' style fashion. Note that when this game was invented that was not a pun. One person starts the game off with their Secret Hitler act, setting the 'high point'. Another person in the game must then 'trump' that score with a better one. The game continues as long as the nerve of the participants holds out and HR does not implement a Secret Hitler ban that people think they will actually follow through on. Scores stand so long as the person who made the score plus their witness remain in the game.

I don't remember the specifics of how the game went. (I play a lot of Secret Hitler with friends and family and this was awhile ago.)

My mom was Hitler and new to the game. She was frighteningly good at playing my family against each other. My mom is a very sweet woman. I remember my brother looking at her and saying "the fact you can lie to me like that has shattered me to my core." I spit out my beer laughing.

I've never heard of this game before, so I looked up a YouTube playthrough of it, and wow, that actually looks really fun (and quite relevant in our zeitgeist). I'll see if maybe I can find a group sometime to play with, thank you very much for bringing this up! :D

I'm terrible at this game. One time I lost the game for the fascists almost immediately when I tried lying about what card I picked -- even though there was absolutely nothing to gain by lying, thus outing me as a fascist.

I watched a playthrough on Polygon I think, and it seems fantastic! Quick question... How do fascists reveal themselves to each other? And do they know who's Hitler, or do they just know it's one of them?