During last weeks class, I played a board game called “Secret Hitler.” In this game, two teams, the Fascists and Liberals, go head to head trying to push forward their party’s policies.
In our game of 7 total players, after the envelopes containing our loyalty cards (as seen below) were shuffled and distributed, there were four liberals, three fascists, and I was Hitler who is another member of the Fascist party. Only the Fascists, but not Hitler, were allowed to know who had what card.
David was the first president and chose Adam as his chancellor. The group votes Ja! or Nein! to accept this government. Everyone voted Ja! excpet Adam and the government was put into power. David draws the first three policy cards. Any individual card can be either a Liberal or Fascist policy. David discards one of the three cards and hands the remaining to to Chancellor Adam. Adam as Chancellor must now select one of the two policies to put into play. Adam plays a fascist card.
The round is over and now the Presidential role gets rotated clockwise to Ryan who chooses Brandon as his chancellor. Everyone votes Ja! to accept this government. After the President and Chancellor go through their process, a Liberal policy is put into play. Now there is one Liberal and one Fascist policy on the board.
The game has two boards, a Liberal and Fascist board. Each party is trying to pass enough policies to complete their board. While the Liberal board has no special powers, once enough Fascist policies have been played, whoever is the current President is granted a power such as being able to see someone’s secret loyalty card. The Liberals can win by either filling their board with 5 Liberal policies or by assassinating Hitler. The Fascists can also win by filling their board, but if Hitler is elected as Chancellor after three Fascist policies have been put into play, the Fascists win.
Stacy is made the next President and chooses David as Chancellor. There is electoral chaos as the vote does not pass 4 to 3. The Election Tracker is moved over one space. Too many vetoed governments in a row results in chaos and a random policy is played. Deana is made the next President with myself as Chancellor. The vote passes and I play a Liberal card. (I didn’t want anyone to suspect I was Hitler.) There are now two Liberal and one Fascist policies in play. The Election Tracker is moved back to the starting place.
Adam is the next president with David as Chancellor. The vote passes and a Fascist card is put into play. This now allows the president to see someone’s loyalty card. He checks David’s card but does not say anything. I’m the next president and nominate Stacy as my Chancellor. The vote passes and I draw three cards, which annoyingly are all Fascist. (So much for trying to cover my tracks as a fake Liberal) Stacy is forced to now play a Fascist card. I now have the power to assassinate someone but I choose not to. There are now three Fascist and one Liberal cards on the board.
David is the next President and nominates me as Chancellor. I then got really excited… Really excited. There were three fascist cards and I as Hitler was about to become Chancellor, therefore winning the game. In my excitement I yelled “I’m Hitler! Fascists win!” Then David looks at me with a blank stare. We hadn’t voted Ja! or Nein! yet… My bad.
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