Ah, that's what you meant. No, only the president and chancellor pick. Technically just the chancellor, although it all depends on what the president gives him (let's say the president is a fascist and draws 1 liberal policy and 2 fascist policies - he can discard the liberal one and tell everyone he drew 3 fascist ones!).
When a policy is enacted, it is placed face-up on the board and everyone knows what it is.
Presidential powers are granted in a specific order depending on how many players are in the game. A new one-time-only (except for the veto) power happens to the current president each time a fascist policy is enacted. The typical order is:
1. Nothing happens.
2. The president must investigate the alignment of any player.
3. The president must pick the next president (rather than it simply passing to the left as usual).
4. The president must kill another player.
5. The president must kill another player. Also, the power of the veto is now permanently enacted.
6. The fascists win.
If there's less than 7 players (the max is 8), #2 changes to "nothing happens" and #3 changes to "the president must examine the top 3 cards of the policy deck".

Out of the games I've played, I'd say that it's nearly even. It might seem that the fascists have an edge thanks to the Hitler-being-elected thing, but consider that:
- Hitler has to be chancellor, not president. Somebody has to put him forward as their choice, meaning that he'll have to be sure that NO suspicion has been on his head so far if he wants to get a majority yes vote. People will be on their guard like crazy about what choices are made at this point, so it won't be so easy. You can't just go "eh, let's see how this guy does as chancellor", you're going to have to have an explanation. And a bloody good one, too.
- Remember that there's not one, but two ways for the liberals to win. Either 5 liberal policies get passed, or Hitler gets executed. The president has to execute somebody on fascist policy #4 and #5. I guarantee you that there will be some heavy suspicions by that point. Even if you don't manage to kill Hitler, picking off a fascist is a major help (assuming you pick correctly). Even if you're a fascist who lands this power, if you kill someone who looks innocent, you'll pretty much out yourself and have people questioning your earlier votes/suggestions/etc. Sometimes, albeit rarely, a liberal president will actually purposefully force a fascist policy to kill somebody he's sure is Hitler.

From all the conferences where I played this as a board game, I can confirm that it is quite balanced. And I would love to play here ... I just don't have the time to read and analyse peoples posts.

Oh, and if you want to try it out as a board game, a black and white version is freely available from the creators of the game: http://secrethitler.com/assets/Secret_Hitler_Print_and_Play.pdf
(there also used to be a color version, but they seem to have removed it. I guess, they want to sell some games after all)

Is it? I recall that I stumbled upon some threads in BGG most likely that claimed there are situations where the game becomes practically unwinnable for the "bad" team. I can't remember how it happened but it wasn't just because of optimal plays from the "good" team's side but was caused by RNG.

I think I have that in my dropbox, I'll take a look and I can share it if it's there.

But there's also situations, albeit extremely rare, that make it practically unwinnable for the "good" team as well. It can work both ways.

I see. By the way, I'm curious, are you going to play the actual game for us? When I ran One Night I had pieces of paper with everyone's name on it and I was dealing and resolving actions as if everyone was sitting on the table with me.


Here is the link for the colored print & play.

Yes and no. I own Tabletop Simulator on Steam. That's way, waaaay easier than writing it all down by hand. I just run it there and save every time there's a new action. I could theoretically send screenshots of the action as y'all progress.

That sounds nice. I've seen that application a couple of times but never took the time to look into it. How does it work exactly? Do you input your own game mechanics and values in some sort of workshop UI and it picks up from there or do the developers provide presets for all those games?

The game is fantastic, and is hands-down the best purchase I've ever made.
Not sure what you mean by game mechanics and values. How it works is that people can scan/upload cards and board game stuff, or make their own board games in this manner, and put it on the workshop. Developers can do the same thing and offer it as DLC. The only thing that requires any coding of any sort is if you're adding your own scripting to the game, which automates functions such as setup.
In practice, all you do is head to the workshop and search for the game you're looking for. You can play practically anything your heart desires.

Seems corny.

It's basically just a physics engine with support for common board game tasks, like making decks, rolling dice, etc.

In that case it seems I have to get that thing myself. Thanks for the information, guys!

*checks link*

Cheers.



Your workplace and job must be quite nice.


You could always do it the flubbucket way.


@zeogold - thanks for the explanation.

@dedoporno - cheers for the coloured edition of the print & play version.

Happy U.S. Turkey Day, to those of you who reside in a locale that celebrates such.

Thank you.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!