A social deduction game is a game in which players attempt to uncover each other's hidden role or team allegiance. Commonly, these games are played with teams, with one team being considered "good" and another being "bad". During gameplay, players can use logic and

deductive Deductive reasoning is the mental process of drawing deductive inferences. An inference is deductively valid if its conclusion follows logically from its premises, i.e. if it is impossible for the premises to be true and the conclusion to be false ...

reasoning to try to deduce one another's roles, while other players can

bluff Bluff or The Bluff may refer to: Places Australia * Bluff, Queensland, Australia, a town * The Bluff, Queensland (Ipswich), a rural locality in the city of Ipswich * The Bluff, Queensland (Toowoomba Region), a rural locality * Bluff River (New ...

to keep players from suspecting them. Examples of social deduction games include ''

Mafia "Mafia" is an informal term that is used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original “Mafia”, the Sicilian Mafia and Italian Mafia. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of d ...

'', in which only the mafia know who is mafia and what the mafia players' roles are; '' Bang!'', in which only the sheriff's role is known to everyone; and ''

Secret Hitler ''Secret Hitler'' is a hidden identity social deduction party game developed by Goat, Wolf, & Cabbage LLC, manufactured by Breaking Games and distributed by Blackbox. The board game was designed by Max Temkin, Mike Boxleiter and Tommy Maranges ...

'', in which only the fascists know who the fascists are, except for the player who plays as Hitler. Other social deduction games include '' The Resistance'', '' Deception: Murder in Hong Kong'' and '' Spyfall''. Social deduction games have been adapted to

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

s numerous times through mods or full games. One instances of such adaptations are custom maps for StarCraft: Brood War including ''Changeling'' and ''The Thing''. These custom maps inspired later

Warcraft III ''Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos'' is a high fantasy real-time strategy computer video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment released in July 2002. It is the second sequel to ''Warcraft: Orcs & Humans'', after ''Warcraft II: Tides ...

custom maps including

, ''Werewolf'', ''Zerg Infestation'', and another ''Changeling'' and ''The Thing''. Other notable examples include ''Garry's Mod'' " Trouble in Terrorist Town" game mode, ''

Town of Salem ''Town of Salem'' is an online multiplayer game with social deduction and strategy elements. It was developed and published by indie game developer BlankMediaGames, and released on December 15, 2014. Early alpha and beta versions were browser ...

'', ''

StarCraft II ''StarCraft II'' is a military science fiction video game created by Blizzard Entertainment as a sequel to the successful ''StarCraft'' video game released in 1998. Set in a fictional future, the game centers on a galactic struggle for dominance a ...

s Phantom Mode mod, and ''

Among Us ''Among Us'' is a 2018 online multiplayer social deduction game developed and published by American game studio Innersloth. The game was inspired by the party game Mafia and the science fiction horror film '' The Thing''. The game allows for ...

''. One important element of strategy in some social deduction games is determining how long to stick to one's story in the light of information obtained from other players. A

Monte Carlo tree search In computer science, Monte Carlo tree search (MCTS) is a heuristic search algorithm for some kinds of decision processes, most notably those employed in software that plays board games. In that context MCTS is used to solve the game tree. MCTS ...

has been suggested for making decisions in social deduction games.

Notable games

Board and card games

*'' Mafia/Werewolf'' (1986) *''

The Werewolves of Millers Hollow ''The Werewolves of Millers Hollow'' (french: Les Loups-garous de Thiercelieux) is a card game created by the French authors Philippe des Pallières and Hervé Marly that can be played with 8 to 47 players. The game is based on the Russian gam ...

'' (2001) *'' Bang!'' (2002) *'' The Resistance'' (2009) *'' Coup'' (2012) *''A Fake Artist Goes to New York'' (2012) *''

Love Letter A love letter is an expression of love in written form. However delivered, the letter may be anything from a short and simple message of love to a lengthy explanation and description of feelings. History One of the oldest references to a lo ...

'' (2012) *''Two Rooms and a Boom'' (2013) *'' Deception: Murder in Hong Kong'' (2014) *'' Spyfall'' (2014) *''

'' (2016) *''Witch Hunt'' (2016) *''Crossfire'' (2017) *''

Werewords ''Werewords'' is a board game for 4 to 10 players designed by Ted Alspach and published by Bézier Games in 2017. Players guess a secret word by asking questions. There are different roles randomly assigned at the start of play. Villagers try to ...

'' (2017) *''Dracula's Feast'' (2017) *''The Chameleon'' (2017) *''

Blood on the Clocktower ''Blood on the Clocktower'' is a social deduction game created by Steven Medway and published by the Pandemonium Institute. The game was released in 2022 after some time in development and a Kickstarter campaign. ''Blood on the Clocktower'' s ...

'' (2022)

Video games

*''

Space Station 13 ''Space Station 13'', often shortened to ''SS13'', is a top-down tile based action role-playing multiplayer video game running on the freeware BYOND game engine, originally released in 2003. The game is set on a futuristic space station; however ...

'' (2003) *''Trouble in Terrorist Town'' (2009), a modification of ''

Garry's Mod ''Garry's Mod'' is a 2006 sandbox game developed by Facepunch Studios and published by Valve. The base game mode of ''Garry's Mod'' has no set objectives and provides the player with a world in which to freely manipulate objects. Other game ...

'' (2006) *''

Mush In multiplayer online games, a MUSH (a backronymed variation on MUD most often expanded as Multi-User Shared Hallucination, though Multi-User Shared Hack, Habitat, and Holodeck are also observed) is a text-based online social medium to which mult ...

(2013) *''

'' (2014) *''Mindnight'' (2017) *''Deceit'' (2017) *''

Werewolves Within ''Werewolves Within'' is a multiplayer Social deduction game, social-deduction Virtual reality, VR game for Oculus Rift, Microsoft Windows, Windows, and PlayStation VR, developed by Red Storm Entertainment, published by Ubisoft, and released on 6 ...

'' (2016) *''Throne of Lies'' (2017) *''

'' (2018) *''Secret Neighbor'', a spin-off of the survival horror stealth game, ''

Hello Neighbor ''Hello Neighbor'' is a survival horror stealth game developed by Russian studio Dynamic Pixels and published by tinyBuild. Initially released as public alphas from 2016 to 2017, it received a full release for Windows and Xbox One on December ...

'' (2018) *''SpyParty'' (2018) *''

Gnosia is a 2019 visual novel social deduction role-playing game developed by Petit Depotto. It was originally released in June 2019 for the PlayStation Vita, and was ported to the Nintendo Switch in December 2020, with a Windows version released in Ja ...

'' (2019) *''Project Winter'' (2019) *''Unfortunate Spacemen'' (2020) *''Goose Goose Duck'' (2021) *''Suspects: Mystery Mansion'' (2021) *''Untrusted'' (2021) *''First Class Trouble'' (2021) *''Impostors'', a game mode in ''

Fortnite ''Fortnite'' is an online video game developed by Epic Games and released in 2017. It is available in three distinct game mode versions that otherwise share the same general gameplay and game engine: ''Fortnite Battle Royale'', a free-to-p ...

'' (2021) *'' Dread Hunger'' (2022) *''Crimesight'' (2022) *''

Among Us VR ''Among Us VR'' is a social deduction video game developed by Schell Games, Innersloth, and Robot Teddy. It was published by Innersloth in November 2022 for Meta Quest 2 and Windows via several SteamVR-supported headsets, with a PlayStation 5 ...

(2022)''

Television

*'' De Mol'' (1998), Belgian reality game show franchise where one contestant is secretly a Mole. The series has been adapted internationally in various countries, including in the Netherlands under the title ''

Wie is de Mol? ''Wie is de Mol?'' (''English'': ''Who is the Mole?'') is a Dutch adventure reality game show. It is based on the Belgian reality game show '' De Mol'', the original version of the format created in 1998 by Woestijnvis and broadcast on VRT. Fo ...

'', in Poland as ''

Agent Agent may refer to: Espionage, investigation, and law *, spies or intelligence officers * Law of agency, laws involving a person authorized to act on behalf of another ** Agent of record, a person with a contractual agreement with an insuranc ...

'', and in the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom as ''The Mole''. *'' Trapped!'' (2007), a British children's show where one contestant is secretly a Saboteur *''

The Hustler ''The Hustler'' is a 1961 American sports romantic drama film directed by Robert Rossen from Walter Tevis's 1959 novel of the same name, adapted by Rossen and Sidney Carroll. It tells the story of small-time pool hustler "Fast Eddie" Felson a ...

'' (2021), US quiz show where one contestant is secretly given the answers in advance *''

De Verraders ''De Verraders'' (Dutch for: ''The Traitors'') is a Dutch television show broadcast by RTL 4 which premiered in 2021. The format of the show is similar to the party game ''Mafia'' and it takes place at and around Castle Erenstein in Kerkrade, Net ...

'' (2021), Dutch gameshow based on Werewolf/Mafia, which has spawned a number of international adaptations, including the British '' The Traitors '' (2022) and the similarly named Australian '' The Traitors'' (2022).

References

{{Tabletop games by type

Notable games

Board and card games

Video games

Television

See also

References