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 reasoning Deductive reasoning is the process of drawing valid inferences. An inference is valid if its conclusion follows logically from its premises, meaning that it is impossible for the premises to be true and the conclusion to be false. For example, t ...

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", as an informal or general term, is often used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the Sicilian Mafia, original Mafia in Sicily, to the Italian-American Mafia, or to other Organized crime in Italy, organiz ...

'', 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'', 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 A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

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'' custom maps including

, ''Werewolf'', ''Zerg Infestation'', and another ''Changeling'' and ''The Thing''. Other notable examples include ''Garry's Mod'' "

Trouble in Terrorist Town ''Garry's Mod'', commonly clipped as ''GMod'', 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 ...

" game mode, ''

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

'', ''

StarCraft II ''StarCraft II'' is a real-time strategy video game created by Blizzard Entertainment, first released in 2010. A sequel to the successful '' StarCraft'', released in 1998, it is set in a militaristic far future. The narrative centers on a galacti ...

''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 allows for cross-platform play; it was released on iOS and Android (operating system), Android devices in J ...

''. 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

* ''

'' (1986) * ''

The Werewolves of Millers Hollow ''The Werewolves of Millers Hollow'' (, or sometimes only referred as ''Loups-garous'') 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 Russ ...

'' (2001) * '' Bang!'' (2002) * ''Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game'' (2008) * '' Ultimate Werewolf'' (2008) * '' The Resistance'' (2009) * '' Coup'' (2012) * ''A Fake Artist Goes to New York'' (2012) * ''Avalon'' (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 l ...

'' (2012) * ''Two Rooms and a Boom'' (2013) * '' Deception: Murder in Hong Kong'' (2014) * '' Spyfall'' (2014) * '' Secret Hitler'' (2016) * ''Witch Hunt'' (2016) * ''Crossfire'' (2017) * '' Werewords'' (2017) * ''Dracula's Feast'' (2017) * '' The Chameleon'' (2017) * ''Cheese Thief'' (2020) * ''Ghost Letters'' (2020) * ''Bunker'' (2020) * ''

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 a successful Kickstarter campaign. The game shares core mechanics with Mafia, featur ...

'' (2022)

Video games

* ''

Space Station 13 ''Space Station 13'', often shortened to ''SS13'', is a top-down perspective, top-down tile-based Action role-playing game, action role-playing multiplayer video game running on the freeware BYOND game engine, originally released in 2003. The gam ...

'' (2003) * An unnamed multiplayer mode in ''Mystic Nights'' (2005) * ''Trouble in Terrorist Town'' (2009), a modification of ''

Garry's Mod ''Garry's Mod'', commonly clipped as ''GMod'', 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 fre ...

'' (2006) * ''Hidden in Plain Sight'' (2011) * ''

Mush In multiplayer online games, a MUSH (a backronymed variation on Multi-user dungeon, 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 m ...

(2013) * ''

'' (2014) * ''

Murder Mystery 2 ''Murder Mystery 2'' is a 2023 American action comedy mystery film directed by Jeremy Garelick and written by James Vanderbilt. It is a sequel to the 2019 film ''Murder Mystery'', and it stars Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston with Mark Strong, ...

,'' a

Roblox Roblox (, ) is an online game platform and game creation system developed by Roblox Corporation that allows users to program and play games created by themselves or other users. It was created by David Baszucki and Erik Cassel in 200 ...

experience (2014) * '' Werewolves Within'' (2016) * ''Mindnight'' (2017) * ''Triple Agent'' (2017) * ''Deceit'' (2017) * ''Triple Agent'' (2017) * ''Throne of Lies'' (2017) * ''

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

Hello Neighbor ''Hello Neighbor'' is a stealth game developed by 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 8, 2017, and later for PlayStati ...

'' (2018) * ''

SpyParty ''SpyParty'' is a social deduction game, social deduction Stealth game, stealth video game developed by Chris Hecker. ''SpyParty'' was first shown at the Experimental Gameplay Workshop at the 2009 Game Developers Conference. Hecker describes his ...

'' (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 J ...

'' (2019) * '' Project Winter'' (2019) * ''Push the Button'', a minigame included in '' Jackbox Party Pack 6'' (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 and game platform developed by Epic Games and released in 2017. It is available in seven distinct game mode versions that otherwise share the same general gameplay and game engine: '' Fortnite Battle Roy ...

'' (2021) * ''

Dread Hunger ''Dread Hunger'' was a 2022 online multiplayer social deduction game developed by Dread Hunger Team and published by Digital Confectioners. Concept The players are cast as the crew of a ship that must make its way through an arctic pass that i ...

'' (2022) * ''Crimesight'' (2022) * ''

Among Us VR ''Among Us 3D'' is a social deduction video game developed by Schell Games, Innersloth, and Robot Teddy. The game is a 3D version of '' Among Us'', initially designed as a virtual reality (VR) game. Initially titled ''Among Us VR'', it was p ...

'' (2022) * ''Traitors'', a game mode in ''

Barotrauma Barotrauma is physical damage to body tissues caused by a difference in pressure between a gas space inside, or in contact with, the body and the surrounding gas or liquid. The initial damage is usually due to over-stretching the tissues in ...

'' (2023) * ''Treason'' (2023) * ''

Town of Salem 2 ''Town of Salem'' is an online multiplayer game with social deduction, role-playing and strategy elements. It was developed and published by indie game developer BlankMediaGames, and released on December 15, 2014. Early alpha and beta versions ...

'', a sequel to ''Town of Salem'' (2023) * ''LOCKDOWN Protocol'' (2024) * ''Dale and Dawson Stationery Supplies'' (2024) * '' Death Note: Killer Within'' (2024)

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 competition show. It is based on the Belgian show '' De Mol'', the original version of the format created in 1998 by Woestijnvis and broadcast on VRT. Format ' ...

'', 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 insuran ...

'', and in the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom as ''The Mole''. * ''

Trapped! Trapped may refer to: Films * ''Trapped'' (1931 film), a crime drama short starring Lina Basquette * ''Trapped'' (1937 film), an American western starring Charles Starrett * ''Trapped'' (1949 film), a ''film noir'' directed by Richard Fleischer ...

'' (2007), a British children's show where one contestant is secretly a Saboteur * ''

The Hustler ''The Hustler'' is a 1961 American sports drama film, directed by Robert Rossen. It tells the story of small-time pool hustler "Fast Eddie" Felson, who challenges legendary pool player " Minnesota Fats". The film, which was based on the 195 ...

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

De Verraders 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 the show is presented by Tijl Beckand. The first and second seasons took place at and around Castle Eren ...

'' (2021), Dutch gameshow based on Werewolf/Mafia, which has spawned a number of international adaptations, including the British ''

The Traitors ''The Traitors'' is a reality game show franchise created by the All3Media All3Media Limited is a British worldwide independent television, film, and digital production and distribution company based in London. The All3Media group cons ...

'' (2022) and the similarly named Australian ''

'' (2022).

References

{{Tabletop games by type

Notable games

Board and card games

Video games

Television

See also

References