Description

Secret Societies is a social deduction drafting game where player’s loyalties are not only hidden, but also ever-shifting in this quick and addicting game of adaptability.

This game features simultaneous play, fast and simple turns, and light social deduction elements that allow those players who get ‘caught’ to actually be at an advantage. Each turn brings 2 choices with a single action: which faction do you become committed to, but which faction do you help win. You can only be loyal to 1 faction by the end of the game, so you must adapt!

Secret Societies revolves around a single deck that includes different amounts of cards for each of the 3 factions competing for power: The Order, the Chaos faction, and the faction of Secrets. Each turn, players will draw 2 cards from the deck, choosing 1 to keep and 1 to display in front of them. The cards the players keep affect their loyalty based on the majority of symbols of each faction's type in hand. The cards they display not only give a little insight to what that player did not keep, but those displayed cards will also get reshuffled back into the deck at the end of a cycle. Once the deck is depleted, players will discuss and vote for a player that then must reveal cards from their hand. Some cards may get returned back to the deck this way. The currently displayed cards now get gathered into a new, smaller deck and a new cycle begins. After the second cycle and voting session, the displayed cards get gathered 1 final time, and players will complete 1 final draft, keeping 1 card that permanently solidifies their loyalty, and displaying 1 final card. Those final displayed cards determine the winner(s) of the game.

First, if any player ends the game loyal to Secrets, they win, along with anyone else who has Secret cards in their hand. This is not an easy feat, however, for how few Secret cards are in the deck.

Second, within the deck are Bribes, tempting those hungry enough to be willing to do anything to be the sole winner. If all Bribes have been taken, and no Bribe cards are displayed at the end of that final draft, the 1 player with the most Bribe cards in hand will win alone.

Third, The Order wishes to remain in power and they want to keep their Scrolls that are in the deck safe and out of player's hands, even if that means abusing their power to invade player's privacy. So, if there is at least 1 Scroll and at least 1 Order card displayed at the end of that final draft, all players loyal to The Order win.

Last, The Chaos faction wishes to overthrow The Order by stealing all the Scrolls from the deck. So if there are no Scroll cards or no Order cards displayed at the end of that final draft, then all players loyal to Chaos win.

-description from designer