Summary
The popularity of hidden traitor games has exploded in recent years from hit indievideo games likeAmong Usto the British reality TV projectThe Traitors. The mechanic has been featured in a key sub-genre of the board gaming hobby for the past 20 years, sinceTicket to Ridepublisher,Days of Wonder,first popularized it withShadows Over Camelot.
To be clear, many board games include hidden roles and allegiances,like most social deduction games, but they won’t be found here. This list will specifically look at cooperative games where one or more players have the opportunity to secretly work against other players. So for anyone feeling in a particularly treacherous mood, these are the10 best board games with hidden traitor mechanics.
10Trailblazers (With Sasquatch Expansion)
What’s That Coming Over The Hill?
Trailblazersmakes the cut for the novelty of how the hidden traitor mechanic is implemented, as the game has not been widely accessible enough to garner a significant critical response. In the cooperative mode, players are overlaying cards into a shared area, attempting to build one of three trail types for group scoring.
When mixed with theSasquatch Expansion, it adds the wrinkle of a potential Sasquatch player who is deliberately working against the group, burying good cards and ‘unfortunately’ only being left with bad options to play at key times. The nature of the game means players will likely never have an excellent hand, so suspicion is sure to abound with each play that messes up the scoring. In addition, there’s always a possibility of no Sasquatch player being in the game. Players can never be certain if there is a traitor on board.
9Inside Job
Secret Agent Subterfuge
The closest to a straightsocial deduction game,Inside Jobis sort of a riff onKosmos’best-sellingThe Crewseries. It’s a trick-taking game where players try to resolve each trick in a given parameter to complete missions. If players complete a set number of missions they win.
One of the players at the table is the insider who doesn’t have to follow the conventional rules. The insider is trying to use their advantage to subtly fail a set number of missions or be the player to win the most tricks. Both outcomes will result in victory, but they’ll need to remain undetected.
8The Thing: Infection At Outpost 31
Licensed Horror Tie-In
Based on the iconic John Carpenter movie,The Thing: Infection At Outpost 31does a great job of recreating that atmosphere. For those unaware the film features ashapeshifting alienthat embeds itself with a research team in the Antarctic, causing chaos and paranoia.
The board game tasks players with eliminating four Things hidden around the base, and then escaping to safety via a helicopter. The game starts with one Thing player who can assimilate others as the game progresses, meaning there could be as many as three Thing players by the end, and if any of them make it on board the helicopter, all human players lose.
7Obscurio
Escape The Cursed Library
Obscuriois from the same school of games asDixitandMysterium, with players trying to give abstract clues disguised in amalgamated artwork. Players are attempting to escape with an evil wizard’s grimoire, with one player taking on the role of the grimoire trying to guide the other players to the exit with visual clues.
And, of course, one player is secretly in cahoots with the wizard and wishes to guide the team toward the incorrect exit. Unlike most traitor experiences, the two roles are not that different. The traitor will want to participate as much as possible, making abstract links and trying to cast aspersions on the correct door when other players suggest it.
6Shadows Over Camelot
Knights Of The Round Table
As previously mentioned,Shadows Over Camelotdeserves a lot of credit for popularizing the subgenre of hidden traitor games, released as a part ofDays of Wonder’shighly acclaimed line, when the publisher was consistently putting out classics. Players take on the role of knights defending the realm from evil.
Players must jointly undertake 12 legendary quests, succeeding in a plurality of them while simultaneously defending the kingdom from the assault of malevolent forces to win. LikeTrailblazers, not every game features a traitor, so players must deduce who among them can be trusted and air on the side of caution.
5Deception: Murder In Hong Kong
A Killer Lurks Among The Investigation
Deception: Murder in Hong Kongis another game that takes a lot of elements from standard social deduction, with players taking on different roles of forensics, investigator, killer and optionally accomplice and witness. From there, it’s a classic deduction game with players attempting to work together to solve a murder.
The forensic player acts as a game master guiding the investigators. Meanwhile, the murderer is a man on the inside trying to mislead the investigation. Players may add in the additional roles of another traitor at the table, as well as one witness who knows the killer but not the means and motive. The witness must try to read the killer without giving their role away — lest they end up the next victim.
Classic Zombie Fiction
There’s a tried and tested cliché of zombie fiction that the humans are the real monsters, and inDead of Winter, that just might prove true. Players are collectively working together to gather supplies and protect their colony from the invading zombie hordes.
No player is specifically on the side of the zombies, but players have their own personal objectives that require completion to win the game. Some of these are betrayal objectives that come at the detriment of the collective. While traitors usually remain invested in the survival of the colony, they will be actively trying to do things toundermine the group’s chances of successuntil they’re ready to strike.
3Battlestar Galactica
Cylons On The Starboard Bow
For many, the definitive hidden traitor game,h but it’s fair to sayBattlestar Galacticais starting to show its age a bit, most notably in game length and inaccessibility. It features a lot of the same trappings asThe Thing: Infection at Outpost 31but lacks the streamlined simplicity of that game.
That said, the layered complexity makes it a fan favorite still to this day, and for fans with a dedicated group looking for a 3-4 hour undertaking, it still offers an epic experience. Players are essentially trying to maintain the ship and fend off attackers long enough to reach Earth while keeping an eye out for an increasing number of Cylon players on board who are trying to sabotage them.
Battling Eldrichs Horrors
Mansions of Madness 2nd Edition
Mansions of Madnessis unique on this list as the traitor element is more of a punishment for failure, kicking players while they’re down. Like a lot ofgames inspired by H.P Lovecraft’s work, players will be managing two health bars, representing their physical and mental health.
If a player’s mental health drops too low, they are driven insane and dealt a random status condition, which can be anything from quirky behavior to trying to outright tank the game for all other players. Either way, the condition is secret, so it’s certain to arouse plenty of suspicion from fellow players as they try to flush out any traitors among them.
Nemesis
The vested interest in backstabbing other players is probably a damning indictment of the state of humanity, andNemesisruns with that idea, making it rather mean-spirited. Based on Alien but without the license, the game offers a number of missions and iterations as players bid to survive against the Xenomorph-like creatures.
Players are dealt private objectives that often conflict with the good of the group — or at least one player in particular. There are straight-up objectives like ‘make sure player 3 dies.’ It is possible to play full co-op, but there’s no way to be sure everyone is on board until they betray their unsuspecting victims.
