Elect a President and Chancellor, vote on their government, and let them secretly choose one policy to enact. Liberals win by passing five Liberal policies or executing Hitler. Fascists win by passing six Fascist policies or electing Hitler Chancellor after three Fascist policies are already on the board.
Secret Hitler game setup, roles, and win conditions
The physical game uses 17 policy tiles—six Liberal and eleven Fascist—plus secret roles, matching party-membership cards, Ja and Nein ballots, office placards, policy boards, an election tracker, and draw and discard areas. Pick the Fascist board labeled for your player count and place it beside the Liberal board. Make one envelope per player with a role, its matching party membership, and both ballots, then shuffle the selected envelopes before dealing.
Role distribution by player count
| Players | Liberals | Ordinary Fascists | Hitler |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 |
| 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 |
| 7 | 4 | 2 | 1 |
| 8 | 5 | 2 | 1 |
| 9 | 5 | 3 | 1 |
| 10 | 6 | 3 | 1 |
Who knows whom changes at seven players. With five or six, Hitler and the ordinary Fascist identify each other. With seven to ten, the ordinary Fascists see one another and identify Hitler, but Hitler keeps their eyes closed. Liberals receive no private team information at any size.
Two ways for either team to win
- Liberal policy victory: enact five Liberal policies.
- Liberal identity victory: execute Hitler after an Execution power unlocks.
- Fascist policy victory: enact six Fascist policies.
- Fascist election victory: after three Fascist policies have been enacted, elect Hitler Chancellor.
The election condition makes the fourth Fascist-policy space a danger zone: every successful government must immediately check whether its Chancellor is Hitler before starting the legislative session. If the Chancellor is not Hitler, the round continues normally. The full component and setup sequence comes from the official rulebook; the publisher also provides a free print-and-play edition if your group does not own the box.
How to play Secret Hitler: elections and policy sessions
Each round moves through an election, a legislative session, and—only when the Fascist board grants one—an executive action. Randomly choose the first President. After that, the placard normally moves clockwise one seat at the start of every round, so everyone can anticipate when they will nominate a government.
1. Nominate and vote on a government
The Presidential Candidate names an eligible Chancellor Candidate. In the usual case, the previous elected President and Chancellor cannot immediately become Chancellor; when only five players remain, only the last elected Chancellor is barred. The whole table votes at once with Ja or Nein. A tie or a Nein majority rejects the government, advances the election tracker, and passes the Presidency clockwise.
A Ja majority elects the pair. First check the special Hitler election condition if at least three Fascist policies are showing. If that does not end the game, reset the election tracker only when the government actually enacts a policy—not merely because it won the vote.
2. Run the legislative session in secret
- The President draws three policy tiles.
- The President secretly discards one and gives two to the Chancellor.
- The Chancellor secretly discards one and enacts the remaining tile face up.
The two officials may discuss what happened afterward, but neither may reveal discarded tiles. That information gap is the game: a Fascist policy can mean the deck offered no Liberal option, the President removed one, or the Chancellor chose red over blue. Track the claims, votes, and nominations instead of treating one red policy as proof.
Players may not communicate through unusual card handling, delayed one-at-a-time passes, or attempts to read a reaction while transferring policies. The official process keeps the policy choice private and forces the table to reason from public actions and competing statements. For a visual packing sequence, the Across the Board setup guide shows how to organize the envelopes and central boards before the first vote.
Executive powers, the election tracker, and veto rules
Fascist policies unlock stronger government powers, but the exact spaces depend on the board for your player count. After a government enacts a policy on a marked space, the current President must resolve that one-time power before the next election. A Liberal President receives the same authority as a Fascist one, so the action itself does not identify a player's party.
- Investigate Loyalty: the President privately sees another player's party-membership card, not their exact secret role. Hitler therefore appears Fascist; the President may describe the result truthfully or lie.
- Special Election: the President chooses the next Presidential Candidate. After that special round, normal clockwise succession resumes from the player after the President who called it.
- Policy Peek: the President secretly views the top three policies and returns them in the same order.
- Execution: the President removes one player. If that player is Hitler, Liberals win; otherwise the executed player's party remains undisclosed and they no longer speak, vote, or hold office.
Three failed elections create chaos
When the election tracker reaches three, reveal and enact the top policy immediately. Ignore any executive power printed under that space, reset the tracker, and clear the old Chancellor restrictions so everyone is eligible for the next nomination. If fewer than three policies remain before a required draw, shuffle the discard pile with the remaining deck to make a new draw pile.
Veto power after five Fascist policies
Once the fifth Fascist policy is on the board, a Chancellor holding two policies may ask to veto both. The President can refuse, in which case the Chancellor must enact one. If the President agrees, discard both and advance the election tracker by one because the government produced no policy. A veto can therefore prevent an immediate loss but also trigger chaos when the tracker was already on two. These edge cases—and the important rule that chaos grants no executive power—are specified in the official rules.
Secret Hitler strategy, common questions, and online play
Good Secret Hitler strategy is evidence management. Write down each government, vote, claimed policy hand, investigation, and nomination. A single contradiction can be chance or deception; a pattern across several public decisions is more useful. Before each vote, ask the candidate pair why this government improves on the alternatives and what they intend to do with any power it could unlock.
Liberal strategy
Liberals begin with more votes but less information. Report policy hands consistently, explain votes, and make disagreements explicit so other Liberals can compare stories. Avoid inventing a lie to "test" the table: it adds a false branch to the shared record and gives Fascists more confusion to exploit. In the Hitler danger zone, distinguish "probably Liberal" from "known not to be Hitler." That knowledge prevents the instant Hitler-election victory, but it does not make the government safe: a Fascist Chancellor can still help enact the sixth Fascist policy.
Fascist and Hitler strategy
An ordinary Fascist can build credibility by supporting plausible governments and, when useful, allowing Liberal policies through before creating a policy dispute. Hitler usually benefits from looking reliably Liberal rather than dominating every argument. The late-game objective is being trusted enough to receive a Chancellor nomination after the third Fascist policy, so conspicuous coordination can ruin the stronger win path. These role-specific ideas are developed in the TartanLlama strategy guide and the teaching notes from Board Game Informer.
How many people can play Secret Hitler?
Secret Hitler supports 5–10 players. Every game includes one Hitler; the balance of Liberals and ordinary Fascists changes with the table size.
What happens after three failed elections?
The top policy is enacted automatically without its executive power. Reset the election tracker, clear the previous term limits, and begin the next nomination with every player eligible for Chancellor.
Can the President and Chancellor lie about policy cards?
Yes. They may lie about which policies they drew, passed, or received because discarded tiles stay secret. They cannot reveal those discarded tiles as proof.
Play Secret Hitler online or on one phone
A digital version can handle role assignment, election order, and policy bookkeeping while the group keeps the debate face to face; the PsyCat Games guide also documents web play using the same core format. RoomPlay's Secret Hitler game page explains its one-phone browser format; open it for an in-person group and pass the device only when the game asks a player to view private information. For remote formats, compare the room-code options in the online party games guide, or browse more bluffing formats in social deduction party games.
Let RoomPlay assign roles and guide your in-person group through the game.