The Traitors has become an absolute phenomenon in the past few years, becoming very quickly one of the most talked about shows by friends, family and anyone down the street. Building on this success, Goliath Games created The Traitors Board Game, a way of bringing the fun of the show into your own home.
But, is the game a brilliant Faithful adaptation of the well-loved show? Or is it a Traitor to the brand?
Here’s How the Game Works
The overall object of the game is to collect gold for your individual treasure chest. Gold is collected through missions, just like in the show, and through finding the Traitor. If you’re the Traitor, gold is collected through successful ‘murders’ and completing secret tasks in the Mission phase. The top two players with the highest amount of gold will proceed to the End Game to find the winner.
At the start of the game, a Traitor is randomly assigned amongst the group using a set of cards. There is only ever 1 Traitor and this person stays the Traitor for the entire game.
There are four rounds of the game, each with four phases: Mission – Banishment – Armoury – Murder.
Mission: These can include everything from stacking objects to doing a Wikipedia hunt on a phone. If you successfully complete the challenge as a group, money is added to the pot. This game is great at getting you up and about, so be prepared to not stay still.
However, before each mission, blindfolds are put on and the Traitor is given a chance to learn their own secret task for the mission. These don’t hinder the mission from being completed, but if the Traitor gets them done, they get extra gold at the end of the game and can ‘murder’ a fellow player.
Banishment: Second is the banishment phase. Players discuss who they think is the Traitor before writing it down on a piece of paper. The player with the most votes hands back 2 of their individual gold.
Armoury: Rather than working together like in the missions, the Armoury task involves players working individually to gain a benefit. This can include a Shield (protecting them from murder), extra gold, or a Dagger so one of their banishment votes counts twice, giving them extra gold if they are correct.
Murder: Blindfolds back on, the Traitor uses the dagger in the middle of the game board and turns it to the player to be murdered. However, if the Traitor does not wish to murder, or did not complete their secret task in the mission phase, they must choose ‘No Murder’.
When blindfolds are removed, the player who has been murdered hands back 2 gold from their pot and the game continues.
It’s important to note that with murders and banishments, no one is eliminated from the game.
End Game: At the end of the four rounds, the Traitor is revealed and money is given out to players depending on how many times they guessed the Traitor correctly, how many times the Traitor successfully murdered, and how many times the Traitor successfully completed their secret tasks in the Mission phases.
The amount of gold per player is totalled up and the top two players head into the final round.
In this final part of the game, the top two players must write either ‘Faithful’ or ‘Traitor’ on a piece of paper. They do not have to write what role they played during the game. If both players write Faithful, they share the prize pot and win the game together. However, if one player writes Traitor, then they win on their own and, if both players write Traitor, then the player in third place wins.
By Order of the Traitors
This game is a fun party game, perfect for fans of the show, but also doesn’t exclude any friends or family who don’t know or like the show.
We all really enjoyed playing the Missions and Armoury tasks which felt varied, meaning there was a task where everyone could shine. They also gave you a fun way of starting Banishment discussions as you try and pick out any unusual behaviour displayed during the Missions. Quick note to be aware of is there are a few missions that rely on finding things around the home, which may be challenging if like us you are playing in a holiday home or a hotel room!
One of the largest differences compared to the TV show is the number of players. While the TV show works based on originally over 20 players and then whittled down over the game, this game is for 4 – 6 players. Social deduction games work best with as many players as possible, so having the cap at 6 I personally found to be a bit low. We played the game with four people which just felt like not enough people to really feel like we were playing The Traitors. It also became difficult for the Traitor to hide who they were as there were not many people to murder, and there is limited information on if murdering yourself is an option simply to try and throw off the scent.
There was also the issue of trying to remain undetected in the blindfolded moments. With only 4-6 people, and the Traitor needing to move things on the board or pick something up rather than just moving a counter, we found ourselves having to constantly sing or shout to try and ensure we didn’t hear where the movements were coming from across the table. The instruction manual suggests putting on music for this but, unless the speaker is in the middle of the table, you will still have an idea of what sounds are closer to you and thus who may be the Traitor. Potentially, as the game is set out in a card pack anyway, this could have been improved by having multiple copies of this that all players look at simultaneously, with The Traitors card having their secret mission on it too, meaning everyone can read at the same time without giving anything extra away.
Similarly, the End Game (essentially the Prisoners’ Dilemma) feels a little jarring at the end of the game. In our play through, the Traitor did not make it into the top two so it felt normal to just both write Faithful and win. While I understand how this is meant to represent the TV show, in this context this just felt an unnecessary way to end the game; adding up our individual gold amounts would have been a perfectly satisfying way to end the game.
Final Round Table
If you love the show and are someone wants a fun party game for a group of friends or family, then this is a great option to add a fun dynamic to your next get together. The missions are well put together, and everyone is always involved in the game so there’s no waiting for someone to have their go. Trying to work out who the Traitor is from guessing what the secret tasks could be is also a brilliant element to the game, and can be very funny as you accuse someone of being a Traitor for just being slightly unusual. Furthermore, as there is no elimination for those that are murdered or banished, no one has to sit around waiting for the game to finish.
However, if you love other social deduction games, this can feel quite simplistic at times and with a couple of flaws that other games like Salem 1692 or Traitors Aboard overcome.
This review has been, and will always be, 100% faithful.
