As the famous fashion designer Mugatu might say from Zoolander if he decided to take up board gaming, Social Deduction is so hot right now. From board game royalty Blood on the Clocktower and the various famous content creators who play them on YouTube, to the reality show phenomenon The Traitors, social deduction is probably the most popular type of board game going, and often for good reason.
Call me basic but I am a part of this traitorous band wagon as well, as they are often my favourite type of games to get to the table whenever I am lucky enough to get a group together big enough to enjoy them.
When they work social deduction games can be the best kind of tabletop experiences out there. Shocking moments, mammoth revelations, devious betrayals, plot twists, secret villains, all of this can be found within a 30 minute play session of some of the best loved social deduction games out there, experiences that sometimes just cannot be found in your average Eurogame and tableau builder as you hunt for victory points.
The secret is found in the definition, they are social games first and foremost. Something to be enjoyed with a group of your favourite people or even as a way of getting to know someone new, hilarious and tense all at the same time, and if you’re with a good group who can immerse themselves in whatever world you’re playing in, you won’t find a better social activity out there, even in the big scary outside world away from your comfy board game table.
But with popularity comes a boat load of choice, and if you’ve just finished the most recent series of whichever countries version of Traitors you’ve been enjoying and want to recreate this experience in your own home, it can be tricky to know where to start.
So with this Board Game Starter guide I will be talking about some Do’s and some Don’ts when it comes to starting your social deduction journey, before telling you about my pick for a great place to begin.
Backstabbing Beginnings
Social deduction games have been around for a long time, with examples from the 1980s including Hoax, and perhaps more famously Mafia from 1986. Beginning as parlour or party games, you’ve probably played some kind of social deduction game in your lifetime even if you didn’t know it. You may have played wink murder when you were at school, or a game of Werewolf at a friend’s birthday party.
They have an incredibly simple, but brilliantly fun hook that one or more players will be secretly picked at the start of the game to be some kind of traitor. That might be a murderer with a deadly wink, a Werewolf with a penchant for villagers, or in the case of Blood on the Clocktower, a demon on the loose in a town square.
The other players are simply tasked with working out who this traitor is before they end up killed or eliminated from the game. In some examples of social deduction, all you have to go on is intuition and social reads, maybe you know when you’re friends are lying, maybe their body language changed once the character selections were made. Think of the Traitors on TV, where really other than a few bits of information here and there, there is very little to go on outside of trying to throw the cat amongst the pigeons.
In more recent, shall we say tabletop type social deduction games, there are usually mechanics and means to finding out who the villain of the game is. In Deception: Murder in Hong Kong, a player is literally giving clues to murder weapons and motives. In The Thing, you can outright test someone’s allegiance through a little blood examination.
Whatever the type of social deduction game, the unadulterated enjoyment comes from either you expertly working out who the traitor is or, if you’re the big bad, your revealing moment when you come out is the backstabber all along.
Where to begin your social deduction could often come down to your preference. If you’re more of a casual board gamer I definitely wouldn’t start with a big box board game like The Thing, but if you’re a tabletop enthusiast you might be put off by a game where really there are no clues and you’re simply just working out through talking to people like in a game of Werewolf.
It would be hard to pinpoint a definitive game to start with, but where I think I can definitely help before giving my best choice for it, is with certain pitfalls to avoid if you’re wanting to get into a bit of social deducting.
A Faithful’s Guide
If you’re coming to this blog post as you’ve just watched The Traitors, loved it, and want a go yourself, my first thing to recommend avoiding is The Traitors: The Boardgame.
It’s not even that its necessarily a bad board game, especially compared with other tie in games, it’s just that it really is nothing like the TV show. There’s no player elimination, not much surprise and only goes up to 6 people to perhaps cater for smaller groups but at the detriment to the overall recreation of the game, and ultimately might leave you with a bad impression of social deduction. In fact the card version of the Traitors might be a better shout, as I think it does a better job of actually showcasing what makes a good small social deduction game, but still doesn’t provide those big reveal moments you’re looking for.
The best social deduction game with traitors in the title is actually Traitors Aboard, a small card game where you’re either a pirate or a dreaded mutineer, as you throw people overboard and build up loot while the mutineers scheme in the background to hamper progress and hopefully eliminate the good pirates. But it perhaps lacks the staying power and dynamism I would hope for from my social deduction game. Some of my favourite social deduction games are on the heavier side. Games like The Thing are up there in my top 20 board games, providing shocking moments, engaging gameplay, mixing board gaming with social deduction perfectly to create this incredible experience perfect for Halloween season. But it’s certainly one I can’t recommend for beginners, as there are a lot of rules outside of the more simple social deduction mechanics that would put off casual players.
Speaking of heavy board games, there is the previously mentioned social deduction masterpiece Blood on the Clocktower. A game that provides everything the Traitors TV show delivers and more, with different roles, abilities and is even something you can watch others play online and still have a great time with. It works as much as a piece of entertainment as it does a board game you can bring to a game night.
But with that heavy box sadly comes an even heavier price tag, as well as the need for you to be able to organise at least 8 other people to get the most out of a game, and the space to fit everyone in. It’s a fact that sadly I have had to come to terms with myself, and is something I certainly can’t recommend you begin with on your road into social deduction, even if it can deliver all the stuff you would want out of a good game.
No, my recommendation is a hell of a lot smaller than those games. About 100 boxes of it could probably fit in the tome of Blood on the Clocktower. It trades demons for dwarves, detectives for gold miners, and offers up all the good bits of social deduction in 10 to 20 minute games.
IT’S SABOTAGE!
Beastie Boys meets Snow White in my social deduction recommendation for this board game starter guide, as my pick is the now classic Saboteur, released in 2004 and designed by Frederic Moyersoen. In Saboteur, at the start of the game you will be secretly handed a role, that could be as a simple miner, building a road to dig for some precious gold, or as a dastardly dwarf saboteur, who is secretly working to ruin their fellow miners path to gold and their hard work.
Whether you’re a miner or saboteur, you have a hand of cards that you can play one of on your turn. It can be a path card that you play into the mine to create a route to gold, or an action card with a variety of different effects. At the start of the game three goal cards are placed face down, which is where your path will lead to end the game. One of the three goal cards will have a sweet golden nugget at the end of it, whereas the other two will simply have some coal.
The saboteur can try and lead their fellow miners to the coal in secret, (as one of the action cards allows you to look at the goal card), they can destroy paths if they want to play evil openly, or even create loops in the path to essentially get the miners stuck in the mine.
Within your action cards you can sabotage a fellow dwarf by breaking their lantern or destroying their pickaxe, whether that’s because you’re a naughty saboteur or because you think you’re on to one of them, you can repair a broken item, create a rockfall to destroy a path, or as stated look at a treasure map to secretly take a peak at one of the goal cards, which you can choose to share or not share with the group depending on your role and strategy.
It’s a super fun, really simple social deduction game, that is easy to teach to casual players who are just looking for a bit of fun, but offers enough for board game hobbyists like myself to lose themselves in strategies and plays depending on if they’re a miner or saboteur.
When I have been chosen as a saboteur I have played it sneakily, trying to ingratiate myself into the dwarves and appear oh such an honest miner before my big betrayal at the last second. And I have played it pretty open, working not in the shadows but simply being as big a nuisance as I can to the team, hoping maybe a fellow saboteur is out there secretly helping me on this mission. Both ways of playing are entirely open to you and can prove effective.
A quick teach with rounds lasting 10 to 20 minutes, meaning over the course of a game often most people will have the chance to be a saboteur. It’s a lovely family friendly introduction to social deduction, as easy to teach to your child as it would be a grandparent, light enough to not put people off but with the inherent meanness required for good social deduction. Available at less than £10 with so much game in its tiny box, I can’t recommend Saboteur highly enough. It even scales brilliantly which is often a flaw in other social deduction games, working just as well with 5 people as it does with a whole host of 10 dwarves. And if you want to spice up your plays with it, you can get the Jubilee version of the game like I have, which comes with Saboteur 2 and new roles and mechanics to the game, which I haven’t explored properly yet as I love the base version so much, but can’t wait to try it.
Honourable Mentions
I’ve only gotten into Saboteur in the last couple of months, but I knew immediately after playing it, it would be my recommendation for this social deduction board game starter guide. Potentially I get more enjoyment out of other big hitters like Avalon or Secret Hitler, two amazing social deduction games which offer those huge oh my God moments I look for from my social deduction, but I do think they can be a bit rules heavy for some newer players, and you often want to make sure you have as close to a full complement of players as possible to get the most out of a game. If you’ve got a regular board game group, then games like Coup and One Night Ultimate Werewolf might have themes and mechanics that appeal more to you and your friends, but I just think they’re generally a harder teach for newer gamers and when I have introduced them to people they just haven’t taken to them as much. Saboteur on the other hand is a perfect gateway into social deduction. It offers everything you would be looking for in a tiny, inexpensive package, with super quick and super fun gameplay loops that will get everyone around your table howling with laughter. Except maybe if you broke your Mum’s lantern at the last second. Sorry Mum, Saboteur’s got to sabotage after all.
About the Author:
Paul Websell is a freelance contributor for Zatu who spends his time either playing board and video games or talking about them. While he’s not on social media, you can view his other blogs right here on Zatu!
