If you love playing Captain’s Gambit: King of Infinite Space, there are dozens of other awesome social deception, social deduction, and hidden-role games that you might enjoy. But if you aren’t very familiar with the genre, you might not know where to start. No need to worry friend, because we’ve got your back. If you’re hungry for more, here are our top five games that we’re sure you’ll love.
#5 – Saboteur
Designer: Fréderic Moyersoen
Players: 3-10
Playtime: 30mins
In Saboteur, players take on the role of a group of dwarves in search of gold. At the start of each round, the players are secretly divided into two teams: The Miners and The Saboteurs. The Miners try to build an uninterrupted path from the Start Card to the correct Goal Card by placing Path Cards in between them. The Saboteurs, on the other hand, try to stop the Miners by breaking equipment, building inefficient paths, and causing cave-ins. But the Saboteurs need to be subtle, otherwise the Miners might discover their true intentions.
If the Miners manage to reach the gold before everyone runs out of cards, they win and split the riches. But if the Saboteurs manage to stop the Miners from finding the gold, then they reap the rewards instead. When the round is over, the game is reset and players are randomly assigned new roles as Miners and Saboteurs. The game ends after three rounds and whoever has the most gold wins!
You’ll like this game if you like games that are semi-cooperative where you need to work together as a team but still are in it for yourself.
#4 – The Resistance
Designer: Don Eskridge
Players: 5-10
Playtime: 30mins
The Resistance is a social deduction game set in a dystopian future. You play as a band of resistance fighters trying to defeat the oppressive Empire. But imperial sympathizers have infiltrated your group and are attempting to destroy you from within. At the beginning of the game, players are randomly assigned to either be Resistance Operatives or Imperial Spies. Each round, the round Leader chooses a set number of players to carry out a mission. Then, everyone votes on whether that team can be trusted to complete the mission. Once everyone agrees on who to send, the mission either succeeds (i.e. if all the team members are Resistance Operatives) or fails (i.e. if an Imperial Spy managed to infiltrate and sabotage the mission). The game ends if either the Resistance Operatives successfully complete three missions, or if the Imperial Spies cause three missions to fail.
You’ll like this game if you like games where you must work as a team to discover who you can and cannot trust.
#3 – Bang!
Designer: Emiliano Sciarra
Players: 4-7
Playtime: 20-40mins
It’s time for a good old-fashioned spaghetti western shoot-out! Bang! is an asymmetrical hidden-role card game. At the start of the game, each player is dealt one Character card and a secret Role. Your Character card gives you special abilities to help you accomplish your objective. There are four different roles in the game, each with their own unique objective:
The Sheriff wins if they kill all the Outlaws and the Renegade.
The Deputy wants to protect the Sheriff and help them defeat the Outlaws.
The Outlaws win if they kill the Sheriff.
The Renegade wins if they take out both the Outlaws and the Sheriff.
Players keep their roles hidden (except for the Sheriff), and players can lie about who they are. Will you stand victorious, or go out in a blaze of glory?
You’ll like this game if you like games with multiple asymmetrical objectives (you’ll especially like this game if you like playing as Cordelia or Brutus). You’ll also like this game if you like accessible, language-independent games.
#2 – One Night Ultimate Werewolf
Designer: Ted Alspach & Akihisa Okui
Players: 3-10
Playtime: 10mins
One Night Ultimate Werewolf is the classic social deduction game. At the start of the game, each player is assigned one of a dozen different possible roles. During the night phase, all the players close their eyes so that some characters can perform secret actions (such as peeking at cards or shuffling them around). Once the night phase is over, everyone opens their eyes and votes on who they think the werewolves are. The Villagers win if they successfully catch a werewolf, while the Werewolves win if they evade detection.
The game is very fast, and no two games feel quite the same. The games also has multiple expansions, such as One Night Ultimate Werewolf Daybreak, which add more characters to spice things up.
You’ll like this game if you like quick, easy to learn party games that put an emphasis on deducing the secret identities of other players.
#1 – Coup
Designer: Rikki Tahta
Players: 2-6
Playtime: 15mins
Set in the same dystopian universe as The Resistance, Coup is a free-for-all social deception game. Each player starts the game with two Influence cards, which you can use to perform special actions. But because you keep your cards hidden, you can lie about which Influence cards you have to perform any action you want. But if someone thinks you’re bluffing, they can challenge you. If you’re caught lying, you lose one of your Influence cards. But if you were telling the truth, then your opponent loses a card instead. Once you lose both Influence cards you are out of the game, and the last player standing wins!
You’ll like this game if you love bluffing games and baiting your opponents into making bad calls.