Social deduction game
Players deduce hidden roles through logic and bluffing.
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Daniel Mizieliński · CC BY-SA 3.0
A social deduction game is a type of game—often a card game, board game, or video game—where players try to figure out each other’s secret role or which team they belong to. Most of the time, these games divide players into teams, usually a “good” team and a “bad” team, although some games include multiple teams or give every player a unique hidden role. Players rely on logic and deductive reasoning to uncover others’ roles, while other players bluff to throw off suspicion. The genre is sometimes described as having two phases: one for private knowledge and discussion, and a “public square” phase where accusations are made or information is shared.
Early games
Early social deduction games grew out of party games like wink murder, where a secretly chosen player can “kill” others by winking, and survivors try to identify the killer. The 1975 manga They Were Eleven was an early influence on later games such as Raging Loop (2015), Among Us (2018), and Gnosia (2019). One of the first social deduction games was Hoax (1981), a card game without teams where every player might be lying about which of seven characters they are, and players must deduce the truth or bluff successfully to win. A more famous early example is Mafia (also known as Werewolf), which started as a psychological experiment in Russia before becoming a popular card game with a “good” team trying to find the “bad” players.
Mafia and its variants grew steadily, with many versions published in the 2000s, such as Ultimate Werewolf. In 2010, Wired’s Margaret Robinson noted that the game had “infected almost every significant tech event around the world,” and in 2014, Boing Boing’s Matt Casey claimed that every social deduction game since “draws at least some of its inspiration” from Mafia. As the genre evolved in the 2000s, designers aimed to fix issues with Mafia, like long waits for eliminated players and the need for a non-playing referee.
Video games
Social deduction games have been adapted into video games through mods and full titles. Examples include custom maps for StarCraft: Brood War like Changeling and The Thing, which later inspired Warcraft III custom maps such as “Mafia,” “Werewolf,” “Zerg Infestation,” “Changeling,” and “The Thing.” Other notable video game adaptations include the Garry’s Mod game mode “Trouble in Terrorist Town,” Raging Loop (2015), Town of Salem, the StarCraft II mod “Phantom Mode,” and Gnosia (2019). Among Us (2018) became hugely popular in 2020, often attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, as it allowed social interaction while social distancing. PC Gamer’s Wes Fenlon said Among Us improved the genre over popular tabletop games inspired by Mafia and over direct video game copies by adding active tasks for players to complete alongside the social deduction.
Definition
Notable board and card games include Mafia, where only the mafia know each other and their roles; Bang!, where only the sheriff’s role is public; and Secret Hitler, where only the fascists know who the fascists are, except for the player playing Hitler. Key strategy in some games involves deciding how long to stick to a story after learning new information. A Monte Carlo tree search has been suggested for decision-making in social deduction games. Multiple rounds with the same players add a strong meta-gaming social element, forcing players to consider past actions and future rounds if they switch teams.
Television shows based on social deduction include De Mol (1998), a Belgian reality game show where one contestant is secretly a Mole, adapted internationally as Wie is de Mol?, Agent, and The Mole. Trapped! (2007) is a British children’s show with one secret Saboteur.
The Hustler (2021) is a US quiz show where one contestant is given answers in advance. The Traitors is a reality franchise based on Werewolf/Mafia, starting in the Netherlands as De Verraders (2021) and adapted in over 30 countries. Million Dollar Secret (2025) is a Netflix reality show where contestants search for the holder of a million dollars, and that person wins if they keep it at the end.
Core Mechanics and Strategic Depth
A social deduction game is fundamentally a contest of hidden identity. Players are typically divided into a "good" team and a "bad" team, though some titles assign a unique secret role to every participant. The core tension arises from the split between private knowledge—what each player knows about their own role—and a public discussion phase where accusations and revelations unfold. During this public square, players wield logic and deductive reasoning to piece together who belongs to which side, while those bluffing work to mislead and deflect suspicion.
Strategy extends well beyond a single round. One critical decision is how long a player should maintain a fabricated story once new information surfaces from others. The genre has even attracted academic attention, with Monte Carlo tree search proposed as a decision-making framework. Furthermore, when the same group competes across multiple sessions, a powerful meta-gaming layer emerges: participants must consider not only how to win the current game but also how opponents behaved in prior rounds and how they might need to adapt if teams shift in future encounters.
The Digital Revolution and Among Us
As the 2000s progressed, social deduction concepts migrated into digital spaces. Custom maps for StarCraft: Brood War, including Changeling and The Thing, were among the earliest video-game adaptations, and they in turn inspired Warcraft III community maps such as "Mafia," "Werewolf," and "Zerg Infestation." The genre continued to expand through titles like Space Station 13 (2003), Garry's Mod's "Trouble in Terrorist Town" mode, Town of Salem (2014), StarCraft II's Phantom Mode mod, Raging Loop (2015), and Gnosia (2019). Among Us, released in 2018, experienced an explosive surge in popularity during 2020, with the COVID-19 pandemic frequently cited as a catalyst, since the game let friends socialize while maintaining physical distance. PC Gamer's Wes Fenlon observed that Among Us distinguished itself from both Mafia-inspired tabletop games and earlier video-game copies of those mechanics by layering active, task-based gameplay alongside the social deduction, giving players something concrete to do between discussions.
From Living Rooms to Television Screens
The hidden-identity premise of social deduction games has proven equally compelling on television. Belgium's De Mol, which debuted in 1998, established the format of a group of contestants in which one is secretly a "Mole" working against the others. The franchise was adapted internationally, appearing in the Netherlands as Wie is de Mol?, in Poland as Agent, and in the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom as The Mole. Other TV examples include the British children's show Trapped!
(2007), in which one contestant is a hidden Saboteur, and the 2021 American quiz show The Hustler, where a single contestant is secretly handed the correct answers in advance. The Traitors, a reality franchise explicitly based on Werewolf and Mafia, first aired in the Netherlands in 2021 as De Verraders and has since been localized in more than thirty countries. More recently, Netflix's Million Dollar Secret (2025) tasks contestants with identifying and eliminating the player holding a million-dollar prize, with the holder winning if they survive to the end.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Social deduction game (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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