The Lethe

Mafia, Secret Hitler, Spyparty; Staples of gatherings which transform you and your friends into mouth breathing tinfoil-hat-conspiracy-theorists while bridges burn and ties unravel. That’s right, folks! This one’s a hidden role game!

How the game works:

Setup

Select one person to be the Moderator. They will assign roles, observe the actions of the players and explain what has happened in each phase of the game; generally, to run the game. Then, all players will close their eyes and the Moderator will secretly designate one player to be the Detective. The Detective’s goal is to seek out the Murderers for the townspeople to oust them. After that, they will assign players to be Murderers. When playing with 4-6 players (not including the Moderator), there will be 1 Murderer. For 7-9 players, there are 2 Murderers. For 10-12 players, there must be 3 Murderers. The Murders’ goal is to gain a majority in the group. Once they are assigned, they may open their eyes to see who their fellow Murderers are. All players without a role are simply townspeople. Finally, all the players may open their eyes again.

Each player will start their tracks at 5. So, in this explanation, all players will hold up an open hand with all five fingers extended.

Gameplay

This plays much like many other hidden role games, it has two phases: A ‘day’ phase and a ‘night’ phase. The game starts in the day phase. During this phase, one player will give a ‘Never Have I Ever’ statement. For example, “Never have I ever… bungee jumped” (although hopefully more interesting and/or saucy than that). Then, in response to this, any player who has done the content of the statement – in this case, bungee jumping – must lower a finger. If you lower all your fingers, you are out of the game at the start of the next day phase. The players may then speculate on who they believe the Murderers to be.

At the start of the night phase, all players “go to sleep” by closing their eyes. The night is when the Detective and the Murderers may use their abilities. These are unlocked by the lowering of your fingers; for each finger lowered, you unlock a new power. Players may choose to refrain from using the power they unlock but if another of their fingers is lowered the next day, they may only use the power they most recently unlocked. This is to say, you can only hold onto one power each night. 

First, the Moderator will wake up the Detective and ask them to indicate who they would like to use their powers on, should they choose to. Even if the detective hasn’t unlocked a power or doesn’t want to use their power, for the sake of secrecy, the Moderator’s request must be stated in the same way every time. The Detective’s powers are to learn a player’s role 3 times and finally kill a player. They do not get a power on their first lowered finger. For learning a role, when the Moderator has stated their request and the Detective indicates the player they would like to investigate, the Moderator will nod if the player is a murderer or shake their head if they are not. For killing a player, the Detective indicates who they would like to kill and at the start of the next day, the Moderator will inform all players that the indicated player is now out of the game.

Next, the Moderator will wake up the Murderers and ask them to indicate who they would like to use their powers on, should they choose to. The Murderers each have their own set of powers independent of one another. Their powers are to lower a player’s finger, make all players lower an extra finger the next day 2 times and kill a player 2 times. For lowering a player’s finger, the Murderer simply indicates the player they would like to use the power on and the next day the Moderator will tell them to lower a finger. “An extra finger is lowered” is a power that works slightly differently. Instead, when the Moderator makes their request, the Murderer will simply nod to indicate that they want to activate their power. If they choose to do so, on the next day, if anyone lowers a finger in response to a ‘Never Have I Ever’ statement, they must lower another additional finger. Their power to kill a player works in the same way as the Detective’s.

At the start of a new day, the Moderator will settle the results of any abilities used the night before. Then, if there are an equal number of Murderers to townspeople+Detective, the Moderator may declare the Murderers the victors. Or, if there are no more Murderers left in the game, they may declare the townspeople the victors. If no victory conditions are met, the day proceeds as usual with the player to the left of the last one to give a ‘Never Have I Ever’ statement to give their own statement for the round.