McCarthyism

This is a game that I have been interested in making for a while! The idea is to mimic social deduction games, but take away most sources of evidence and force players to play solely using intuition for who is being suspicious or not. I personally think this game is quite silly, but I would love to playtest it more with a large group and see if there is a place for it to be fun! Here are the base rules and a pdf of the cards/ instructions!

Game contents: 

15 Commie role cards, 30 American role cards, 48 event role cards. One snitch token, one double agent token, 20 reversible blacklisted tokens

Base rules: 

Setup:

For n<21 players: take 2/3 n rounded down commie cards and 4/3 n rounded up American cards and distribute 1 to each player. Place the event cards and blacklist tokens in the center of the table where everyone can reach. Everyone closes their eyes. Commies wake up and look at other commies. Commies close their eyes. Everyone closes their eyes.

Gameplay cycle:

1. We start each turn by moving the snitch token one place to the right. If this is the first turn, the last person to have talked to law enforcement goes first.

2. Play then begins one of two ways:

   • If the snitch is not blacklisted:

     1.  Snitching: The snitch can either: Snitch on a player, Call for the game to end, or Pass

        1. • Snitch on a player:  The snitch chooses a non-blacklisted player. All players secretly vote on blacklisting or not. If 1/3 or more of the non-blacklisted players agree to blacklisting then said character is blacklisted and gets a blacklist token.

           • Call for the game to end: If 2/3 of the non-blacklisted players vote for the game to end, then the game ends!

           • Pass: The turn continues

     2.  Reveal evidence: The snitch draws an action card face down and can choose to play it or not.

• If the snitch is blacklisted:

1. Snitching: The snitch must choose 2 non-blacklisted players to snitch on. If he is a commie, he must choose as many commies as possible.  All players secretly vote on blacklisting or not. If 1/3 or more of the non-blacklisted players agree to blacklisting, then the given characters are blacklisted, and the snitch is whitelisted, and puts his blacklist token upside down. 

A whitelisted player cannot be chosen by the snitch for any purpose for max(n/3,5)? turns.  

2. Reveal evidence: If the snitch is still blacklisted, they draw two action cards and must play one of them. If they are whitelisted, they do the normal reveal evidence turn: they draw an action card face down and can choose to play it or not.

Endgame rules:

1. The game ends once there is a successful call for the game to end or every player has had 3 turns.

   • If even a single commie is not blacklisted at the end, then all the commies win and all the Americans lose.

   • If all commies are blacklisted, then the remaining non-blacklisted players win. Blacklisted Americans still lose.

Action cards: 

Basic action cards:

These cards correspond to approx. 66% of cards in the game, and are generally negative. The probability of choosing two of these is around 44%, making around half of blacklisted players immediately lose the game. 

1. Confess to the Feds: These comprise around 50%(24) of the deck of action cards. They generally take you completely out of the game if they resolve. 

   • If you play this card, the following occurs:

     1. You reveal your identity to the rest of the players.

     2. For the rest of the game: if you are blacklisted, you can no longer become the snitch. If not, you can become the snitch exactly one more time.

2. Escape to the Reds: These comprise around 16.666%(8) of the deck of action cards. If you play this card, you immediately leave the game. You are blacklisted and cannot become whitelisted, you do not reveal your identity, and you cannot become the snitch. 

Interesting action cards: 

These cards correspond to around 33%(16) of the deck of action cards. They generally do not take you out of the game and are mostly advantageous. Here is the list of such cards:

1. Deep research (3) :

   • Look at all the cards in the center

2. Double Agent (2): 

   • You get the double agent token, making you the opposite role of what is given. (If another player later plays this action, they become the double agent, and you are no longer a double agent.)

3. Lemme see what you got there (2): 

   • See the person to your right's role. 

4. You seem suspicious (2): 

   • Look at the role of a chosen player.

5. I know a guy (2): 

   • Freely whitelist a blacklisted player. (you can choose yourself)

6. Super snitch: 

   • Freely blacklist a chosen player.

7. Loose Lips:

   •  Everybody look at the card of the person to the right.

8. Commies take over:

   •  Commies and loyal Americans switch orientations.

9. You look like you have something to say.

   • A chosen player must draw two action cards and do one of them. 

10. I think we've both had too much to drink:

    •  Switch roles with another player and see your new role. (The other player cannot see their role)