The Secret Hitler Game

It got brought up in the news today....of a new board game that you'd play in your house or apartment (like Monopoly or Risk).  The name?  Secret Hitler.

It's a game that you'd typically play with five to ten 'guests'....like a party at your house or some artsy-wine moment with a couple of your friends.  Generally, you need a minimum of thirty minutes to reach some conclusion....but it could go up to sixty minutes in length.

The agenda?  There are two groups.  One will take up the role of liberals, and the other facists (note, I didn't say right wing or Nazis).

It's supposed to have the history-like setting of Weimar Germany in the 1930s (not 1940s).

For the liberal group to win (team effort noted), you need to pass liberal agenda items....while blocking the fascists from passing a particular number of agendas.

If it's played with seven players or less....the rule is that the Hitler-member knows his fellow fascists.  More than seven players....the rule is that Hitler-member shouldn't know the ID of all the players. Go figure that logic.

The liberals have the agenda of either stopping a vote or electing the Hitler-member as Chancellor (after usually three fascist agendas are passed).

Basically....if you sit and review the whole game, this is mostly about people grasping politics, agendas, and consequences.  If you knew all the facists agendas led to a Hitler election....maybe you'd pick the right strategy to prevent that.

In real life, from 1919 to 1932....there's at least twenty different scenarios which could have been played out....some more positive than the Nazis coming to power in 1932....and some actually worse (Hitler could have arrived by a coup in November 1923 with the Beer-Putsch event (rarely discussed these days).

The Weimar Republic?  There is no point from 1919 to 1932 where you could say that it had strength and stability.  They were continually worried about the next downfall of the government, the chaos of the Communists, or some great imagined threat.

As for making this a game?  It's in bad taste but it does force you to consider political consequences.

Somewhere down the road, I expect a Secret Trump game to exist, along with a Secret Hilary game as well.

As for people who'd play this kind of game?  That's the thing.  It's hard these days to have a party and arrange for friendly people to come....avoid talking politics like Trump-Hillary....keeping the crowd focused on just a friend snack, some fruity wine, and gossip.  Then you add Secret Hitler into the mix?  And the end-result?  You have to focus on politics and realize that there are liberal agendas and fascists agendas....with Hitlers sometimes in full view or possibly hidden enough that you don't realize the real Hitler or the fake Hitler.

Me?  I'd prefer lawn-darts or water-balloons....but then I don't throw intellectual parties much.