Social deduction game

A social deduction game is a game in which players attempt to uncover each other's hidden role or team allegiance. Commonly, these games are played with teams, with one team being considered "good" and another being "bad". During gameplay, players can use logic and deductive reasoning to try to deduce one another's roles, while other players can bluff to keep players from suspecting them.

Examples of social deduction games include Mafia, in which only the mafia know who is mafia and what the mafia players' roles are; Bang!, in which only the sheriff's role is known to everyone; and Secret Hitler, in which only the fascists know who the fascists are. Other social deduction games include The Resistance, A Fake Artist Goes to New York, Coup, Deception: Murder in Hong Kong, Dracula's Feast, The Chameleon, Two Rooms and a Boom, Spyfall 2, Love Letter, Witch Hunt, and Crossfire.

Social deduction games have been adapted to video games numerous times through mods or full games. One instances of such adaptations are custom maps for Warcraft III, both including Mafia, and variants with active gameplay in maps like Werewolf, Zerg Infestation, or The Thing. Other notable examples include Garry's Mod mod Trouble in Terrorist Town, Town of Salem, StarCraft II's Phantom Mode mod, Project Winter, and Among Us.

One important element of strategy in some social deduction games is determining how long to stick to one's story in the light of information obtained from other players. A Monte Carlo tree search has been suggested for making decisions in social deduction games, like The Resistance: Avalon.

Notable games

 * Mafia (1986)
 * Werewolf (mid to late 1990s)
 * Secret Hitler (2016)
 * Coup
 * Spyfall

Video games

 * Space Station 13 (2003)
 * Trouble in Terrorist Town (2009), a modification of Garry's Mod (2006)
 * Town of Salem (2014)
 * Fakin' It, a game in The Jackbox Party Pack 3 (2016)
 * Mindnight (2017)
 * Throne of Lies (2017)
 * Among Us (2018)
 * Secret Neighbor, a spin-off of the survival horror stealth game, Hello Neighbor (2018)
 * Push The Button, a game in The Jackbox Party Pack 6 (2019)
 * Wolflord (2020)
 * Untrusted - Web of Cybercrime (2021)