Ultimate Traitors is a game of wit and deduction for two teams: Faithfuls and Traitors. If you’ve played Werewolf, Mafia, or seen The Traitors TV show, you have a good idea of what this game is. The rules included here are and adaptation of games which have been played for decades, with a thematic flavor heavily influenced by The Traitors.

The entire game can be played with a simple set of playing cards and some pen and paper.

Ultimate Traitors Rulebook

👩🏻‍💻 Table of Contents

• 📖 Gameplay Overview
• ⚙️ Basic Setup
• 🏆 How to Win
• 🎛️ Advanced Games
• 🔖 Sample Scenarios
• ℹ️ Resources
• 📜 Gameplay Script
• 🙋🏽‍♂️ Rules Clarifications

📖 Gameplay Overview

In this game, players take on the role of inhabitants of a grand castle estate. They may be nobility, butlers, or skilled trades-folk. But something is amiss. Around every corner lurks danger, suspicion, and intrigue. Lately… people have been disappearing, one by one. There are Traitors walking amongst the humble Faithfuls, and time is running out to figure out who they are.

The game takes place over a series of “days” and “nights”. During each of these phases, there is the potential for a player to be forced to leave the castle.

During the Day, players will talk amongst themselves, sharing information they deem prudent and looking for Traitors. Traitors should lie, cheat, and politic as hard as they can to avoid detection, because at the end of each day players will vote on who they think is a Traitor. If any player receives a majority of votes, they are Banished from the castle, never to be heard from again.

At Night, the Traitors retreat to their shadowy turret and unanimously decide on who they want to Eliminate from the game. Additionally, the Seer gets a chance to discover if another player is secretly a Traitor.

The population inside the castle will slowly dwindle over the course of the game. The game ends when either there are no Traitors left in the castle, or if the number of Traitors is equal to or greater than the number of Faithfuls. (See How to Win for more.)

⚙️ Basic Setup

Create a deck of cards using the steps below as a starting point. Red cards represent players on the side of the Faithfuls, while Black cards represent those on the side of the Traitors.

1. First we need the Traitor cards. Add ♠️ Spades cards (A – 10), one for every four players (or consult the table).
2. Add the ♥️ Queen of Hearts, who represents the Seer.
   1. Optionally, add in some of the other Basic Role cards as you see fit.
3. Finally, we need our Faithfuls. Add ♥️ Hearts or ♦️ Diamonds cards (A – 10) for each of the remaining players. In your first few games, you should have about the same number of pure Faithfuls as all other roles in the deck.

Choose someone to be the Host of your game. This person will keep track of the consequences of player actions and will provide information to the players throughout the game.

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It’s recommended to break up into groups when you have 20 or more players, but the game supports up to 40.

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