We’re going onto a genre or style of games that I don’t really like. I find social deduction games to just be okay because a lot of them aren’t really a game. Before you get too mad, let me explain. A lot of social deduction games are basically mafia or something like that. You start with no information except for who you are and you just make things up to talk about. I want something that has a bit more going on than that in my social deduction games.

What Are Social Deduction Games?

Social Deduction games are games where you generally have two groups. One group is the “bad” group who are trying to complete some objective. Sabotage missions, kill the deputy, whatever it might be. The “good” group is trying to figure out who the “bad” group is and deal with them.

To expound on my issue, most games give you your rolls and then immediately, before anything else happens, you talk about who is good and bad. There is 0 information to go on, and unless someone is bad at lying. So, you spend a few minutes, do something that gives some information and repeat the process. But let’s stop on the negatives, what do I look for is a better question because I do have some I like.

What Do I Look For in a Social Deduction Game

1. Mechanics
2. Information
3. Theme

Mechanics

This might surprise some people to see the order of the list. When I do make these lists, I try and put the more important ones towards the front. And honestly, for social deduction, mechanics for me are very important. I talk about the blind guessing as a negative in the games. And with good mechanics, you don’t need to start out with that. It gives you some interesting things to think about. Some games give you a bunch to start with, and some games give you nothing, but having more than just guessing at the beginning is key for me.

Information

That first one ties into information. I don’t like games that just give you limited information. If in mafia Tony is killed and I know I’m not part of the mafia, that doesn’t help me narrow it down. It just means that Tony wasn’t. I want the information to be meaningful and to build over time. The longer a game or round goes, the more information I should have available to me. Not always making it easier but to at least make more informed decisions. Too many of these games provide double blind information which isn’t that useful.

Theme

Theme really does matter in these games too. Let’s just use an example for this one, spies trying to infiltrate and sabotage an evil corporation, cool theme. Avalon where some people are bad, way less cool. I love Arthurian legend games, Tainted Grail, but The Resistance Avalon is not nearly as good a theme as the regular Resistance has. Mechanics might be the same, but theme makes a difference.

Are All Criteria Equally Important?

For me, theme is probably the least important. If the game has good mechanics and information the theme matters a little bit less. Like I said, I really want more going on than just sitting around a table accusing people. If you give that to me in a package where it makes sense for mafia, monsters, or whatever it might be, I’m probably going to be fine with the theme.

Let’s Do An Example

So we’re going to go with one that I do like in Deception: Murder in Hong Kong. But let’s see why and how it meets my criteria.

Mechanics

The main mechanic of the game actually is just for one player, the forensic scientist. There has been a murder, as the name would suggest. And one player, the forensic scientist is sending up reports to help the detectives figure out the correct murder weapon and piece of evidence. They, however, are not allowed to speak, they just give out a clue that might be a location from a list of locations or the age of the victim.

Information

The clue giving works because with every new report the players get new information. However, the information isn’t always going to be ideal. The age of the victim, well, if they were killed with a school supply, that might help us. But it also might not be useful. And the forensic scientist doesn’t get to pick out which reports they send up, that is already determined. Plus the murder (and possibly accomplice) will use that information to try and throw all the investigators onto other weapons and evidence as they go. And everyone is doing that as more information comes out.

Theme

Solving a murder is a fun theme. Generally, though, I like that theme in deduction. Here it works well in social deduction because, well, there is an element of deduction worked into this as well. I don’t know that the theme is amazingly tied to the mechanics, but it’s one that sets up a fun scenario.

Maybe what I like is social deduction games that have a bit of deduction to them as well. But this one is really somewhat social as you try and read who might be lying. If people are directing away from a person what that might mean. So the social aspect around the table is important.

Will This Work For You?

Probably not. Why, because most people who really like social deduction games don’t care that the game aspect might be lacking slightly. They are there for the banter around the table. I don’t mind the banter around the table, Deception: Murder in Hong Kong has some amazing banter. I just want the banter to mean something. So, if you are like me where you don’t like most social deduction games, maybe checkout Deception: Murder in Hong Kong or Grimm Masquerade. But for a lot of gamers, things like The Resistance and Werewolf, and One Night Ultimate Vampire are going to be great games.

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