From Mafia and Werewolf to Among Us and Secret Hitler.
If you’ve been feeling dramatic every time you pull on a hooded garment… if you’ve been distrusting every person across a table from you… if you’ve been slagging people off behind their backs (more than usual)… then you, dear reader, have got The Traitors fever.
One way to scratch your murderous itch is to try out one of the many video games and board games that have similar vibes to The Traitors. Heck, if you don’t have the patience for that, just gather some mates around and play a good old-fashioned game of Wink Murder. Just give one of them a natty jacket and a polo-neck, and tell them to play the role of Claudia Winkleman.
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But if you want a game with slightly more going on that just half-blinking at people whilst trying not to giggle, read on as we dive into the wide world of games that are like The Traitors.
Games like The Traitors – video games and board games
If you’re looking for a game like The Traitors, what you’re really looking for is some sort of ‘social deduction’ game with a multiplayer element. Basically, anything that can give you those roundtable thrills as you try to work out who’s on your side, who isn’t, and how to bend the other players to your way of thinking.
Thankfully, this is a fairly recurrent trope in both video games and board games, and we have a sneaky suspicion that the producers (and the contestants) on The Traitors have probably played a bunch of these games themselves. Pit your wits against any of the below and you’ll be having Traitors-style fun just as soon as you’ve worked out the rules!
The Traitors: Official Board Game
OK, let’s start with an obvious one. You won’t find a game that’s quite as much like The Traitors as this, the official tie-in board game!
Designed for four to six players, the game splits you into teams (Traitors and Faithfuls, of course), with missions, murders, voting and banishments aplenty.
Of course, as it’s designed to be played in one night rather than multiple weeks of telly, things are sped up a bit! Hooded robes sold separately.
Among Us
Mention The Traitors to a young person and they may well reply, ‘Is that the show that’s basically just Among Us?’ No word of a lie, a cousin of mine said exactly that the other week. And yes, to gamers who’ve played many rounds of Among Us, the set-up of The Traitors will seem very familiar.
In Among Us, most players are ‘Crewmates’ working together to do little jobs around a spaceship. Among them, however, are the ‘Imposters’, who are trying to sabotage everything and kill the Crewmates. Players even vote to try and unmask the Imposters. Unlike The Traitors, any Imposters that are found are ejected into deep space.
Among Us is out now on PC, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, iPhone and Android — and the mobile version is free!
Mafia (AKA Werewolf)
To other kinds of people, if you start describing The Traitors, they’ll say something along the lines of: ‘Oh right, like Mafia? Or Werewolf?’ These are classics, dating back decades, of the social deduction party game genre!
You might remember that, when Andrew Garfield had to keep lying in interviews about being in Spider-Man: No Way Home, he described his continued public deception as being just like a game of Werewolf.
Originally created by Dimitry Davidoff in 1986, Mafia has a night time segment (where the baddies can kill people off) and a daytime segment (where everyone can vote to try and oust the baddies). You don’t need any cards or props to play, but plenty of people have tried to adapt this concept into new formats over the years.
We’ll include some helpful links below:
The Chameleon
Here’s a board game option that we really think you’ll like, and it’s easy to pick up as well. In a group of 3 to 8 players, one of you will randomly and secretly become ‘The Chameleon’ at the start of each round.
All the players are shown a set of words, but the Chameleon does not have the clue card to lead them to the correct answer amongst these words. As all the players give one-word clues to hint at the answer without giving it away, the Chameleon must guess at the truth and try to blend in by giving a clue that fits the theme.
Once the round is complete, the players will try to guess who was the Chameleon in their midst. It’s fast, frantic and very funny to play with a group of friends or family. And for once, no one gets murdered! But you will get judged on your body language and every silly thing you say.
The Traitors: The Interactive Game Book
OK, time for another official product! If you don’t fancy The Traitors: Official Board Game that we mentioned earlier, perhaps this will do the trick instead.
The Traitors: Interactive Game Book is something of a unique proposition. A bit like a Choose Your Own Adventure book, it allows you to make choices that may or may not lead to victory in a fictionalised version of The Traitors. There are also little missions included that you can play alone or with other real-life people.
Town of Salem
Back to video games for a moment, Town of Salem came out in 2014 for PC and Mac. It has since spawned expansions, a sequel and a mobile game version.
Town of Salem is an online game where players are put into two groups. Much like Mafia or The Traitors, players are secretly split into teams with vastly different goals. There’s The Mafia, the Townspeople and – interestingly – the Neutral, who have their own set of jobs to do, adding a little twist on the formula.
Buy now on Steam or check out the free mobile version on iPhone or Android
Agatha Christie’s Death on the Cards
A brilliant card game option here. Inspired by the works of Agatha Christie, Death on the Cards starts with each player being assigned three secrets – most of these are harmless jokes, but one of you will be dealt the murderer card at this point and there is also an accomplice in the mix.
By collecting iconic detectives including Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, players will gradually be able to reveal each other’s secrets, whilst the baddies try to blend in with the crowd and burn through the deck as quickly as possible. If the deck runs out, the villains get away!
Goose Goose Duck
Back to video games for a moment, Goose Goose Duck is like Among Us with a lot more feathers. With multiple maps and game modes, and more than 50 character roles, it’s a great option for social deduction fans who’ve already played the most obvious stuff.
Each map has different features but that core concept is still at the heart of it – can your flock complete your tasks, find the hidden baddies and overcome them before they kill the lot of you? Geese are the goodies, of course.
Play for free on PC/Mac, iPhone or Android.
Secret Hitler
Back to tabletop games now. Secret Hitler is another one with a very similar format to The Traitors, and it’s really fun for a games night with a raucous group of pals.
There are three potential roles in this version of German history’s Weimar Republic — you can be a fascist, a liberal or Hitler himself. Each part you can play comes with its own objectives (ranging from election to assassination), and there’s also a fun voting mechanism involved.
The Traitors Online Game
And finally, there’s one other official product you’ll probably want to know about if you’re into The Traitors and gaming. Did you know that The Traitors has its own online game?
This companion website allows people at home to play along with the TV show, predicting what you think will go down at the next banishment, murder and so on. It’s well worth checking out if you’re a ‘TV and phone at the same time’ sort of person!
Read more:
- The Traitors’ Sonja reveals why she was “suspicious” of Paul
- Hannah’s Traitors Diary: “Diane and Ross are playing with fire”
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