Ruling — Secret Hitler

You asked

How do I play?

Answered counted as answered

Asked with: Secret Hitlerbg-188834-en-1e

Secret Hitler is played in rounds, each consisting of an Election, a Legislative Session, and an Executive Action.[1]

Setup

1. Select the Fascist track corresponding to the number of players and place it next to a Liberal track.[2]

2. Shuffle 11 Fascist Policy tiles and 6 Liberal Policy tiles into a single Policy deck and place it face down on the Draw pile card.[2]

3. Prepare an envelope for each player containing a Secret Role card, a corresponding Party Membership card, one Ja! Ballot card, and one Nein Ballot card.[2]

4. Ensure Liberal Secret Role cards are packed with Liberal Party Membership cards, and Fascist/Hitler Secret Role cards are packed with Fascist Party Membership cards.[2]

5. Shuffle the envelopes and distribute one to each player at random.[2]

6. For 5-6 players: Everyone closes their eyes; Fascists and Hitler open their eyes to acknowledge each other; everyone closes their eyes again.[1]

7. For 7-10 players: Everyone closes their eyes and extends a fist; Fascists (not Hitler) open their eyes to acknowledge each other; Hitler keeps eyes closed but shows a thumbs-up; Fascists note the thumb to identify Hitler; everyone closes their eyes and puts hands down.[1]

The Round

1. Election

* The President placard moves clockwise to the next player, who becomes the Presidential Candidate.[1]

* The Presidential Candidate chooses an eligible Chancellor Candidate by passing the Chancellor placard to them.[1]

* Players may discuss the proposed government.[3]

* Every player, including the Candidates, reveals their Ballot cards simultaneously to vote.[3]

* If a majority votes yes, the government is elected.[3]

* If the vote is a tie or a majority votes no, the vote fails, the Presidential Candidate misses their chance to be elected, and the President placard moves clockwise to the next player.[3]

* If the group rejects three governments in a row, the Election Tracker advances; if it reaches the end, a Policy is immediately enacted from the top of the deck, the tracker resets, and all players become eligible for the Chancellorship.[3]

2. Legislative Session

* The President draws the top three tiles from the Policy deck, looks at them in secret, and discards one face down.[4]

* The President hands the remaining two tiles to the Chancellor at the same time.[4]

* The Chancellor looks at the two tiles in secret, discards one face down, and enacts the remaining tile by placing it face up on the corresponding track.[4]

* If a Fascist Policy is enacted, the government becomes more powerful, and the President is granted a single-use power.[5]

3. Executive Action

* If a Fascist Policy granted a Presidential Power, the President must use it before the next round begins.[6]

* The President may choose a player to investigate; the investigated player hands their Party Membership card to the President, who checks the loyalty in secret and returns it.[6]

* The President may choose any other player to be the next Presidential Candidate by passing them the President placard.[6]

* If the enacted Policy was Liberal or a Fascist Policy with no power, the game proceeds to a new round's Election.[6]

Winning and Ending the Game

* Liberal Victory: The Liberals win if five Liberal Policies are enacted or if Hitler is assassinated.[5]

* Fascist Victory: The Fascists win if six Fascist Policies are enacted, or if Hitler is elected Chancellor after three Fascist Policies have been enacted.[5]

* Note on Hitler: If the President executes a player and that player is Hitler, the game ends in a Liberal victory.[7] If Hitler is elected Chancellor after three Fascist Policies have been enacted, the Fascists win.[5]

[1] RULEBOOK Secret Hitler — Rulebook · p.3 · WHY ARE THERE SECRET ROLE AND PARTY MEMBERSHIP CARDS? · GAMEPLAY · 1. Pass the Presidential Candidacy · 2. Nominate a Chancellor · Eligibility: · ON ELIGIBILITY:

[2] RULEBOOK Secret Hitler — Rulebook · p.2 · SET UP

[3] RULEBOOK Secret Hitler — Rulebook · p.4 · ON ELIGIBILITY: · 3. Vote on the government · If the vote is a tie, or if a majority of players votes no: · If a majority of players votes yes:

[4] RULEBOOK Secret Hitler — Rulebook · p.4 · LEGISLATIVE SESSION

[5] RULEBOOK Secret Hitler — Rulebook · p.2 · OVERVIEW · OBJECT · GAME CONTENTS

[6] RULEBOOK Secret Hitler — Rulebook · p.5 · LEGISLATIVE SESSION · EXECUTIVE ACTION · Investigate Loyalty · Call Special Election

[7] RULEBOOK Secret Hitler — Rulebook · p.5 · Policy Peek · Execution

That's the page. Back to the table.

🔧 debug — where this ruling came from

outcome: ANSWERED — Answered
corpus profile: live,vps
answerer pin (deploy-frozen, attribution only): gemma4:26b think:false 5571076f3d70
timings: search 149 ms · ask 5795 ms · total 5946 ms
single-flight (PR-5): queued 0 ms · generation 5946 ms
retrieval refs (raw) — what the PASSAGE SEARCH returned, not what the answerer read: [{"page": 4, "score": 0.047131, "snippet": "During the Legislative Session, the President and Chancellor work together to enact a new Policy in secret. The President draws the top three tiles from the Policy deck, looks at them in secret, and discards one tile face down into the Discard pile. The remaining two tiles go to the Chancellor, who ", "headingPath": "LEGISLATIVE SESSION", "sharpsignalDocId": 126}, {"page": 4, "score": 0.046875, "snippet": "Term limits only affect nominations to the Chancellorship; anyone can be President, even someone who was just Chancellor. If there are only five players left in the game, only the last elected Chancellor is ineligible to be Chancellor Candidate; the last President may be nominated. There are some ot", "headingPath": "ON ELIGIBILITY: · 3. Vote on the government · If the vote is a tie, or if a majority of players votes no: · If a majority of players votes yes:", "sharpsignalDocId": 126}, {"page": 3, "score": 0.046642, "snippet": "Secret Hitler features an investigation mechanic that allows some players to find out what team other players are on, and this mechanic only works if Hitler's special role is not revealed. To prevent that from happening, every player has both a Secret Role card and a Party Membership card. Hitler's ", "headingPath": "WHY ARE THERE SECRET ROLE AND PARTY MEMBERSHIP CARDS? · GAMEPLAY · 1. Pass the Presidential Candidacy · 2. Nominate a Chancellor · Eligibility: · ON ELIGIBILITY:", "sharpsignalDocId": 126}, {"page": 6, "score": 0.046244, "snippet": "Everyone should claim to be a Liberal. Since the Liberal team has a voting majority, it can easily shut out any player claiming to be a Fascist. As a Fascist, there is no advantage to outing yourself to the majority. Additionally, Liberals should usually tell the truth. Liberals are trying to figure", "headingPath": "STRATEGY NOTES · THANK YOU", "sharpsignalDocId": 126}, {"page": 5, "score": 0.032787, "snippet": "The President secretly looks at the top three tiles in the Policy deck and then returns them to the top of the deck without changing the order. The President executes one player at the table by saying 'I formally execute [player name].' If that player is Hitler, the game ends in a Liberal victory. I", "headingPath": "Policy Peek · Execution", "sharpsignalDocId": 126}, {"page": 2, "score": 0.032258, "snippet": "Select the Fascist track that corresponds to the number of players and place it next to any Liberal track. Shuffle the 11 Fascist Policy tiles and the 6 Liberal Policy tiles into a single Policy deck and place that deck face down on the Draw pile card. You'll need an envelope for each player, and ea", "headingPath": "SET UP", "sharpsignalDocId": 126}, {"page": 2, "score": 0.030415, "snippet": "The year is 1932. The place is pre -WWII Germany. In Secret Hitler , players are German politicians attempting to hold a fragile Liberal government together and stem the rising tide of Fascism. Watch out though-there are secret Fascists among you, and one player is Secret Hitler. At the beginning of", "headingPath": "OVERVIEW · OBJECT · GAME CONTENTS", "sharpsignalDocId": 126}, {"page": 5, "score": 0.030303, "snippet": "ABOUT LYING: Often, some players learn things that the rest of the players don't know, like when the President and Chancellor get to see Policy tiles, or when a President uses the Investigate power to see someone's Party Membership card. You can always lie about hidden knowledge in Secret Hitler. Th", "headingPath": "LEGISLATIVE SESSION · EXECUTIVE ACTION · Investigate Loyalty · Call Special Election", "sharpsignalDocId": 126}]
citations (raw) — what the answer cited, chosen from a retrieval this page cannot show: [{"page": 3, "quote": null, "headingPath": "WHY ARE THERE SECRET ROLE AND PARTY MEMBERSHIP CARDS? · GAMEPLAY · 1. Pass the Presidential Candidacy · 2. Nominate a Chancellor · Eligibility: · ON ELIGIBILITY:", "sharpsignalDocId": 126}, {"page": 2, "quote": null, "headingPath": "SET UP", "sharpsignalDocId": 126}, {"page": 4, "quote": null, "headingPath": "ON ELIGIBILITY: · 3. Vote on the government · If the vote is a tie, or if a majority of players votes no: · If a majority of players votes yes:", "sharpsignalDocId": 126}, {"page": 4, "quote": null, "headingPath": "LEGISLATIVE SESSION", "sharpsignalDocId": 126}, {"page": 2, "quote": null, "headingPath": "OVERVIEW · OBJECT · GAME CONTENTS", "sharpsignalDocId": 126}, {"page": 5, "quote": null, "headingPath": "LEGISLATIVE SESSION · EXECUTIVE ACTION · Investigate Loyalty · Call Special Election", "sharpsignalDocId": 126}, {"page": 5, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Policy Peek · Execution", "sharpsignalDocId": 126}]
boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3): no registered errata card matched this query; base rulebook doc 126 boosted; rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true
base rulebook doc 126 boosted
answered-before recall: this ruling was answered, so past rulings were not offered
similarity threshold in force: 0.55 (rulesage.answered-before.similarity-threshold; the exact-question tier is not gated by it)
answer fence: passed — letter density 0.92158 of 3086 non-space chars (floor 0.45); 0 glyph-index tokens (max 2)
debug row recorded: Aug 26, 2026 12:09 UTC

retrieval — what the passage search returned

what this block IS: the PASSAGE SEARCH's own results — the same search that fills this page's closest-passages list — and NOT the passages the answerer read. Answering runs its OWN retrieval: a far wider candidate pool, re-ranked down to a final handful, plus floors this search never applies — the base rulebook, surviving errata corrections, and one slot per book on a multi-book read. Each of those armed only if THIS ask sent what it needs: the boost block names the ids it forwarded, and the scope line names the books it read. A document the answer CITES that no row here names is therefore EXPECTED, not a defect: two searches, two candidate pools, two orders. The answerer's own final rows are shown in their own block below, beside these and never mixed into them.

score = the fused retrieval score (reciprocal-rank fusion over the search arms) — NOT a cosine similarity. This ruling ran the THREE-ARM fuse (full-text + vector + the doc-priority boost arm, which carried the base rulebook and/or the errata corrections this query matched), whose arithmetic ceiling is 0.04918 — all three arms ranking the same chunk #1 (ceiling = arms/(k+1) at k=60). The measured healthy band 0.016–0.033 was measured on TWO-arm asks and does not bound this one: its high end is the two-arm ceiling, and a third arm has room above it. A chunk only one arm ranked highly lands near 0.016 (that one arm's #1 vote), so 0.03 here is an excellent hit, not a 3% match.

per-arm ranks (the rank each search arm gave a chunk): NOT DISCLOSED by the gateway. Fusion happens gateway-side and only the FUSED score crosses the wire, so rulesage cannot show them without a gateway change. The rank column below is the FUSED rank (position in the returned list), which is real.

token count per chunk: NOT DISCLOSED — chunk token counts are not reported on the ask path. The character counts below are of the bounded snippet/quote rulesage actually received — a real measurement of what we hold, never an estimate of the chunk.

fused rank	document	heading	page	fused RRF score	snippet chars
#1	RULEBOOK Secret Hitler — Rulebook (corpus doc 126)	LEGISLATIVE SESSION	p.4	0.047131 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	300
#2	RULEBOOK Secret Hitler — Rulebook (corpus doc 126)	ON ELIGIBILITY: · 3. Vote on the government · If the vote is a tie, or if a majority of players votes no: · If a majority of players votes yes:	p.4	0.046875 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	300
#3	RULEBOOK Secret Hitler — Rulebook (corpus doc 126)	WHY ARE THERE SECRET ROLE AND PARTY MEMBERSHIP CARDS? · GAMEPLAY · 1. Pass the Presidential Candidacy · 2. Nominate a Chancellor · Eligibility: · ON ELIGIBILITY:	p.3	0.046642 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	300
#4	RULEBOOK Secret Hitler — Rulebook (corpus doc 126)	STRATEGY NOTES · THANK YOU	p.6	0.046244 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	300
#5	RULEBOOK Secret Hitler — Rulebook (corpus doc 126)	Policy Peek · Execution	p.5	0.032787 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	300
#6	RULEBOOK Secret Hitler — Rulebook (corpus doc 126)	SET UP	p.2	0.032258 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	300
#7	RULEBOOK Secret Hitler — Rulebook (corpus doc 126)	OVERVIEW · OBJECT · GAME CONTENTS	p.2	0.030415 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	300
#8	RULEBOOK Secret Hitler — Rulebook (corpus doc 126)	LEGISLATIVE SESSION · EXECUTIVE ACTION · Investigate Loyalty · Call Special Election	p.5	0.030303 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	300

what the answerer read — the passages it actually had in front of it

what this block IS: the passages the ANSWERING read put in front of the answerer, in the order it read them — the other half of the two reads described above, and the one that decides what the answer could possibly say. Each row names the book it came from and where in that book it sits, what it scored when the search arms were fused, which arm carried it there, and whether the re-ranker chose it or a floor guaranteed it a slot. A row here that no passage-search row names is EXPECTED: a far wider pool, re-ranked, with floors the passage search never applies.

candidate pool: the answering read scored 11 passages, out of a ceiling of 80 set gateway-side. Both figures are reported by the gateway for THIS ask — measurements of what actually happened, not constants read out of anyone's source and printed here on faith.

floors armed for this ask: the base rulebook — armed · surviving errata corrections — not armed · one slot per book on a multi-book read — not armed. Every floor is stated on every ask, armed or not, so a floor that did not apply here is never mistaken for one this app does not know about.

arms fused for this ask: vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm. Stated separately from the rows because an arm that ran and carried nothing is a different fact from an arm that never ran.

read at	document	heading	page	fused rank	fused RRF score	carried by	how it got its slot
#1	RULEBOOK Secret Hitler — Rulebook (corpus doc 126)	Policy Peek · Execution	p.5	#5	0.032787 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	vector + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#2	RULEBOOK Secret Hitler — Rulebook (corpus doc 126)	LEGISLATIVE SESSION	p.4	#1	0.047131 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#3	RULEBOOK Secret Hitler — Rulebook (corpus doc 126)	OVERVIEW · OBJECT · GAME CONTENTS	p.2	#7	0.030415 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	vector + full-text	the re-ranker chose it
#4	RULEBOOK Secret Hitler — Rulebook (corpus doc 126)	ON ELIGIBILITY: · 3. Vote on the government · If the vote is a tie, or if a majority of players votes no: · If a majority of players votes yes:	p.4	#2	0.046875 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#5	RULEBOOK Secret Hitler — Rulebook (corpus doc 126)	WHY ARE THERE SECRET ROLE AND PARTY MEMBERSHIP CARDS? · GAMEPLAY · 1. Pass the Presidential Candidacy · 2. Nominate a Chancellor · Eligibility: · ON ELIGIBILITY:	p.3	#3	0.046642 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#6	RULEBOOK Secret Hitler — Rulebook (corpus doc 126)	STRATEGY NOTES · THANK YOU	p.6	#4	0.046244 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#7	RULEBOOK Secret Hitler — Rulebook (corpus doc 126)	LEGISLATIVE SESSION · EXECUTIVE ACTION · Investigate Loyalty · Call Special Election	p.5	#8	0.030303 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	vector + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#8	RULEBOOK Secret Hitler — Rulebook (corpus doc 126)	SET UP	p.2	#6	0.032258 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	vector + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it

chosen chunks — what the answer actually cited

#	document	heading	page	quote chars
[1]	RULEBOOK Secret Hitler — Rulebook (corpus doc 126)	WHY ARE THERE SECRET ROLE AND PARTY MEMBERSHIP CARDS? · GAMEPLAY · 1. Pass the Presidential Candidacy · 2. Nominate a Chancellor · Eligibility: · ON ELIGIBILITY:	p.3	no quote on the wire
[2]	RULEBOOK Secret Hitler — Rulebook (corpus doc 126)	SET UP	p.2	no quote on the wire
[3]	RULEBOOK Secret Hitler — Rulebook (corpus doc 126)	ON ELIGIBILITY: · 3. Vote on the government · If the vote is a tie, or if a majority of players votes no: · If a majority of players votes yes:	p.4	no quote on the wire
[4]	RULEBOOK Secret Hitler — Rulebook (corpus doc 126)	LEGISLATIVE SESSION	p.4	no quote on the wire
[5]	RULEBOOK Secret Hitler — Rulebook (corpus doc 126)	OVERVIEW · OBJECT · GAME CONTENTS	p.2	no quote on the wire
[6]	RULEBOOK Secret Hitler — Rulebook (corpus doc 126)	LEGISLATIVE SESSION · EXECUTIVE ACTION · Investigate Loyalty · Call Special Election	p.5	no quote on the wire
[7]	RULEBOOK Secret Hitler — Rulebook (corpus doc 126)	Policy Peek · Execution	p.5	no quote on the wire

generation — timing and the path taken

timing split: retrieval 149 ms · first delta 1701 ms · total 5946 ms (retrieval and first-delta both measured from the START of gateway work, so first-delta INCLUDES retrieval — do not subtract)
full breakdown: queued 0 ms · retrieval 149 ms · ask 5795 ms · gateway work 5946 ms · total 5946 ms
tokens in (the prompt the answerer read): 3350
tokens out (what the answerer generated): 841
tok/sec: 201.5 tok/sec — 841 output tokens in 4.174 s of generation
live seat (read from the running child): answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 58s ago)
answerer host (measured by rulesage): reachable (for 22h, checked 8s ago)
answerer node (the seat proxy's own header — this probe, not this ask): node1
stream path: streamed — the gateway pushed at least one accumulated draft
watchdog: first-token watchdog: 30s per arming window (rulesage.table.first-token-watchdog-seconds), re-armed once by the passages frame — so the worst case before a reader falls back to polling is 60s. Whether it actually fired is a BROWSER-side decision that never reaches the server, so it is not recorded here. The stream path above is the server's half of that story: whether a delta was emitted at all.
num_ctx · think posture: both are the CHILD's settings, not rulesage's, and no ask reply carries them — an answer never states which context window or think posture produced it. The live-seat line above reads them from the running child instead, where the gateway can answer for itself; it describes the child NOW, not this ask.

disposition

outcome: ANSWERED — Answered
abstain rationale (n/a — this ruling answered): answered — no abstain rationale applies

setup-shape — why the checklist band did or didn't render

decision: NOT_SETUP_SHAPED — no setup-shape pattern matched this question

errata registry — what the gate above had to match against

this game registers NO errata cards (edition 48), so "no registered errata card matched" above could never have matched one

Errata scope: the gate above matched this ruling's own edition only. When an ask also reads an expansion, that expansion's own registered errata cards stay outside the match — a stated phase-1 limitation, not a failed lookup.