Traitor's Tide
- Board's Eye View
- Mar 7
- 2 min read
Hidden role/social deduction games aren't new; they were first popularised with Werewolf games - of which there have been very many - and they've appeared in many guises from the witchhunt-themed Salem 1692 (Facade Games) to Secret Hitler to the sci-fi themed Battlestar Galactica (FFG) and pirate-themed Feed the Kraken (Funtails). This genre of games has had a recent resurgence of interest thanks to the TV series The Traitors, which has popularised the core game mechanic and brought it to the attention of a much broader audience.
With Professor Puzzle's Traitor's Tide we're back at sea. The 3-6 players are the crew of a ship. They each have a hidden role card showing whether they are a shipmate or traitor. With three or four players, there'll be just one traitor; with five or six players, there'll be two traitors. A brief 'eyes shut' interlude at the start of the game ensures that when there are two traitors they both know their fellow conspirator.
This game is all about being on the team that ends up with the most treasure. Players are all on the same ship, made up of six cards, and you are up against a pirate ship. All the treasure (gold coins) start off in your ship's treasure chest. Like DV Games' hidden-role Bang! The Dice Game, players will each be rolling five custom six-sided dice, with up to two re-rolls. The dice show waves (2 sides), coins (2 sides), flags and swords. Waves cannot be re-rolled and if you roll three waves, your ship is damaged (flip one of the ship cards to its damaged side). Pirate flags represent the rival ship's attack and swords represent your defence: if you end up with more flags than swords you lose coins to the pirate ship (one coin taken from your ship's treasure chest for each surplus flag). If you end your turn without damaging your ship, any coins you roll let you take that number of coins from the treasure chest to your personal supply or steal them from another player.
The game ends when the treasure chest is empty or the ship is wrecked (ie: all six ship cards have been flipped to their damaged side). It's at this point that players vote (by simultaneous pointing) on who they think are the traitors. Players who guess/deduce correctly win a coin, taken from the pirate ship; players who make an incorrect guess lose a coin to the rival ship. Players then compare the shipmates' total treasure with the combined treasure of the traitor(s) and pirate ship, and the team with the highest total wins.
Unlike the majority of other hidden-role social deduction games there are no individual special abilities and there is no player elimination, making Traitor's Tide a great easy-to-play choice as an entry-level foray into the genre. It's probably at it's balanced best with five players, and it makes for a fast, fun filler that should play through in no more than 20 minutes. Non-gamers who are enticed to play after watching The Traitors on TV might then be introduced to games with a similar core mechanic but with, for example, the addition of character powers; perhaps, for example, Feed the Kraken (Funtails).
