Secret Hitler Rules (Setup, Elections, Powers and How to Win)

By Eric Published October 3, 2026

Secret Hitler rules in short: each round, the table elects a President and a Chancellor. The President draws three policy tiles, discards one, and the Chancellor plays one of the other two. Liberals win with five Liberal policies or by executing Hitler. Fascists win with six Fascist policies or by electing Hitler Chancellor after three Fascist policies.

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This guide follows the official Secret Hitler rules for the standard edition of Secret Hitler. It’s for 5 to 10 players.

What’s in the Box

• 17 policy tiles: 6 Liberal and 11 Fascist
• 10 Secret Role cards and 10 Party Membership cards
• 10 Ja! ballot cards and 10 Nein ballot cards
• 10 envelopes
• 3 Liberal/Fascist boards, with Fascist tracks for 5–6, 7–8 and 9–10 players
• President and Chancellor placards
• An election tracker marker, a draw pile card and a discard pile card

Setup and Roles

1. Pick the Fascist board that matches your player count and place it next to the Liberal board.
2. Shuffle all 17 policy tiles into one face-down deck.
3. Build one envelope per player. Each holds a Secret Role card, the matching Party Membership card, one Ja! and one Nein.
4. Shuffle the envelopes and deal one to each player.
5. Choose the first presidential candidate at random.

Hitler’s envelope gets a Fascist Party Membership card. That matters later, because an investigation shows the party card and never the role card.

Eyes closed. Everyone closes their eyes. With 5 or 6 players, the Fascist and Hitler open their eyes and see each other. With 7 to 10, the Fascists open their eyes and see each other while Hitler keeps their eyes shut and sticks out a thumb, so the Fascists know who Hitler is and Hitler knows no one.

Step 1 of a Round Is the Election

1. Pass the presidency. The President placard moves one seat clockwise. That player is the presidential candidate.
2. Nominate a Chancellor. The candidate picks any eligible player.
3. Vote. Everyone, including both candidates, reveals Ja or Nein at the same time.

A majority of Ja votes elects the government. A tie fails.

Term limits. The last elected President and Chancellor can’t be nominated as Chancellor. Three details trip people up:

• It’s the last elected pair, not the last nominated pair.
• Term limits only block the Chancellor’s seat. Anyone can be President, even last round’s Chancellor.
• When only five players are left in the game, only the last elected Chancellor is blocked.

Failed elections. Each failed vote moves the election tracker one space, and the presidency moves on. After three failed elections in a row, the top policy of the deck is turned over and enacted. Any power on that space is ignored, the tracker resets and all term limits are forgotten.

Step 2 Is the Legislative Session

The President draws the top three tiles, looks at them in secret and discards one face down. The other two go to the Chancellor, who discards one face down and plays the last one face up on its board.

• The President and Chancellor may not talk or signal during this step.
• The President hands over both tiles at once.
• Nobody may choose at random or shuffle before discarding.
• Discards are never shown. Afterwards, both players can say anything they like about what they held, and the rules say they “are free to lie.”

If fewer than three tiles are left in the deck at the end of a session, shuffle them together with the discard pile to make a new deck.

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Step 3 Is the Presidential Power

When a Fascist policy lands on a space with a power, the sitting President must use it before the next round. Liberal policies never give a power.

These are printed on the boards, which you can see in the publisher’s free print-and-play file on secrethitler.com.

• Investigate Loyalty. The President looks at one player’s Party Membership card, then may tell the truth or lie about it. No player can be investigated twice in a game.
• Call Special Election. The President chooses any other player to be the next presidential candidate, even a term-limited one. Afterwards the presidency returns to the left of the President who called it, so nobody is skipped.
• Policy Peek. The President looks at the top three tiles of the deck and puts them back in the same order.
• Execution. The President says “I formally execute” and names a player. If it’s Hitler, the Liberals win. If not, the player is out and does not reveal their role. Executed players can’t speak, vote or run for office.

Veto Power

After five Fascist policies are enacted, the veto is available for the rest of the game.

The session runs as normal until the Chancellor has two tiles. The Chancellor may then say “I wish to veto this agenda.” If the President agrees, both tiles are discarded and no policy is played. If the President refuses, the Chancellor has to enact one.

How the Game Ends

There are four ways, two for each team.

After the third Fascist policy, each time a government is elected, the table asks the new Chancellor if they are Hitler. If yes, the game is over. If no, everyone now knows that player isn’t Hitler.

What You Can and Can’t Lie About

You can lie about anything hidden: your role, your party, what tiles you drew, what you saw in an investigation.

The one exception is in the rules under “About Lying.” A player who is Hitler must say so if they are executed, or if they are elected Chancellor after three Fascist policies. Those are the two moments that end the game.

The designers’ own How to Play Secret Hitler video shows all of this at a table.

Once you have the rules down, our Secret Hitler strategy guide covers the deck odds and how to play each role. The player count guide explains how the game changes from 5 to 10, and our Secret Hitler review has the verdict. If you don’t own it yet, Secret Hitler comes with boards for every player count.