The Resistance

This is much different from the usual type of game I play. That doesn't mean it's any less good, actually The Resistance is awesome and I want to try more games like it.

What is The Resistance and why is it so different? Its a social game of manipulation, deduction and deceit for 5-10 players. Since a lot of games are capped at 4 players, The Resistance fills a void for when you want to play with large groups of people.

Objective: To pass or fail missions depending on your role.

Roles: Players will be given one of two roles in The Resistance, you will become either a Spy or a member of The Resistance.

The Resistance: It is your goal to succeed in carrying out 'Missions', during the Mission phase you can only play your success card, but if even one fail card is played then the mission is a fail.

The Spies: Your goal is to sabotage the Missions being conducted by The Resistance, it will only take one of you to successively fail the Mission, it is important that the Resistance thinks you are one of them.

Gameplay:

The game is broken into 2 phases with the majority of your time spent in the Team Building phase.


Team Building Phase: Here, the current 'Leader' will assign people to go on the Mission based on the mission and the number of players in the game. After the leader has chosen the required amount of players, everyone, including the people not going on the mission, players will discuss why they think certain people should not go on the mission, and why another player would be a better option. After some time the leader will call for a vote, everyone now submits either their approve or reject vote by placing it face down in front of them, once everyone has a vote in front of them, you turn over the tokens so that everyone can see how you voted. Its a majority vote, if there are more approve than fail the Mission Team is approved.

These are given to proposed members of the mission
 team so that no one gets aboard the mission
unnoticed (or forgets)

If the Mission Team is approved we enter the Mission Phase: Once a team has been approved its really straightforward, everyone submits their success or fail card based on their role. (spies submit fail and resistance members submit success) If all the votes are in favour of The Resistance then they succeed and place their marker over the corresponding mission space on the layout card.

If the Mission Team is rejected: The leader passes clockwise and a new proposed Mission Team is selected. This continues until a Mission Team is approved, if 5 teams are rejected in a row then the Resistance loses the game.

These are the victory markers you place to keep track
of which side 'won' each mission.

Plot Card Expansion: In order to spice things up you can add in Plot Cards, at the start of each round the leader draws a plot card, depending on the card, the leader will either play it immediately for its effect and then discard it, save it or place it in play for the remainder of the game. Plot cards are a great addition, but I would recommend playing a few times without them.

Having trouble getting discussion going during the Team Building Phase? Try these questions:

Are you a spy? - Its basic, but effective

Why did you vote to reject the team? - basic also, but good for tripping up spies

If you aren't a spy, why are you acting like one? - even if they aren't acting like a spy, its a good question to trip up a spy

Who thinks ______ is a spy? - good to arouse suspicion, but be careful it doesn't backfire on you

Why are you suggesting we send _______ on the mission? - a lot of our early games the leader avoided suspicion easily, its important that you ask the leader questions too!

Who would enjoy playing The Resistance?


Casual Gamers: It depends a lot on the crowd, but The Resistance sits best with casual players, feelings are not likely to get hurt, people are likely to get into the game after the first couple missions, if you are introducing the game its important to encourage starting discussion and being vocal right away so that others follow in your footsteps. Short playing time, little to no setup time, backstab and sabotage your friends, and near infinite replayability, the resistance is great for Casual Gamers and works well at social events.


Gamer Gamers: I think the Resistance would also sit very well among heavy gamers, its easy to get hooked on the deduction part of the gameplay and really get into trying to figure out who is who. Add in the plot cards and maybe add some story instead of just 'going on the mission' and you've got a really intense game of espionage, mystery and gorilla warfare, who knows what else the possibilities with this game are endless.