Roles guide

BETRAYAL has 12 roles, all available for any number of players. Each one sees the game from a different angle and belongs to a team: the civilians, the spies, or the jester who plays alone.

🕵️ Spy Spies team · every game

The spy is the only player who doesn't know the secret. They only know the category: a place, a country, a job or a fruit. They must answer questions as if they knew, and work out the secret from what the others say.

• By day: blends in and asks general questions that fit more than one option.
• By night: chooses a victim with their partners. With more than one spy, each one sees the others' choices.
• If voted out: gets one last chance to guess the secret. Right, and their team wins at once; wrong, and they are out.

Number of spies (automatic): one up to 10 players, two from 11 to 15, three from 16 to 20. The spies know each other.

👤 Civilian Civilians team · every game

The civilian knows the secret and has no special power. But they are the most important weapon in the game: their vote, and the clever questions that expose whoever doesn't know the secret.

• Ask questions only someone who knows the secret can answer well.
• Don't be too obvious, or you'll give the secret to the spy.
• At night you pick who you suspect, and your pick is added to the others in the “village opinion”.

🔎 Detective Civilians team

Knows the secret, and each night investigates one player. They don't see the full role, only a result:

• “This player looks suspicious”: for the spy and the jester.
• “This player is probably innocent”: for every other role, including the saboteur, who manages to fool them.

The detective is powerful, but if they announce their results out loud they become an easy target for the spies the next night. The smart move is to steer the discussion without giving themselves away.

🛡️ Guardian Civilians team

Knows the secret, and each night protects one player from the spies' attack. They can protect themselves, but not the same player two nights in a row. If the spies attack the protected player, the morning announces that the guardian saved the victim, without naming them.

🧨 Saboteur Spies team

The most dangerous role in the game. Knows the secret and knows the spies, but the spies don't know them. Works for the spies in secret:

• Defends the spies without making it obvious.
• Turns suspicion towards innocent civilians.
• The detective sees them as “innocent”, so they can win everyone's trust.

Wins with the spies and counts with them for the majority.

🃏 Jester Plays alone

Knows the secret, but has a strange goal: to get voted out. If they succeed, they win alone and the game ends. They must act strange enough to be accused, without overdoing it and being spotted. The detective sees them as “suspicious”, which helps!

🔮 Seer Civilians team

Each night she picks a player and sees their exact card; even the saboteur can't fool her. Stronger than the detective, but if she reveals herself she becomes the spies' first target.

🧪 Witch Civilians team

She has two potions, each usable once in the whole game:

• 💚 Life potion: she sees the spies' victim tonight and can save them.
• ☠️ Death potion: she kills any player she chooses during the night.

At night the witch always plays after the spies, and the order is random every night so nobody can be identified by their turn.

🏹 Hunter Civilians team

If he is eliminated, whether killed by the spies at night or voted out, he immediately shoots a player of his choice who goes down with him. He can change the ending if he hits a spy!

💘 Cupid Civilians team

While the cards are revealed, he chooses two lovers (he may choose himself). Each lover knows the other. If one dies, the other dies of a broken heart. If the lovers are on different teams and are the last two alive, they win together 💘.

👧 Little Girl Civilians team

At night she can peek at the spies. Sometimes she sees a spy's name, sometimes nothing... and sometimes they catch her and she dies instead of their chosen victim. Big risk, precious information.

🦹 Thief Chooses his team

If he is in the game, two extra cards are placed in the middle. When he reveals his card, the thief sees both and may take one instead of his role, and one of them may be a spy card! If he takes nothing, he becomes a civilian.

Quick table

You can switch any special role on or off on the setup screen before each game.