About The Resistance
Pure social deduction. No elimination — everyone plays every round. Resistance rebels try to pass 3 missions; Imperial spies try to sabotage 3. Reading people is everything.
Is The Resistance Right for You?
Best for
The Resistance is the pure social-deduction game for larger groups of five to ten who love accusing each other across a table. There is no player elimination, so everyone stays in the argument all game as the resistance and spies clash over five missions, and it thrives at parties and game nights with talkative people.
Maybe skip it if…
It needs at least five players and dies with fewer, and quiet or conflict-averse groups will find it dull since reading and bluffing people is the entire game.
How to Play The Resistance
Setup
Deal role cards secretly — roughly 1/3 spies.
On Your Turn
- Leader selects a team for the mission.
- Everyone votes approve/reject. Majority rules.
- Selected players secretly play Success or (spies only) Fail.
- 3 fails in a mission = spy point.
How to Win
Resistance wins 3 successful missions. Spies win 3 failed missions.
💡 Strategy Tips
Spies: act natural, vote rationally early. Resistance: track voting patterns meticulously.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Spies blindly failing every mission they are on, instantly painting a target on themselves.
- Resistance members approving teams without scrutinizing who proposed them and who is on them.
- Forgetting the rule that the fifth rejected team proposal in a round hands the win to the spies.
- Ignoring vote tracking; how people voted on team proposals is often more revealing than the mission results.
Advanced Strategy
- As a spy, fail selectively and let teammates take heat; an all-clean spy is gold.
- Track every team vote, since an unexplained rejection of a clean team often outs a spy.
- In Avalon, Merlin must guide subtly or the Assassin will identify and kill them for the win.
- Pay attention to who eagerly volunteers for missions versus who avoids them.
Variants & House Rules
The Resistance: Avalon
The popular standalone variant adding special roles like Merlin (who knows the evil players), the Assassin, Percival, and Morgana for far richer deduction.
Plot cards / The Plot Thickens
Optional expansion modules in the base box that hand out special one-time abilities to inject chaos and information.
Video Guides
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Our Verdict
We rate The Resistance, and especially Avalon, among the best social deduction games precisely because nobody gets eliminated and everyone keeps talking. It lives or dies on your group, but with the right crowd of liars it is electric. For most buyers we suggest going straight to Avalon for the special roles.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many players do you need for The Resistance?
Five to ten. It does not work below five, and it is at its best with seven or more loud, suspicious friends.
What is the difference between The Resistance and Avalon?
Avalon is a variant adding special character roles such as Merlin and the Assassin, layering hidden information on top of the base hidden-role game.
Does The Resistance have player elimination?
No. Unlike Werewolf, nobody is voted out, so every player participates through all five missions.
How long does a game take?
About 30 minutes, since it always resolves within five missions.