The Resistance OnlineFollow

Recently an online version of a social card game I very much enjoy playing has been made available online. You can check it out at www.theresistanceonline.com. Sign is pretty easy, and so is learning the minimal rules.

The Resistance is a social game much like the party games Mafia or Werewolf, if you've ever played those. The game is for 5-10 players, with the players secretly and randomly divided into two team of good guys and bad guys (each version has genre names for the teams, but it's simpler for rules purposes to call them good guys and bad guys. Bad guys know who other bad guys are, but good guys do not intially know the role of anyone besides themselves. The core of the gameplay revolves around the good guys attempting to discern who the bad guys are in the group and to exclude them from missions, while the bad guys attempt to pass themselves off as good guys and sabotage missions. The goal of the game for the good guys is to pass 3/5 missions. The goal of the game for the bad guys is to fail 3/5 missions.

Gameplay takes place in two phases: Team selection Phase and Mission Phase.

In the Team Selection Phase, the leader of the group nominates a certain number of players (depending on the number of players and current mission) who will participate in the mission. The group then votes on whether they believe this team should participate in the current mission. A majority yes vote is required to send the team. If the nomination passes, then the mission phase begins. If the nomination fails then the next player counter clockwise becomes the leader and nominates a team. If 5 failed votes in a row are achieved the bad guys automatically win.

Next is the Mission Phase. The team selected to go on the mission then secretly votes for whether they wish it to pass or fail. If enough fails votes are achieved, the mission fails (typically this is one, but in special instances two are required). Good guys may only vote for success, but bad guys may choose to vote pass or fail. When the mission is resolved, the leader passes to the next player counterclockwise and the Team Selection Phase begins anew.

There are a maximum of 5 missions. If 3 pass or 3 passed missions are reached then the good guys win. If 3 failed missions are reached then the bad guys win.

That is the core of the gameplay. Different versions of the game have additional rules that give greater variety to the gameplay.. One such variant I find particularly worth noting and will explain in greater detail is Avalon. In the Avalon variant, in addition to the two teams there are also roles withing a team, randomly given to players at the start. Typically these roles affect the amount and kind of information a player is given.

Game pace is dictated largely base on players and how much discussion there is over each decision. Games can run 7-20 minutes.

1. Merlin (Good Guy) - Merlin knows who the bad guys are at the start of the game (except for Mordred). This makes him a potentially very powerful role, as he could suggest mission containing only good guys. He is kept in check however by the Assassin, who prevents Merlin from being too obvious with his knowledge.

2. The Assassin (Bad Guy) - The Assassin plays as a normal bad guy throughout the game and has no additional knowledge at the start of the game. If the good guys pass three missions, the Assassin may stab a player she believes to be Merlin. If the Assassin guess correctly, then she and her allies win the game instead.

3. Percival (Good Guy) - Percival knows who Merlin is. He can follow cues from Merlin to help support his decisions or draw attention away from his knowledge.

4. Morgana (Bad Guy) - Morgana appears as Merlin to Percival. This creates a sub game for Percival in trying to discover which of the two people he has special information on is Merlin and which is Morgana.

5. Mordred (Bad Guy) - Mordred is bad guy who is unknown to Merlin.

I'm advertising the game here because the game both requires a minimum of 5 players and is better off with more. Sign up is easy, it's entirely browser based, and the UI is simple. I'm hoping to drum up some interested from posters here so that we can potentially do some weekly or spontaneous sessions. While the game is fully functional as is, I feel the experience is vastly improved through usage of voice chat, which can be easily provided through skype or a team speak server I have access to. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

This is a fun game.