“Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.”
Inspired by classics like The Resistance and Secret Hitler, Secret Jesus is a social deduction
game for 5–12 players set in the final days of Jesus’ life.
Will Jesus escape the crucifixion? Will the Apostles unmask Judas in time? Or will the Romans strike at the heart
of the resistance?
Two Teams, Many Goals
Jews: Jesus, Peter, Mary, Judas, and one or more Apostles.
Romans: Pilate and Procula.
The Jews must protect Jesus without drawing attention, surviving each Chapter while trying to expose the traitor
in
their midst. The Romans apply pressure, watching every move, waiting for one mistake to reveal everything.
Game Phases
Setup
- Each player gets a secret role and a unique deck of cards: Prodigies, if you are a Jew, or Chapters, if you
are a Roman.
- Romans reveal themselves.
- Jesus secretly reveals himself to his Apostles.
Gospel
- The Romans present one Chapter at a time, like Walk on Water or The Last Supper.
- Jews debate and vote on who participates.
- Participants play a Prodigy face-down. There are 3 kinds of Prodigies: Boons (+1), Banes (-1), and Nulls (0).
Prodigies are shuffled and revealed.
- Jews win the Chapter if the total value of all Prodigies is greater or equal to the Chapter’s Difficulty. If a
Chapter fails, Bad Thing happens. Each Bad Thing is unique and can shift the game in unexpected ways by
adding new elements to the gameplay.
Crucifixion
- Romans pick someone to crucify.
- Jews attempt to unmask Judas.
- Cards are revealed:
- Jesus wins if He survives.
- Judas wins if he isn’t unmasked and Jesus dies.
- Peter, Mary, and the Apostles win if Jesus survives and they unmask Judas.
- Romans win if Jesus dies.
What Makes It Unique
- There is no moderator: everybody plays.
- There is no elimination, making the game more entertaining for everybody at all times.
- Thanks to the Bad Things: every game is unique, as they radically change the course of the
game.
- The information asymmetry is threefold: Romans are known to everyone from the beginning;
every Jew knows who
Jesus is; nobody knows who Judas is.
- Many roles, many unique gameplays: For the Romans, Secret Jesus plays like a logic puzzle.
They watch how
Chapters
play out and piece by piece they try to figure out who Jesus is. For the Jews, the game is all about deception.
They act like a cover team, working to spot Judas and shield Jesus without revealing him. More important,
everyone
is pretending to be Jesus, flipping the usual hidden-role formula.
