Celebrity Traitors may be over, but if you’re still craving a little light lying, the same drama, bluffs and betrayal can be recreated at home.
The game has existed in living rooms and pubs around the world for decades and you don’t need a cast of stars or a spooky Scottish castle to get started - just a few household props and some willing participants.
For the uninitiated, formats like The Traitors (and its party-game ancestors: Mafia, Werewolf, and Wink Murder) are high-stakes tests of social deduction, nerve, and shameless manipulation.
Whether you're playing with a handful of friends or a bigger group, here’s how to channel your inner Claudia Winkleman and host the ultimate game night.
Fans of the TV show will recognise the tension and thrill that comes from operating in secret or rooting out the deceivers in a group.
"It’s a similar sort of psychology to watching a horror film," says Mark Kirschstein, creator of an online community for social deduction games and a veteran of hundreds of play-throughs. "You’re eliciting an emotional, stressful response in a very safe way.”
With a few games under the belt, many players may want to add a bit of variety.
Roles, missions and sabotage
The internet is awash with different varieties of the game – some for free and some for sale – to shake things up for more seasoned players.
Additional roles are a classic – someone with the power to find out who is a traitor while other players are "asleep", or a traitor who operates without the other traitors' knowledge, or who can convert faithful to their side.
Group missions (for traitors to sabotage) can also add variety, either for prizes or for a chance to bring back those who have been murdered or banished.
And for those eliminated, the game doesn't have to end with their untimely demise.
Some bigger groups have a "ghost council" who might vote to introduce new rules for the living such as silent voting, time limits or cryptic clues.
And giving the game a theme or setting – a medieval village or gangland war, say – can help hosts come up with extra missions or rules rather than starting from scratch, Kirschstein adds.
Playing is one thing, but winning is another. And the unpredictable nature of the game is one of the things that makes it so devilishly difficult.
We spoke to experts and experienced game players to get their tips.
How to win (and have fun)
Be a good host
The reason Claudia Winkleman and Traitors US host Alan Cumming make such good hosts is because they "enable a playfulness in everybody else", says Esther MacCallum-Stewart, a professor of games studies at the University of Staffordshire.
"They're very genuine in their sort of ridiculousness,” she says. "And that gives people a real freedom when they're playing.”
Kim Roberts, a teacher from Leicester, plays regularly with family at Christmas and recently introduced the game at work, donning a black wig and extra eyeliner to make sure she and her players were fully immersed.
"I get just as much pleasure from watching the psychology unfold as I do from playing the game itself," she says.
Don’t trust your gut instinct
Sarah Wiseman, a user research expert and self-professed "games nerd", published research in 2019 looking at how players make decisions in social deduction games.
Rather than making decisions based on what they knew to be true, or information they had collected across the game, players were going with how they felt in the moment.
"People are willing to overlook facts if an emotional appeal is made to them that overrides it," Wiseman says, citing more research looking directly at players of Werewolf from 2010.
Richard E Grant brought this to life in the recent series of The Celebrity Traitors when he persuaded some players to defend him simply by connecting with them emotionally – even after telling everyone he was a traitor.
"People are really willing to let their emotions cloud looking at the data that's in front of them," Wiseman says. "And, crucially, that's why these games work."
Stay quiet early, but don't be too quiet
A 2010 research paper from the University of Florida applied the scientific method to rooting out the liars in a game of Werewolf.
One conclusion was that traitors were more likely to stay quiet compared to those seeking them out.
"That's quite often a tell,” Kirschstein says of his experience playing hundreds of games. "Newer players especially. If they're a werewolf, they just won't speak."
"If you have something to hide you are more likely to stay quiet,” agrees Wiseman.
Get stuck in
"I think the people who don't succeed are the people who don't let go as much as everybody else," says MacCallum-Stewart.
"Just being able to relax and acknowledge the fact that it is a game and that games are fun and that when we play games, we play. We're doing something that isn't the real world."
Look for clues in voices, words and body language
Researchers found that increases in the pitch and volume people speak at can be a strong indicator that they aren’t telling the truth.
The opposite is true of visual clues, such as eye blinks or body movements, which decrease when someone is being deceptive.
And Kirschstein says there is a running joke among his group of local players, where a tell-tale phrase can land people in trouble. "We call it the 'C word'," he says.
"And that is when somebody says they're feeling 'confused'. I would say, nine times out of 10, that's an 'evil' player."
Whether or not you end up feeling genuinely discombobulated or not, looking out for other people claiming to not understand what is going on could be a sign they are trying to cover their true motives.
But the experts added a more serious word of caution for those looking to accuse, deceive, manipulate, or otherwise outfox their fellow players.
"These can be stressful games," says Kirschstein. "Particularly if you feel like the room is ganging up on you."
Playing with kindness, as well as a strong sense of cynicism, will make sure the fun is preserved for everyone.
It's only a game, after all.
Image credits
Balint Hamvas, Elisa Saulli/Players Portal, Kim Roberts, Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images
