The Infinitely-Changing Hidden-Role Game
The age of predictable strategy is over. This is the future of social deduction: nineteen reimagined Shakespearean characters, six bluffable actions and up to eight players at your table. Each game of Captain’s Gambit commands your full attention. To win, you must leverage your hidden identity, your permit cards and your persuasion skills each round. Every game brings new challenges and new opportunities - will you fall to obscurity, or ascend to glory?
Meet nineteen reimagined classics
From Puck to Iago to Rosalind, experience the trials and triumphs of the most famous — and infamous — Shakespearean characters to grace the stage.
Manipulate and deceive your enemies
You can lie about what permit cards you have, meaning you always have access to every action in the game. If you don’t believe someone has a card, call their bluff to damage them!
Enjoy fresh games with strategic depth
To master the game, develop personal strategies to play each captain in your own style. Aggressive or passive Puck? Underhanded or diplomatic Iago? Play each character your way!
How to Play
Captains
Your captain card tells you how to win: you might need to kill a specific enemy, or you may need to bloody your hands more than anyone else. To succeed, persuade opponents to work with you - even lying about your identity, if necessary - and manipulate others into attacking your ideal targets.
Will you pretend to be King Lear to lure opponents into a vulnerable position? Will you label your enemy as the feared technomancer Prospero, creating a distraction that lets you sneak in your own victory?
Captain’s Gambit is a game of identity deduction and timely betrayals. You can leverage your tactical skills to calculate the shifting odds, or leverage your improv talents to fast-talk your way out of trouble. Everyone has their own personal skillset - play to discover yours.
Permits
Your two permit cards give you permission to do certain actions. Actions are how you interact with opponents: use actions like Overcharge or Drain to gain energy, then actions like Barrage and Fortify to deal damage or restore health.
The key is this: your permit cards are hidden, and you don’t “spend” them to do actions. This means while you’re only supposed to choose actions that match your permit cards, you can instead lie and declare whatever actions you want. If you look truthful enough, you can can get away with doing any action you feel like, regardless of the cards in your hand.
If you don’t believe someone else actually has a permit card, you can call them out: if you do, either your opponent will forfeit their action and take 3 damage, or they’ll show you their permit card, and you take 3 damage!
To succeed, you must make the best of every situation, either by skillfully planning out your actions, by smooth-talking some players into helping you, by laying low and passing by unnoticed, or by speaking out and distracting everyone. How will you win?
Captain’s Gambit is for the player who…
Enjoys games like Coup, Werewolf, D&D, Dungeon World, or SSBM
Prefers their games to feel unique every time they play
Wants games that are actually fun for 6-8 players
Likes to follow metagames as they evolve and shift over time
Loves watching and making big brain plays that outsmart everyone else
