Massacards is a social deduction tabletop game by Luke
, also known as Massacre’s Mansion. While the game itself isn’t publicly available yet, it’s technically finished according to him as he uploads tutorials for its roles and gamemodes, as well as lore about each character. It’s also meant to be the ultimate social deduction game.
The game will not be sold until 5000 people have registered their copies. The reason for this is that the developer’s publisher relies on selling in bulks, so the more copies are sold in a bulk, the cheaper each copy is. 5000 is enough for him to sell the base game and the Grandest Party edition at $35 and $80 respectively as he plans to.
In this game, people have been invited to Master Massacre’s fancy dinner party at their Massacre Mansion. Later they’re found murdered, and a Witness to the murder, as well as a Private Eye that snuck their way into the place, are here to help stop the Killer.
The game contains 200 roles, but while both games support between 5 and 13 players, the Grandest Party edition also features multiple game modes that are compatible with each other for more customization. The Killer, The Private Eye and The Witness are the mandatory roles in the game. Before the game begins, everyone gets three Clue Cards, and The Witness gets to see who The Killer is as they place three Vision Cards on the table that they think would best match The Killer’s Clue Cards. The Witness must then assist the Innocent Alignment without revealing themself to The Killer, while The Private Eye’s job is to kill The Killer while only having one chance to do so.
The game has a Lights Out phase where players close their eyes and put their hands in front of them. The leader gives other players their turns based on their alignment. On their turn, players may open their eyes and use a Dark Ability. Everything happening during this phase is meant to happen simultaneously, so a player may kill another player even if they're already killed by someone else. The Private Eye has their own turn.
At the end of the game, The Killer can win if they correctly guess the identity of The Witness on the first try.
A copy can be requested here.
This game contains the following tropes:
- Back from the Dead:
- The Reborn can come back to life with a Light Ability; it can only be done once.
- The Witch Doctor can revive another player by giving them their Role Card during the Lights Out phase.
- Big Bad: The Killer is the one behind Master Massacre’s murder and also one of the three mandatory roles in the game.
- Big Good: That’s The Witness’s role. They know who The Killer is while having the job to help other alignments know who The Killer is.
- Faking the Dead: The Actor can pretend to be dead as a Dark Ability, even going as far as to reveal all their cards. However, they die for real if another player uses an ability that kills them.
- He Knows Too Much: The Killer’s motivation to find out The Witness’s identity is because they know who the former is.
- Hoist by His Own Petard:
- The Fool can kill anyone who kills them, meaning that The Killer has to be more careful if this role is present in the game.
- The Killer, with a Light Ability, can put their card down face first and point at another player to kill them. Since they have to reveal their role to do so, some recommend only doing that as a last resort.
- Kung Fu-Proof Mook:
- The Huntsman is immune to any abilities used on them by dead players.
- The Tactician is immune to any abilities used on them by Innocent and Dark Innocent players, even the beneficial ones.
- Portmantitle: The game’s title is a portmanteau of “massacre” and “cards”.
- Vigilante Man: There’s a role called “The Vigilante” from the Innocent Alignment. They have a Light Ability that lets them kill a player. Since Light Abilities can only be used once by default, The Vigilante has only one chance to do so.
