The Resistance
The Resistance is a hidden role game for 5-10 players (it works best with 7-10). You can go over 10, but the rules presented here are for up to 10, and it becomes a bit more unwildy above 10, above 10 you are probably better moving to Werewolf
To play the Resistance with a regular deck of cards, you’ll need… a regular deck of cards… and the charts that appear below (I’m not sure if these are the same as those in the print version of the game, they are ones I found once before and had written down… EDIT: The Resistance Video Rules is where I got them). Pull the face cards out, these will hand out the roles. Also pull the Ace out, this will indicate the leader and a Joker to indicate the dead man switch. Then from the numbered cards, pull one red and one black card combo for each player in the game, so if you have 7 players you will have 7 reds and 7 blacks. These are voting cards and will be stacked up.
The Ace should go to the player teaching the game for the first turn, then it passes to their left each round. The Joker goes 3 places to their left, it moves each time a mission is approved (we’ll get to that in a bit). If all players are fairly familiar with the game, the Ace gets mixed in the player deck below and will be handed out at random with the Joker going to the player 3 left of the eventual leader.
Using the face cards, we’ll divide the roles up according to this chart. Find the number of players, then for each Resistance member, put in one red faced card, for each spy put in one black faced card. Mix the cards together well and place face down (typically spread out) and players draw a card from the pile in any order (if the Ace was mixed in, they reveal the Ace and draw another card for their role). Players secretly look to see if they are Resistance or a Spy.
| # of Players | Resistance | Spies |
|---|---|---|
| 5 |
3
|
2
|
| 6 |
4 |
2
|
| 7 |
4
|
3
|
| 8 |
5
|
3
|
| 9 |
6
|
3
|
| 10 |
6
|
4
|
The first leader, tells everyone to close their eyes. With everyone’s eyes closed the leader then tells the Spies to open their eyes and see who the other spies are. After a short period of time, the leader then tells the spies to close their eyes, there is another pause, and the leader then tells everyone to open their eyes. The spies should know who the other spies are, while the Resistance has no clues to whom are on their team or are spies (they will only know they are Resistance).
As noted, each turn the leader picks a team to go on a mission (they typically include themselves and however many people the charts below say to use). They give each member on that team one red card and one black card. The number of players on a mission is decided by the chart below:
| Round | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
5 Players |
2
|
2
|
3
|
3
|
3
|
| 6-7 Players |
2
|
3
|
3
|
4 (2)
|
4 (2)
|
| 8-10 Players |
3
|
4
|
4
|
5 (2)
|
5 (2)
|
(We’ll cover the “(2)” in a moment)
The remaining players then vote to allow that team on a mission or not. If they feel there are spies on the mission then they might vote the mission down, or use it to decide who’s the spy.. There should be a period of discussion here, usually accusations are made and the like. If a majority vote to pass the mission, then the mission goes forward, which we’ll discuss shortly. If it fails to go forward, leadership moves to the player to the left, but the Joker stays in place. If a mission fails to pass while leadership is sitting on the player with the Joker, the mission fails and the Spies get a point. Anytime a mission moves forward, the Joker is moved again three players ahead, basically the Resistance has 3 chances to move a mission forward…
Once a mission moves forward the players on that mission then have to pass or fail that mission. If they are a Resistance member, they must pass the mission. A spy can pass or fail the mission. There a number of reasons why a spy might pass a mission, and that is going beyond the scope of this article, but you may be trying to pass suspicion off you, it might be the very first round… Players vote by turning a card in secretly, red to pass, black to fail (keeping with the colors, red for Resistance, black for Spies). The cards they turn in face down are shuffled well and revealed. Their other cards are also turned in face down to another pile and shuffled well. If the mission passes the Resistance scores a point. On most missions, it only takes one fail to make the whole mission fail and give the spies a point, the exception are those marked “(2)” on the above chart, those need two fails for the mission itself to fail and the spies to get a point. Regardless of outcome, leadership moves to the player to the left and a new round begins. If a mission fails, you know there was a spy on that mission and accusations start flying, with the spy trying to pass off that they are actually Resistance… If the mission passes, the Resistance has a point, if the mission fails the Spies get a point.
The game goes on until one team or the other has 3 points.
The game is much easier and better with the actual psychical cards linked at the start of the article. It gives a score tracker and a better explanation of the rules. This is more of an emergency I’m at friend/family house without my cards sort of thing. There is also Resistance Avalon
Another example of the game being played was done on Table Top.
This works great. I played it yesterday in a camping trip with 7 people and we had a blast.
One thing that helped the setup was to use the same ‘number’ to each player’s voting cards and increase it for each player (so, 2-2, 3-3, 4-4, 5-5, … 8-8). This helps to keep track of who voted what, since the person on my right, for example, would always use the ‘3’s.
The second thing was to use five facedown cards as the score tracker. Whenever the mission passed I would flip the card and leave (if it was red) or replace by a black card. This way it was very easy to know on which mission we were, and the current score.
I did buy the Avalon Resistance box, but I’m waiting for the deliverable. Meanwhile I loved having a first go at The Resistance (we played 4 games in a row, extremely fun). Thanks a lot for the tips!
Thank you for the comment. I’m glad it helped somebody out there.
Very confused. Wouldn’t assigning sets of numbers to players tell you who voted what?
I think they were actually referring to the voting for approval stage for missions.
I’m under that impression as well, where it doesn’t matter as much.
The actual vote does get a bit more tricky and those should be fairly random. The problem is that people might memorize the number used. So perhaps have a few cards of each color to use to help confuse things a bit…
Again the with regular playing cards thing isn’t intended as full replacement from buying the full game, just a fill in the gap to play the game when out and about and you don’t have the regular cards with you. I haven’t been in a situation without the real set for sometime…
You should let those going on the mission pull out their own red and black success or failure cards. That way no one knows who has which cards, they don’t have to be a matched set, just one red and one black.
Just Saying(In response to what Dan G. said) you can play however you want. Personally, I find that baked ziti is a better alternative than a bed of freshly chopped greens dressed in a light miso sauce. Also, cards. Teh.
Hey man, I was visiting family across the country and forgot my copy. Your instructions were spot on. I think for anyone trying it the first tome, I may be hard to do without prior experience, but o think this guide helps soooo much if you just have a deck of cards. Thanks!!