Secret Societies

Secret Societies Deep Dive

What the Community Thinks About Secret Societies

Secret Societies earns warm, if qualified, praise. The Brothers Murph describe it as part of a line from Garphill Games that departs from the publisher's familiar trilogy series, and they singled it out on their mid-year awards show. Shelfside, in a review sponsored by Garphill Games and played on a prototype, gives it a tentative 8 out of 10 and calls it "deep and interactive, which is pretty much perfect for a multiplayer bidding game," while warning that it is also "quite gamey," with a lot of rules that are not really rooted in the theme. Cardboard Crew, whose how-to-play video was also sponsored by the publisher, keeps coming back to how rewarding it is to improve with each play. Meeple University notes that it may feel like a euro resource and tableau building game but is "driven by a cutthroat and multi-layered auction."

Core Mechanics That Define Secret Societies

Auction and Bidding

At the heart of Secret Societies is a bidding system that Shelfside calls "immensely satisfying." Each round, deed cards for countries are revealed, and every player places two bids, one card at a time, and may play one of them face down. Coins can be stacked on a bid card to boost its value, up to the limit printed on the card, and as Meeple University warns, whether you win or lose, that money is paid and gone forever. Shelfside sums up the appeal: "you have the option to boost them for more decision space which means you have the flexibility to push a four into a five." Bids also carry their own benefits for winning or losing, so losing an auction is not always a waste. Resolution then runs from left to right across the deeds, and Shelfside points out that what happens earlier in resolution can influence which cards are won later. Winning bid cards go to the vault, where, Meeple University explains, they cannot be used for bidding until you get them back.

Asymmetric Player Powers

Each of the eight societies, including the aliens, influencers, reptilians, tech bros, vampires, robots and the Illuminati, has its own way of bending the auction. Meeple University's shorthand: the Illuminati control the wealth, vampires peek at cards and charm people, reptilians steal and disguise themselves, robots stack coins with their drone for future advantage, and aliens flood the auction with planets. Shelfside adds that the tech bros make easy money by bidding where someone else already has, and can nab leftover deeds at a discount. Designed by S.J. Macdonald, the factions feel distinct from the first round, and Shelfside says they continue to feel different as you keep playing. The Brothers Murph found themselves wanting to play a faction "again and again" to work out its little hook.

The Secret Societies Experience

Conspiratorial Tension

The theme is a gleeful one: every conspiracy theory you have heard, in Meeple University's words, meeting in secret to divide up the Earth. The Brothers Murph enjoyed that the game is playful about the conspiratorial nature of the world, and their segment turns into riffs on vampires and lizard people running things. Meeple University's rules overview leans into it with vampire jokes about French nightlife and bids on New Zealand. Shelfside is cooler on the theme, finding it a little novel but saying the rules are gamey rather than thematic, so this is a game where the flavor sits on top of the systems rather than driving them.

High-Stakes Bluffing

Face-down bids keep everyone guessing. Shelfside notes that "you rarely know how much people are really going to spend because half the bids are face down," and the resolution phase regularly throws people off guard as they see who truly wins each country and what it really cost. For Shelfside, that is the best part of the game: every round becomes "this fun little logic puzzle" of working out which bid cards opponents are playing face down and how much they actually value each country. Whether you win or lose a bid, the coins you stacked on it are gone, so every bluff costs something.

What Makes Secret Societies Stand Out

Seamless System Integration

Cardboard Crew highlighted "the comboastic interconnection of all the various systems in the game." Winning bid cards sit in the vault, constraining future options until you get them back. The deeds you win feed land, population or industry depending on where you place them, and in the growth phase, as Meeple University explains, every player simultaneously spends those resources to build up their society. The projects and abilities unlocked there change how you approach the next auction. Cardboard Crew's takeaway is that the more you play, the better you get, and that coming back and doing a bit better feels really rewarding.

Strong Replayability Through Asymmetry

Shelfside counts the sources of variety: eight factions, a starting island board, countries dealt out differently because you won't see all 75 every game, and neutral projects that change every game. By Shelfside's estimate, that is at least 16 plays just to try each faction twice, "and that's not even counting how certain matchups can really change the game." Meeple University notes that setup pairs one of the five starting micro-state boards with one of the eight societies, so even familiar factions start from different positions.

Potential Drawbacks

Complex Growth Phase and Rulebook Friction

Shelfside's biggest complaint is the rulebook: "For a game as complicated as this, there's no table of contents, no glossary, no index." There are nice diagrams, but rules are hard to look up, and Shelfside says the growth phase in particular should be explained more clearly. The growth phase is also why Shelfside's personal score is a seven out of 10: it "makes the game needlessly a little too long," and the point salad scoring left Shelfside cold. Players who mainly want the auction may find the engine-building half gets in the way.

Component Clarity in the Prototype

Shelfside reviewed a prototype, so some of these issues may change before release. The deeds are hard to read at a glance because their connections are shown only on the top half of the card. The game never clarifies which side of tokens such as the drone and influencer pieces is the front. Shelfside also suggests giving everyone a proper player aid covering the round order, especially bidding and resolution, because the player screen only covers setup and end-of-game scoring, and it is angled so you cannot use it mid-game.

If You Enjoy Secret Societies

The Brothers Murph note that there are not many bidding games, so a good one feels like a chance to use a mechanism you rarely get to play with. Shelfside suggests High Society as another bidding game worth checking out. Shelfside also compares Secret Societies with Rising Sun: Secret Societies has less of the crazy dynamics and money moving around, so it is less confusing and tiring. Rising Sun suits players who want a wilder auction with asymmetric factions, and Secret Societies suits players who want a more controlled one.