Hollywood Masquerade

Hollywood Masquerade asks players to go beyond figuring out who is lying—you need to understand why they're lying. In this game, even the good players have compelling reasons to deceive.

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We've raised the stakes by threatening something precious in social deduction games: your final vote. While dying players usually get one last chance to influence the game, several Hollywood Masquerade roles can strip that away entirely.

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• The VIP's - Each VIP has a specific killer targeting them. While the killer's other victims merely go to the infirmary and keep their dying wish, a VIP who gets chosen by their specific killer dies permanently—no final vote, no last words, just gone.

 

This leaves VIPs walking a tightrope: share too little and they can't coordinate with allies, share too much and they risk permanent elimination.

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• The Fading Star - "Begin the game by choosing two players to ‘spread rumours’ about. Those players register as evil. If your identity is revealed you must leave the party."

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The Fading Star creates a real dilemma for the good player forced to play them. Their ability sabotages the very information gatherers they need to help. When push comes to shove, they face a difficult choice: watch an innocent player they framed get eliminated, or reveal themselves and lose all voting power. Either way, they're incentivised to lie.

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• The Extra - "If asked to reveal your role, you must claim to be another role. If your actual identity is revealed, you must leave the party.".

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The Extra faces similar pressure but with a simpler predicament—they weren't even invited to the party. Forced to constantly lie about their identity, they must gather information while having none to trade in return. One slip-up revealing who they actually are, and they're ejected from the game entirely.

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• The Police Chief - Once per game, you may seize contraband and leave the party immediately. All players are sober for the next 2 revels."

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The final player that has to contend with a high stakes elimination is The Police Chief. This is a character most evil players would love to be eliminated before they can use their one off ability.​ The Police Chief effectively sacrifices themselves and their voting rights in order to ensure the good team's information is clean for two rounds of gameplay.

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Crucially, players forced to 'leave the party' only do so in the world of the game. In reality, they're still present and can contribute to discussions, they just can't vote.

 

This creates an unexpected opportunity: self-sacrifice as verification. A Fading Star or Extra who leaves the party also proves they're good, making them a valuable information broker despite their lack of voting power. When the town can't agree on who to eliminate, these players can potentially fall on their own sword instead. But this strategy has limits, if too many good players leave the party, they risk handing the evil team the voting majority they need to control the game.

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This dynamic of forced deception and strategic revelation shapes how information flows in Hollywood Masquerade. The good team's investigators—the Photographer, Ingenue, and Cinematographer— slowly eliminate suspects, rather than identify them directly. These powerful roles, typically the ones that might hide their identity in a traditional social deduction game, are the good team's best chance at narrowing down the killer. But that process of elimination only works if players trust each other enough to corroborate their findings.

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In Hollywood Masquerade, paranoia isn't just justified, it's built into the system. The challenge goes beyond finding the killer, it's deciding who to trust when even your teammates have reason to lie. Trust is the hardest thing to cultivate and yet without it, evil's victory is almost assured.

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Hollywood

• Publicist

• Producer

• Nepo Baby

• Fading Star

• Cinematographer

• Talent Agent

• Screenwriter

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Outsiders

• Body Guard

• Police Chief

• Reporter

• Recording Artist

• Extra

• Photographer

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VIP's

• Studio Head

• Director

• Ingenue

• Leading Man

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Killer

• Cult Leader

• Scorned Talent

• Fixer

• Crazed Fan

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Antagonists

• Femme Fatale

• Entourage

• Tabloid Source

• Paparazzi

• Financier