Secret Hitler — Role Assignment App

A lightweight web companion for in-person games of Secret Hitler. Each player secretly enters the role card they drew, and the app:

• confirms the role distribution is correct for the player count (catches setup mistakes), and
• privately tells the Fascist team who their teammates and Hitler are — without anyone speaking.

It is a coordination + validation helper, not the full game engine.

Requirements

• Node.js ≥ 22.5 (uses the built-in node:sqlite module — no native build step). Installed via brew install node.
• That's it. The only npm dependency is express.

Setup & run

npm install      # installs express
npm start        # serves on http://localhost:3000

Open http://localhost:3000 on each player's phone/laptop (same network), or open multiple browser tabs to try it solo.

Roles are stored in a SQLite file secret_hitler.db created next to server.js. Delete that file to wipe all games.

How a game flows

1. Start a game → you get a 6-character code plus a shareable invite link (/join/<code>). Send either one. Join a game → enter the code, or just open someone's invite link to skip straight to entering your name.
2. Enter your name.
3. Choose the role you drew: Liberal, Fascist, or Hitler.
4. The app polls the server until everyone has chosen.
5. Results show how many players picked each role, checked against the standard Secret Hitler distribution for that player count.
6. Fascists see each other plus Hitler. Hitler learns the Fascist only in 5–6 player games (official rules). Liberals see nothing.
7. New round clears all roles but keeps the players/names in the session.

Elections (chancellor voting)

After roles are confirmed, press Begin elections to run governments:

1. Anyone nominates a President + Chancellor pair from the roster.
2. Everyone votes Ja! / Nein! — votes stay hidden until all are in.
3. The result is revealed publicly and simultaneously: the tally, pass/fail, and each player's vote face-up (Ja majority passes; a tie fails).
4. Next election starts the next round. The last elected President/Chancellor are shown as term-limited (greyed out) as Chancellor nominees — in ≤5-player games only the last Chancellor is barred (official rules).
5. A failed-election tracker counts consecutive failures; 3 in a row triggers "chaos" (tracker resets, term limits clear).
6. Re-deal roles re-shuffles for a fresh game while keeping everyone's names.

Policy enactment (drawing/playing policy tiles) is out of scope — this covers role assignment and the chancellor vote only.

Standard distribution (used for the confirmation check)

Players	Liberals	Fascists	Hitler
5	3	1	1
6	4	1	1
7	4	2	1
8	5	2	1
9	5	3	1
10	6	3	1

HTTP API

Method	Path	Body	Purpose
POST	/api/games	—	Create a session, returns { gameId }
POST	/api/games/:id/join	{ name }	Join, returns { playerId }
DELETE	/api/games/:id/players/:playerId	—	Leave the game
POST	/api/games/:id/role	{ playerId, role }	Submit a role
GET	/api/games/:id/state?playerId=…	—	Poll tailored state
POST	/api/games/:id/new-round	{ playerId }	Reset roles + elections, keep players
POST	/api/games/:id/begin-play	{ playerId }	Enter the election phase
POST	/api/games/:id/nominate	{ playerId, presidentId, chancellorId }	Open a vote
POST	/api/games/:id/vote	{ playerId, choice }	Cast Ja / Nein
POST	/api/games/:id/election/advance	{ playerId }	Finalize + start next election
GET	/api/stats	—	Game/player counts (diagnostics)