The Witch Hunt

The Witch Hunt is a Mercurian social deduction game show, in which a group of twenty-five contestants, grouped into "witches" and "civilians" seek to win a share of up to 25 million ₥c. The civilians team aims to evict all of the witches from the game, while the witches aim to diminish the number of civilians by carrying out overnight "assassinations", removing them from the game. If any civilians are able to successfully reach the end of the game having banished all of the witches, they win an equal share of the prize fund, however if any witches remain in the game, they win the entire prize instead.

Format

At the start of the game, the witches are selected by the host. Their identities are kept secret from the remaining players, who automatically become civilians. The contestants are then asked to complete the first money-making task, being split into two teams, with the players on the winning team being exempt from the first assassination that night. That night, the witches meet secretly for the first time and choose which contestant will be eliminated from the game. On subsequent days, the money-making task is followed by a meeting of all contestants in which players vote to evict a player they think is a witch, with the player receiving the most votes being eliminated. The witches then meet again to assassinate another player. This general structure continues day-by-day until six players remain.

Evictions

The players gather once per day to try and evict a witch from the game. The player receiving the most votes is eliminated, and it is immediately revealed whether they are a citizen or a witch. In the event of a tied vote, a second round of voting takes place between the tied players, with the tied players being excluded from voting. A player may also make an accusation aimed at one specific player, in which case the usual vote is forgone, and a yes/no vote held instead. In this case, if the contestants vote "yes", then the player who is accused is evicted, however if the contestants vote "no", that they disagree that the accused player is a witch, then the accusing player is evicted from the game.

Assassinations

Each night, the witches meet and discuss which civilian they would like to remove from the game. Once they have reached a consensus, the "assassinated" player receives a letter, hand-delivered by one of the witches telling them they have been removed from the game, and leaves immediately. On nights where a witch was evicted from the game, the witches may choose to enlist a civilian to join them as a fellow witch. They are only given one opportunity to do this, and may still choose to assassinate instead. If at any point. only one witch remains in play with eleven or more players still in the game, then an enlistment is mandatory. Enlistments may not take place if ten or fewer players remain in the game.

In some versions, if the civilian numbers fall too low, one witch is given the opportunity to defect back to being a civilian, instead playing as a double agent. In this variation, the defector still attends the nightly witches meetings and participates in assassinations, however, if they deliver the assassination letter to the civilian, they are not removed from the game, whilst also finding out the identity of the defector.

Endgame

When only six players remain, no further assassinations take place. Instead, players may only be removed from the game via evictions. Evictions votes are only triggered by accusations at this point. If no player makes an accusation, then the game ends, with the players' roles then being revealed. If only civilians remain, they share the prize pot, however if any witches are still in the game, they steal the prize for themselves. In versions where a defector exists, the civilians still win the game if any witches are left, so long as the defector also remains in the game.

Syndicated versions

Nation	Broadcaster	Local name	Language	Host	Top prize