Service Rat · Players · 6 players

Service Rat with 6 Players

Six players keeps the small-game intimacy of five but gives the Cats an extra body and the lone Sellout a lot more cover. It's a great size for a relaxed game night where everyone still gets plenty of airtime, a tight social deduction game that doesn't drag.

The role split at 6

Four Cats against a two-person evil team: still just one Sellout plus the Rat. The Cats now hold a 4:2 majority, the most comfortable ratio in the small bracket, but that lone Sellout is harder to pin precisely because there are more innocent faces to blend in among.

Does the Rat see an ally?

Yes. Six players is the upper edge of the small-game rule, so the Rat still learns their Sellout ally at setup. Those two coordinate from the start while four Cats fumble in the dark. The extra Cat means the evil pair has to be more careful, since one obvious slip stands out more against four honest players than against three.

Prerogative schedule at 6

Six-player games share the 5–6 bracket with five. No Sniff Out and no Snap Election; Peek at the Docket is the lone information prerogative, and Kick Out of Town plus Veto cap things off.

Walkthroughs for both prerogatives you'll actually see live on the prerogatives hub: Peek at the Docket and Kick Out of Town.

Term limits at 6

With six players alive, the normal rule applies: both the previous Mayor and the previous Ratcatcher are term-limited and can't be nominated as the next Ratcatcher. But that flips the instant the count drops: as soon as a player is kicked out of town and five remain, only the previous Ratcatcher stays locked out. So a six-player game starts under the full restriction, then loosens the moment Kick Out of Town lands, which subtly hands the late game more flexible nominations.

Strategy for six

The single Sellout is the whole evil engine here, so Cats should hunt for the one player whose votes and Mayor draws don't add up; find them and the Rat is left isolated. For the evil team, six is a hiding game: the Sellout should rarely be the obvious bad actor, leaning on the larger Cat pool for camouflage, while the Rat plays a flawless Cat impression until the Rat Law track hits three. Because the prerogative bracket is thin on information, both sides are fighting mostly on votes and card claims rather than confirmed reads.

Want the basics? See the full rules and the role guides, or step down to 5 players or up to 7 players.