Service Rat with 7 Players
Seven is the tipping point. A second Saboteur joins the evil side, the Rat goes fully solo, and Personnel Audit enters the directive schedule. If you've got a mid-sized group and want a social deduction game with real investigative play, seven players is where it opens up.
The role split at 7
Four Workers face a three-person evil team: two Saboteurs plus the Rat. The Worker majority is now just 4:3, the thinnest it gets, so a single bad government swings the game hard. This is the first count where the bad side has the numbers to apply real pressure.
Does the Rat see an ally?
No. Seven players is where the Rat stops knowing anyone. The two Saboteurs still know each other and know who the Rat is, but the Rat starts blind, having to identify their own team by reading votes and card plays, exactly like the Workers do. That one-way visibility is the defining feature of every game from seven up.
Directive schedule at 7
Seven uses the 7–8 bracket. Personnel Audit shows up early at the 2nd Sabotage, and Extraordinary Shift replaces the small-game Blueprint Preview at the 3rd.
| Sabotage # | Directive (7 players) |
|---|---|
| 1st | — |
| 2nd | Personnel Audit |
| 3rd | Extraordinary Shift |
| 4th | Termination |
| 5th | Termination + Veto unlocks |
Each is broken down on the directives hub — see Personnel Audit and Extraordinary Shift, the two that distinguish this bracket.
Term limits at 7
With seven alive, the full rule is in force: both the previous CEO and the previous Chief Engineer are off-limits for the next Chief Engineer nomination. The small-table exception (only the previous Chief Engineer locked out) doesn't kick in until terminations drop the living count to five, so in a seven-player game you'll usually play most of it under the stricter rule, with the pool of eligible nominees widening only in the endgame.
Strategy for seven
For Workers, the early Personnel Audit is your lifeline. A clean read on one player in a 4:3 game is worth a great deal, so push for trustworthy CEOs who'll use it honestly and announce results clearly. For the Saboteurs, two of you means you can build parallel cover stories and avoid voting in lockstep; coordinate quietly without ever looking coordinated. For the solo Rat, the lack of an ally is a blessing in disguise: you genuinely don't know your team, so your confused, Worker-like behavior reads as authentic right up until you make your move.
Six humans plus an empty chair? Fill it with a bot for a true seven-player game on Pass & Play, LAN, or Online. One human is enough to start.
Need the fundamentals? See the full rules and the role guides, or compare with 6 players and 8 players.
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