You know the whole conspiracy. The Workers know nothing.
The Saboteur
Six Sabotages, or put the Rat in the chair.
Saboteurs are the minority faction with the most information. At the start of the game you see your fellow Saboteurs and the Rat - everyone else is in the dark. In a 5–6 player table you are the only Saboteur, and the Rat sees you too; from seven players up, the Rat knows no one and you carry the whole plan. Your job is to enact Sabotage blueprints without getting voted out, while quietly steering the table toward a board state where the Rat can win the game by being elected Chief Engineer. You play in coordination, but never openly: the moment a Worker reads your team, the table will collapse on you.
Goal
Saboteurs win in two ways: enact six Sabotage blueprints, or get the Rat elected Chief Engineer once three or more Sabotages are already on the board. You lose if the Workers enact five Modernizations, or if the CEO terminates the Rat with an executive directive.
How to play this role
Vote like a Worker, not like a Saboteur. The single biggest tell at the table is the player who always votes Yes when their teammate is on the ticket. Split your votes deliberately on early shifts - a No on a friendly ticket buys you the credibility you will spend later. When the Rat is the Chief Engineer candidate, you vote yes, but so should at least one Worker, so do not be the loudest cheerleader.
Control the blueprint deck through the CEO. When you are CEO, discarding a Modernization is easy because there are only six in the whole deck - claim you saw three Sabotages and most Workers will accept it on the math. When your teammate is CEO, back their claim consistently. Never accuse another Saboteur publicly - even a 'soft' accusation paints a target on a teammate you will need later.
Once the board fills up, the spotlight swings to the Rat more than to you. The instant three Sabotages are down, push the Rat into the Chief Engineer chair and you win on enactment. Watch for term limits: if the Rat just served as CEO they cannot be nominated again on the next shift. Use Sabotage enactments in earlier shifts to set up the moment when the math forces Workers to accept a Chief Engineer they should reject.
Quick tips
- Memorize the deck math: 6 Modernizations and 11 Sabotages. Claim numbers that the deck can plausibly produce.
- Lose at least one early vote on purpose - a perfect voting record is the fastest way to get terminated.
- Always know which player is the Rat, but never say their name first; let a Worker propose them.
- If you draw an Audit power as CEO, audit a Worker you can frame, not a teammate you would clear.
- When the board reaches four Sabotages, prefer a Sabotage enactment over a Rat-Chief-Engineer push if the Rat is term-limited that shift.
Common mistakes
- Hard-defending the Rat in public. The Rat is supposed to look innocent on their own - if you carry them, the table sees the shape of the team.
- Accidentally revealing teammates by mirror-voting. Every shift, ask yourself if your vote could have come from a Worker holding the same cards.
- Burning a Sabotage enactment when you could have set up a Rat-as-Chief-Engineer win on the same shift.
- Forgetting that in 7–10 player games the Rat does not know you. If you signal too clearly, the Rat will play along and the table will catch both of you. (In a 5–6 player game the Rat does see you - which makes visible teamwork twice as damning.)
Want to try a Saboteur run? Download Service Rat free and queue an online room for five to ten players.