What is Avalon?
The Resistance: Avalon is a hidden-role social deduction game for 5-10 players. Most players are Loyal Servants of Arthur fighting for the forces of good; a smaller group of Minions of Mordred hides among them and secretly sabotages missions.
The good team wins by completing three successful quests, but victory is not final until the forces of evil get one last chance: if they can identify and assassinate Merlin, the good team's most powerful informant, they steal the win at the last second.
Like all social deduction games, most of the fun comes from the discussion at the table. This page teaches you the complete rules so a group can learn and start playing in about ten minutes.
Components
- Role cards: Merlin, Percival, 5 Loyal Servants of Arthur (good); Mordred, Morgana, Assassin, Oberon, 4 Minions of Mordred (evil)
- Quest cards: Success cards and Fail cards
- Vote tokens: Approve and Reject, one set per player
- Team markers, a Leader token, round marker and vote-track marker
Good vs. Evil: the Roles
Good (blue) secretly knows only their own role. Evil (red) knows their fellow minions — with one exception: Oberon does not open his eyes during the night phase, so evil does not know who he is, and he does not know who they are either.
Merlin is the good team's superpower: during the night phase he sees who all the evil players are — except Mordred, who stays hidden from him. Merlin must guide his team to victory without revealing that he knows too much, because at the end of the game the Assassin gets to shoot at him.
Percival is Merlin's protector. During the night phase both Merlin and Morgana raise their thumbs for him; Percival knows which two players they are but not which is which. His job is to spot the fake Merlin and back the real one.
Morgana is evil's counter-Merlin: she raises her thumb for Percival pretending to be Merlin, hoping Percival will trust the impostor.
Mordred is invisible to Merlin and participates normally in the evil wake-up, making him the safest evil role against a strong Merlin player. The Assassin is the evil team's marksman who takes the final shot at the end of the game.
Player Count and Role Setup
The remaining good players are Loyal Servants of Arthur. Merlin and Percival are always in the game in the standard setup; Oberon and Mordred can be swapped in for extra Minions in experienced groups.
| Players | Good | Evil | Recommended evil roles |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 3 | 2 | Assassin, Morgana |
| 6 | 4 | 2 | Assassin, Morgana |
| 7 | 4 | 3 | Assassin, Morgana, Mordred |
| 8 | 5 | 3 | Assassin, Morgana, Mordred |
| 9 | 6 | 3 | Assassin, Morgana, Mordred (or Oberon) |
| 10 | 6 | 4 | Assassin, Morgana, Mordred, Oberon |
Quest Team Sizes
The star (*) marks the most famous rule in Avalon: in games of 7 or more players, the fourth quest requires at least two Fail cards to fail. With fewer players, a single Fail card fails any quest. Without this rule, one evil minion on every fourth-mission team could block good forever.
| Players | Quest 1 | Quest 2 | Quest 3 | Quest 4 | Quest 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| 6 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 |
| 7 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4* | 4 |
| 8 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5* | 5 |
| 9 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5* | 5 |
| 10 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5* | 5 |
The Night Phase (Eyes Closed)
- All players close their eyes.
- Evil opens their eyes and sees each other — except Oberon, who keeps his eyes closed. Mordred participates normally, but Merlin will not see him later.
- Evil closes their eyes. Merlin opens his eyes: every evil player except Mordred raises a thumb so Merlin can memorize them.
- Merlin closes his eyes. Percival opens his: Merlin and Morgana both raise a thumb (Percival learns who the two of them are, not which is which).
- Everyone opens their eyes. Randomly choose the first Leader and place the round marker on quest 1 with the vote track at zero.
Round Flow: Team Building, Vote, Quest
Each of the five quests has three phases:
1. Team Building
The current Leader publicly picks the number of players required for the current quest (see the team size table). The Leader may include themselves. The whole table discusses the proposed team before moving to the vote — that discussion is where most of the game happens.
2. The Vote
Every player — including the Leader and both chosen and unchosen players — simultaneously reveals an Approve or Reject token.
The team is approved only on a strict majority of Approve votes (4 of 6 in a six-player game). Ties count as rejections. On approval, continue to the quest. On rejection, the Leader token passes clockwise, the vote track advances, and a new team is proposed.
If five consecutive teams are rejected for the same quest, the forces of evil immediately win the game. This 'hammer' rule keeps the game moving and punishes a good team that cannot agree.
3. The Quest
Approved team members each secretly choose a quest card: Loyal Servants of Arthur must play a Success card — they have no choice. Minions of Mordred may play either card, and will often play Success to build trust.
All chosen cards are shuffled face down and revealed. If any Fail card appears (or two Fail cards on the starred fourth quest in 7+ player games), the quest fails. Otherwise it succeeds.
Only the number of Fail cards is revealed — never who played them. A failed team tells you at least one evil player was on it; a successful quest tells you the team was probably loyal, but evil minions can pass tests to earn trust for later.
The Assassination of Merlin
If the good team wins three quests first, the game is not over yet. The forces of evil get one final move: the Assassin (or an evil player they name, in common house rules) publicly points at one player they believe is Merlin.
If the target is indeed Merlin, evil wins the game on the spot. If the target is anyone else, the good team wins. Before the assassination, evil players are allowed a short private conference to decide — this is official.
Winning Conditions
- Good wins: three successful quests, and the Assassin fails to kill Merlin.
- Evil wins: three failed quests; OR five consecutive rejected teams on one quest; OR successfully assassinating Merlin.
Edge Cases and Etiquette
- Quest cards cannot be taken back once played. Good players have no choice; evil players have full choice.
- No player is ever eliminated — everyone talks until the game ends.
- Never show your role card or pass hidden signals beyond the game's official information (the night phase).
- Keep the timing of playing quest cards consistent, so evil players cannot read information from how long someone hesitates.
- Merlin CAN see Oberon during the night phase (Oberon is hidden from his fellow evil, not from Merlin).
Variants and Expansions
The official Lancelot Expansion adds two Lancelot role cards (one per team) and seven loyalty cards. From the third quest onward, one loyalty card is revealed each round; on a flip result, both Lancelots swap victory objectives. The expansion also adds Excalibur: the Leader gives the sword to one player, who may secretly swap one already-played quest card before the reveal and inspect what they swapped away.
Popular house rules include a 'final statement' for the accused player before the assassination, requiring the Leader to state their reasoning before proposing a team, and banning Oberon in new groups because his hidden information confuses beginners.
The Resistance: Avalon is a trademark of its respective owner. This page is an unofficial rules guide and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the trademark owner.
