Blind Gavel

Blind Gavel is an online social deduction game for four to eight players, set in a Victorian auction house. One player takes the gavel and holds the only honest valuation in the room. Everyone else bids on a letter read aloud from the podium, which the auctioneer may be reading faithfully or inventing on the spot.

Hidden among the bidders are the auctioneer’s partners. They know one another, and they know what every item is truly worth. They bid as though they are guessing.

Items are drawn at random from a box backstage and placed behind glass, where any player can inspect them close up for cracks, wrong stitching, and details that contradict what was just read out. Every bid is public and every player starts with the same budget, but the gavel falls wherever the auctioneer chooses rather than on the highest bid.

Any buyer can accuse another of being a partner, which sends the room to a vote. Buyers vote; the auctioneer does not. The loser faces an elimination minigame chosen by the room, with the surviving players taking part in it. Profit is true value minus price paid, so overpaying for a forgery removes that money from every lot that follows. When the final gavel drops the partners are unmasked and the richer side wins.