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This question is probably best suited for those who have played The Resistance extensively, especially with the "Commander" and "Deep Cover" expansion roles.

Among The Resistance expansion packs, there is a role called "Deep Cover" that is unknown to the "Commander" role. This "Deep Cover" role spy wakes up with all of the other spies during the sleep phase, and all spies are known to each other. However, when the "Commander" role wakes up to look for the spies, the "Deep Cover" role does not raise his or her thumb/put his or her hand up/whatever indicator you use. So, this "Deep Cover" role is unknown to the Resistance "Commander".

My question is this: During the phase where the spies wake up and acknowledge each other, does the "Deep Cover" spy give some kind of indication that he or she is the "Deep Cover" spy? The rules are ambiguous on this point, and it has been causing some contention when our group plays.

About half of us are of the opinion that the deep cover spy indicating that he or she is the deep cover spy gives the spies an advantage, as it can reduce the possibility of playing double "fails". The other half of the group are of the opinion that the rest of the spies knowing the deep cover spy doesn't give the spies any advantage, and in some cases, can give the resistance members an advantage.

Does anyone have any insight on how this should be played?

Mike M.
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    If the card/rules don't indicate that the deep cover spie informs others who they are then they would not. In games like these the rules of what is known and what isn't known is generally spelled out exactly as it should happen to make sure there are no questions. – Joe W Mar 16 '17 at 23:37

2 Answers2

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Reveal script in the rule book is very thorough:

Reveal Script

The “reveal” phase at the start of the game will vary depending on which roles are added – see below for new scripts to use for the different Character cards that are included.

  1. “Everyone close your eyes and extend your hand into a fist in front of you”
  2. “Spies, not the Blind Spy – open your eyes and look around to see your fellow spies”
  3. “Spies close your eyes”
  4. “All players should have their eyes closed and hands in a fist in front of them”
  5. “Spies, not the Deep Cover spy – extend your thumb so the Commander will know you”
  6. “Commander, open your eyes and see the Spies”
  7. “Spies – put your thumbs down and re-form your hand into a fist”
  8. “Commander, close your eyes” “All players should have their eyes closed and hands in a fist in front of them”
  9. “Commander & False Commander – extend your thumb so that the Body Guard knows you”
  10. “Body Guard, open your eyes so you know the Commander & False Commander”
  11. “Commander & False Commander – put your thumbs down and form your hand into a fist”
  12. “Body Guard, close your eyes”
  13. “All players should have their eyes closed and hands in a fist in front of them”
  14. “Everyone open your eyes”

Just follow it exactly and you'll see that there is nothing specific Deep Cover spy has to do during step 2, and by step 5 spies already closed their eyes, so they shouldn't have this bit of information.

So other spies know that Deep Cover spy is on their team, but they don't know that he/she is Deep Cover spy.

Of course, nothing stops you from making homerules and playing it differently if you feel like it, as discussed on BGG forum for Resistance Avalon (which is the same game really)

Deo
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We can be sure of this answer by analyzing some roles:

First, we need to analyze the role of a Spy who has no ability. Their behavior is: Know who the other spies are.

Now looking at Deep Cover, we see the "Unknown to Commander" ability. As such, he remains a spy and therefore knows who the other spies are, but the commander does not know who he is.

We can even compare it to another similar character, Blind Spy, which is "Unknown to Spies". This being a spy, he still knows who the other spies are, but the spies don't know who he is.

And there's still a similar third character, Deep Agent, that "Does not know Spies." This one finally loses his main spy ability and really doesn't know who the other spies are, but the spies still know who he is.

Finally, I will clarify the question about Deep Cover:

  • The Deep Cover know who the other spies are;
  • The other Spies are know who Deep Cover is;
  • Commander doesn't know who Deep Cover is.

I hope it is clear now :)

Thiago Bueno Fiorenza
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    This does not answer the question of the other spies knowing which one of them is the deep agent. – Joe W Dec 10 '19 at 20:27
  • I used the comparison between similar roles precisely to understand this.

    But ok, I'll be totally clear now then:

    1. The Deep Cover know who the other spies are;
    2. The other Spies are know who Deep Cover is;
    3. Commander doesn't know who Deep Cover is.
     – Thiago Bueno Fiorenza Dec 10 '19 at 20:39
  • I edited the answer by adding this clarification: D – Thiago Bueno Fiorenza Dec 10 '19 at 20:41
  • But the other spies don't know that the deep cover spy is the deep cover spy. The question wasn't asking if the other spies knew the deep cover spy is a spy but if they knew that he was unknown to the commander. And the fact that the deep cover spy is known to the other spies but not known as the deep cover spy is covered in the existing accepted answer. – Joe W Dec 10 '19 at 20:43
  • But about the answer already being answered, I may not want to give a more complete answer? If the answer is no, then why is this post still open? – Thiago Bueno Fiorenza Dec 10 '19 at 20:49
  • If you can provide an answer that includes information not already in an existing answer as an attempt to provide more information to users there is nothing wrong with that. Also on the Stack Exchange network questions are not closed just because an answer is accepted as someone may come along later and post a more complete answer or things may change and the existing answer may no longer be complete. – Joe W Dec 10 '19 at 20:55