It’s been a long day. Connor reaches over to give his girlfriend Aibhínn a hug before they head to bed. He feels something on her shoulder and grasps at it – a little white sticker with a message: “You have been murdered. Signed, The Traitors.”
All hell breaks loose.
Who put this on her shoulder? How long did the sticker go unnoticed? Who did she interact with all evening? Is the perpetrator still in the room?
An inquisition begins, with the newly murdered Aibhínn as its star witness (our version of the game has “Ghosts” – more on this below): “I was sitting there, I felt a brush on this shoulder, and I looked to see who it was and it was Jonathan,” she says All eyes move to Jonathan, a friendly zoologist who surely wouldn’t hurt a fly? People are shouting across the dimly lit dining table, stumbling to lobby their peers on their best theories.
“I only had one conversation with Jonathan today,” says Aibhínn, “and I said who I thought the Traitor was. I said it could be Jen.” A small chorus of gasps erupts, and the mob turns to Jen. “They’re both Traitors,” she continues. “That’s my theory.”
She is, of course, correct. Over the next two days, this damning accusation will follow these Traitors like an inescapable itch. Among these citizen sleuths, the murders are fictional, the accusations in good humour – but the stakes still feel high.
In an effort to force some friends into organised fun for a weekend, I’ve brought 20 of them to a big house in the country to run my very own Traitors-style weekend.
What does it take to win The Traitors?
The Traitors has fast become one of the world’s hottest game show formats in recent years. It’s a social deduction game similar to Mafia or Werewolf – popular parlour games you might remember from childhood – or the video game Among Us, if you partook in that lockdown craze. No matter the variation, the basic concept of hunting down some hidden conspirators is a recipe for endless fun.
In The Traitors, “Faithful” players must root out the “Traitors”, whose goal is to murder (secretly eliminate) the Faithfuls, and generally sow chaos to hide their tracks. There are fun challenges, endless scheming, and epic showdowns where players vote to banish their top suspects. The aim is to be the last one standing.
For such a simple concept, The Traitors has proved a massive hit with audiences. Based on a Dutch TV format, more than 40 versions are now being produced around the world. More than 15 million people watched the finale of Celebrity Traitors in the UK last autumn, making it the most-watched UK TV broadcast in 2025. Most notably, it has got Gen Z watching live telly again.
RTÉ found similar fortunes last year when it commissioned Kite Entertainment to make The Traitors Ireland at Slane Castle, hosted by Siobhán McSweeney, with 732,000 viewers watching the final.
In its second outing, currently airing on RTÉ One on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday nights, McSweeney has upped the ante with even more extravagant outfits – many created by emerging designers – and a distinctly Irish twist: brace yourself for cúpla focal, Irish dancing and many cups of tea.
When a friend told me in January about the fun she’d had on a homemade Traitors-style weekend in Scotland, the wheels in my head started turning, and my Airbnb wish list started filling up with Big Houses.
***
The Webb family’s Georgian mansion in Co Offaly is the perfect rental for our weekend of shenanigans, with dozens of rooms, a dining table seating 20, old-world decor and open fields for miles around.
After recruiting some friends to help organise the event – including one who insists on method acting as Claudia Winkleman for the entire weekend – we arrive at the house for the August bank holiday weekend. Our host greets players at the door, dressed in Winkleman’s trademark oversized blazer and a black-fringed wig.
After weeks of nerding out over niche gameplay mechanics (ie, how do we make this watertight, so it doesn’t go horribly wrong?), we settle on one key difference to the original format: the Ghosts.
In the TV show, players must leave the castle if murdered or banished. Instead, we create “Ghosts” to keep everyone involved – instead of leaving altogether, we strip their voting rights at the all-important banishments, and give them special roles during the challenges.
The prize pot for winning Traitor or Faithful is €250.
***
It’s the morning after the sticker murder and the pressure is on. I catch up in hushed tones with Jen, one of our Traitors. “I am feeling incredibly stressed,” she laughs. “I slept so badly because of plotting through the whole thing… If somebody asks me this question, what would I say in response? And how can I keep myself from blushing?”
We gather in the dining room at our “Long Table”. The exchanges are tense. The tiniest details spin into intricate webs to support all manner of theories: “You two look suspiciously close.” “You never share any theories of your own.” “During that challenge you seemed really nervous.” “You’ve been spreading my name around, but we’ve barely spoken?”
Who’ll be the new Paudie on The Traitors Ireland? ‘We had 120 prison guards apply this year’
To break the deadlock, players list off their “hundies” – or who they trust as 100 per cent Faithful. Rob, a former tech salesman turned carpenter, leads the conversation: “If it’s anybody it’s Luiza,” he turns to his newly engaged fiancee, “because I’ve seen her lie and she’s shite at it.” Luiza laughs, and the conversation moves on.
Nobody, including her partner of three years, notices the slight smirk on her face.
Over the weekend, the challenges build trust between the players. We ask Ghosts to hide Scrabble letters around the house, and task players with forming a Traitors-related word from those letters (banishment). We run a classic game of Capture the Flag in a nearby field. And there’s a whole medley of other team-building activities.
The reward? Players can earn immunity from murder.
The result? Never have I seen such laughter from my friends.
At the final Long Table, Ghosts silently outnumber those remaining, who include Rob, Luiza and a couple of other lucky finalists. Like a high-stakes game of hot potato, nobody wants to be left with the spotlight on them for too long, and nobody avoids accusation.
Jen, who was caught in the stickergate crossfire, is at long last banished. And Rob, as a larger-than-life character, is inevitably voted out too, much to the disappointment of the group when he reveals his role. Keeping your head down seems to be a sure-fire strategy here.
And Luiza, our under-the-radar Traitor from Brazil, slips through the cracks and emerges victorious. The expression on Rob’s face is priceless.
“In hindsight, I had a severe blind spot to you,” Rob says to his fiancee afterwards. “My heart sank, but also I was happy because you won the money.” Luiza gives him a hug as he jests. “I guess you don’t suspect the murderer to be sleeping next to you at night… I think we can get past this with therapy.”
While players buzz around the manor debriefing about every little moment, I try to ascertain what makes The Traitors so thrilling.
“[It’s] the most fun I’ve had in ages,” says Peter. “When you’re watching the show, obviously you have the privilege of being let in on who the Traitors are, and it seems so obvious who it is… But then when you’re in it, you’re like, ‘Wow, I’m dumb. This is really, really hard.’
“The more you talk to people, you get a run of momentum and start coming up with ideas together, and one thing leads to another. Even if you’re barking up totally the wrong tree, it’s still really fun just pursuing that.”
Aislinn agrees. “Everyone got so invested. The theories getting thrown around were crazy – right up until the end. [And] everyone was still shocked.”
Why do people get so invested? “It’s the whole monopoly theory,” she says. “I think everyone’s a little bit competitive. And everyone likes to think, ‘I’m right and I back my decision,’ even if you’re a quiet person.”
“All the debates, the chaos, the mini-murders during the game – it kept you immersed in the game,” says Connor. “Going back to your childhood and playing games you would have played as a kid – you kinda get to act like a kid… It’s nice to be able to let loose and have a laugh with people.”
In a group of friends largely in their 20s, there’s something special about pressing pause on our somewhat disconnected lives to spend time together.
I’m already making plans for the next one.
How to host your own
Where do I start?
Bring another person on board to be the face of the game – your Claudia/Siobhán. While you are checking the prop list for the umpteenth time, your pal can be entertaining players.
How do I select the Traitors?
We randomised the process to avoid accusations of favouritism, and mirrored the scene from the show where the host taps blindfolded players on their shoulder. After about five minutes of tense circling, you could hear a pin drop.
Traitors Ireland host Siobhán McSweeney: ‘I’m not getting paid enough for it. That’s RTÉ’s fault’
How can I keep everyone engaged?
Our biggest twist on the show was the “Ghosts”. People would probably be miffed if they binged the show, paid for a ticket and arrived all excited, only to be eliminated early and sent home. In our game, eliminated players could still be involved and come up with theories, but they couldn’t participate in banishments.
How can you squirrel away the Traitors without the Faithfuls noticing?
In the show, the Traitors return to the castle at night after everyone else is sleeping to plot their next murder. In an amateur event, most other players would notice this. We met players one by one during downtimes throughout the weekend. For the Faithfuls, this was an opportunity to catch up and contribute to a secret challenge; for the Traitors it was a chance to tell us who was next on the chopping block. Secret group chats on Whatsapp work too.
What did the structure look like?
We went from murder announcement to banishment discussions to an activity to a period of downtime that coincided with a meal. Repeat this throughout your weekend and you’ll eventually make your way to the endgame, which we mirrored identically from the show: the remaining players must decide whether to end the game – in the belief that there are no Traitors remaining – or banish again. If there’s a Traitor or two remaining at the end, they take home the prize pot. If the Traitors have been banished, the remaining Faithfuls split the winnings.
How did you create the challenges?
Team-building and summer-camp games are a great well to draw from – the sillier the better.
This sounds like a lot of moving parts
It is. We started planning months in advance. To keep everything running smoothly, we handed out a welcome booklet that included an itinerary; player names, photos and bios; and a kitchen rota for cooking and clean-up – no Traitors weekend happens on an empty stomach!
How much did it cost?
We asked for €161 per entry, including everyone on the event team, to cover two nights’ accommodation, a grocery delivery, props for the game and a prize fund..
Anything else to consider?
We carpooled to get everyone to the house. I circulated a survey in advance that gauged players’ transport situations, and allocated bums on seats according to car space and geographical spread. I also asked for dietary requirements for our groceries order, sleeping preferences for room allocation, and for any health issues the event team should be aware of. Ensure activities are accessible for everyone.
Okay, I’m sold.
Have fun with the format but try not to overcomplicate things. The popularity of The Traitors over many other social deduction games is due to its simplicity. We introduced a “haunting”, where a Ghost replaced a player near the end of the game. Even if it doesn’t work perfectly, people appreciate these little surprises to keep them on their toes.
Good luck!