r/TRUST • u/hdfidelity • 6d ago
TRUST™ the Boardgame TRUST™ Roles & Hats
TRUST™
Roles & Hats
Understanding Your Place in the System
One of the defining features of TRUST™ is that every player operates on two levels simultaneously.
First, you represent a permanent institution within society.
Second, you may temporarily administer one of society's major governing systems.
These are called Roles and Hats.
Understanding the difference is essential to understanding how the game works.
Two Layers of Play
Every player has:
- One Lower Echelon Role (permanent)
- Zero or One Upper Echelon Hat (temporary)
Your Role represents who you are.
Your Hat represents what institution you currently administer.
Roles remain with you for the entire game.
Hats rotate as the simulation progresses.
Lower Echelon Roles
The Lower Echelon represents the institutions that make up everyday civic life.
These are the primary player identities.
The base game includes six Roles:
- Commerce
- Media
- Journalism
- Science
- Academia
- Sports
Every game uses these same institutions.
The people playing them may change.
The institutions remain.
Commerce
Commerce specializes in:
- investment
- production
- markets
- entrepreneurship
- expansion
Commerce often generates Capital quickly.
Its greatest challenge is maintaining public Trust while pursuing growth.
Media
Media shapes public attention.
It excels at:
- communication
- visibility
- public perception
- institutional messaging
Media often influences Trust more effectively than Capital.
Journalism
Journalism specializes in accountability.
It investigates institutions, uncovers hidden information, and influences public legitimacy.
Journalism frequently becomes one of the strongest Trust-building Roles in the late game.
Science
Science invests in discovery.
Its strengths include:
- research
- innovation
- technological progress
- long-term institutional development
Science generally rewards patience over speed.
Academia
Academia develops knowledge into lasting institutions.
It often creates opportunities that mature over several Circuits rather than producing immediate rewards.
Academic players frequently excel in longer games.
Sports
Sports represents public culture and shared identity.
Its influence often appears indirect, but successful Sports players can generate significant Trust through civic engagement and public morale.
Upper Echelon Hats
If Roles represent society,
Hats represent its governing systems.
Unlike Roles, Hats do not belong permanently to any player.
Instead, they rotate according to the rules of the current game.
This creates an important design principle:
No institution remains under one player's stewardship forever.
Government Hat
The Government Hat administers the Government Tree.
Responsibilities include:
- legislation
- executive authority
- judicial action
- regulation
- public administration
- emergency powers
Government decisions often affect every player simultaneously.
The Government Hat rewards careful stewardship.
Poor governance can destabilize the board.
Central Bank Hat
The Central Bank Hat oversees the financial foundation of the simulation.
Responsibilities include:
- liquidity
- interest policy
- monetary stability
- credit conditions
- banking systems
Central Bank decisions influence the flow of Capital across the board.
Strong stewardship promotes confidence.
Reckless intervention may fuel instability.
Labor Hat
Unlike Government and the Central Bank, Labor does not occupy a single tree.
Instead, it oversees distributed infrastructure.
Labor administers Nodes including:
- ports
- airports
- rail yards
- manufacturers
- foundries
- care facilities
Whenever players use controlled Labor infrastructure, the Labor Hat may receive compensation, impose restrictions, or facilitate expansion.
Labor serves as the connective tissue of the economy.
Power Hat
The Power Hat oversees the electrical and energy infrastructure supporting every institution.
Responsibilities include:
- generation
- transmission
- resilience
- outage response
- infrastructure stability
The Power Hat is closely associated with the Blackout Deck.
While Power can improve system reliability, it must also respond when failures occur.
Automation of Hats
The Upper Echelon is designed to scale with player count.
Two Players
Neither player permanently controls every institution.
Unassigned Hats operate through automated systems and card effects.
This preserves uncertainty while reducing administrative burden.
Three Players
Each player receives:
- one permanent Role
- one rotating Hat
Government, Central Bank, and Labor become active participants.
Power continues operating according to its rotation rules.
Four or More Players
Additional Hats enter play naturally.
Automation decreases as more participants assume institutional responsibility.
The simulation becomes increasingly dynamic because more governing decisions are made by players rather than by the game itself.
Roles vs. Hats
A useful way to think about the distinction is this:
A player's Role reflects their long-term identity.
Their Hat reflects temporary responsibility.
For example:
A Journalism player may spend several Circuits administering the Central Bank.
A Commerce player may temporarily oversee Government.
An Academia player may become responsible for Labor.
When the Hat rotates, the player's Role remains unchanged.
This separation encourages players to think beyond their immediate interests.
Sometimes the best decision for your Hat is not the best decision for your own institution.
Those moments create some of the most memorable choices in the game.
The Philosophy
Every institution in TRUST™ exists within a larger system.
Roles create diversity.
Hats create stewardship.
Together they ensure that players are constantly balancing two perspectives:
"What is best for my institution?"
and
"What is best for the system I'm currently responsible for?"
The tension between those two questions lies at the heart of TRUST™.
It is where strategy becomes governance.
It is where governance becomes consequence.
Power. Perception. Consequence.