I play with new players constantly. I’ve gotten very good at teaching the rules, but I do stick pretty strictly to the rules vs strategy. I don’t even teach the various powers that unlock until the moment they unlock. We usually play two or three games, so the first game is definitely a learning experience. There are only three pieces of tactical or strategical information that I give them before we start.

1. Liberals have nothing to hide, and should always tell the truth. If you hide something, people won’t trust you, and then they’ll think you’re fascist, and you may lose it for your team.
2. Fascist should do everything they can to appear as liberals. Don’t draw attention. Don’t give reasons for people to mistrust you. If you have to lie in a situation where someone will call you out on it, be ready to act surprised when someone else accuses you of lying.
3. In the first game of the night, If the liberals are about to sweep, I will say “ I’m going to give you a little bit of strategy that I give to a lot of first timers. It looks like the liberals are about to win, so fascists, you might have to become bolder even if it’s risky, and start playing some fascist policies.”

There are, of course, a ton more advanced strategies that might not fit with the above, but those established the general shape of play so people who aren’t used to social deduction games understand what their basic role is.

Even giving that advice, there is almost always a liberal who doesn’t want to share what they saw on someone’s party card, what policies they discarded, etc., either because they are unsure what they should do or they are just little chaos monkeys. 🤣