MAFIA!
This was a HUGE hit with our youth! And it's so much fun!
Players make themselves comfortable in a space such that every player can see every other player. Roles are assigned by a method which is both confidential and verifiable, often by dealing cards; a red or black card signifies the role as either:
- Mafia (
- Innocents (alternatively, Villagers, Townspeople, Townsfolk or Citizens).
Other roles are possible (see Variants).
Generally, gameplay also requires a
Narrator (alternatively,
Dealer,
Don,
God,
Host,
Mayor,
Moderator,
Knight Commandant,
Proctor or
Storyteller), a person not playing, but moderating the game. The Narrator knows the roles of each of the players and effectively narrates gameplay.
Night
The
Narrator tells everyone to close their eyes and lower their heads ("T'was a dark and stormy night, and everybody fell asleep...everybody that is except for the mafia.", "Go to sleep...", "It is now nighttime and all the villagers are asleep...", etc.). This can optionally be accompanied by all players tapping gently to mask the sounds of player movement. On the first night, the Narrator tells the
Mafia to open their eyes and acknowledge their fellow Mafia members. Variations at this point:
- The Mafia may have a chance to kill off one of the Innocents by show of hands.
- On the first night, the Mafia may "kill" the Narrator so that every Innocent gets a chance to participate in at least one execution decision. The Narrator then says in the Morning that he was killed and gameplay continues as usual.
- After the first night, Mafia members must secretly communicate during the daytime and then unanimously agree to kill someone during the nighttime without opening their eyes to communicate (i.e., Narrator calls out the names of each player and Mafia must raise a hand to signify a kill). This rule is optional; if it's not included, the Mafia may kill an Innocent in the same method as they did the first night.
- In large groups, each Mafia member can kill one person per night.
Other variant characters may have turns to open their eyes to do "business" during the night also (before or after the Mafia).
Day
The Narrator tells everyone to wake up and announces the Mafia's victim. Usually this involves the Narrator telling a story about the murder scene that the remaining players wake up to, and/or a story of how the victim was killed. For example, "The police chief said, 'Bob was shot seven times, stabbed three times and drowned in the river. This is the worst case of suicide I've ever seen.'" This player is "dead" and may no longer participate in the game in any way, and is thus permitted to keep their eyes open at night.
Depending on the variant, The Narrator may reveal the identity of dead players, dead players may reveal themselves by flipping their cards face up (most common version), or the identity of dead players may be left unrevealed. Typically, prematurely revealing one's identity by flipping one's card face up while still alive is considered suicide; in single-execution-per-day variants, this may count as the execution for that day.
During the daytime phase, the players deliberate over which suspected Mafia member they wish to nominate for execution. The Innocents want to execute a Mafia member but all players are allowed to vote. Generally, The Narrator will administer the election, the nominee may be given a chance to defend themselves and a majority is required for the execution to be carried out, although voting variants abound. The same rules apply to players who are executed as to players killed by the Mafia. In some variants, multiple players may be killed during the same day. In general each player must vote, can only vote once and cannot vote for himself/herself.
Win condition
The game ends either when the last Mafia member is killed (Innocent victory) or the Mafia members gain a majority during the day (Mafia victory). Ties go to the Mafia. The innocents have no way of voting off mafia members at this point, but the mafia can still kill each night. Other variants have different victory conditions.
Number of Mafia
The optimal number of each type of character depends on players' preferences for game length and Mafia win percentage. Some players prefer a game setup which gives approximately equal odds of an Innocent or Mafia victory. Other players may prefer giving a handicap to one side.
A game with just one more innocent player than Mafia players during the day phase can still be won by the innocent players (if you start with a night kill, you need two more innocent players than mafia). However, if the innocent players make any mistake (that is, killing an innocent player during the day), they lose.
Generally, fewer players results in fewer turns, and thus less time to determine the identity of the mafia. Having more Mafia uniformly increases the expected Mafia win percentage although it may make it harder to identify the Mafia during the day.
The inclusion of "variant" characters or rules also changes matters. For example, the addition of a Sheriff or Doctor will decrease the expected Mafia win percentage. Most variant characters decrease the Mafia win percentage. However, variant characters are generally only used in larger games.
Allowing the Townspeople to abstain from killing on certain turns can decrease the Mafia win percentage as can variants which make it more difficult for the Mafia to achieve a kill (e.g. requiring them to agree on a victim independently). The "no kill" variant compensates to some extent for the disadvantage given to odd numbers of Townspeople. Otherwise, 2n+1 Innocents are less likely to win than 2n Innocents (for n>2) because they have decreased their odds of voting for a Mafia each turn without increasing their number of turns (resulting in ties rather than Mafia majorities).
A good rule of thumb is about one mafia for every two non-mafia members. So one
mafium (incorrect singular sometimes used in the game) for under five players, two mafia for five to seven players, three mafia for eight to ten players, and so on. For greater than sixteen players, games usually last too long and the dead become restless. Note that if six to eight are playing it adds excitement by not telling the townsfolk how many mafia are playing, hence the narrator can tell them "either one or two mafia" are in the game. The narrator should only reveal this after one side has won.
We also play with an angel and a investigator
The investigator gets the option during the night to point at people playing the game, so you would say "investigator, open your eyes, who do you want to investigate?" he would then point to someone and you would shake your head yes or no, letting him know if they are in the mafia or not.
The angel also gets to open his eyes during the night, and chooses to save someone. If that person was suppose to be killed, then the angel saved him and that person lives on to the next round!
