Jump to content

Mafia (party game)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Sniffnoy (talk | contribs) at 18:38, 11 April 2006 (Killing multiple players during the night?). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Mafia
Players5 or more
Setup time< 5 minutes
Playing time15–60 minutes1
ChanceLow
Age range9 and up
SkillsStrategic thought
Team play
Roleplay
Social skills
1 Varies greatly with setting; see online play.
For other uses see Mafia (disambiguation).

Mafia is a party game modelling a battle between an informed minority and an uninformed majority. Mafia is usually played in groups with at least five players. During a game, players are divided into two teams: 'Mafia members', who know each other; and 'honest people', who know only the number of Mafia amongst them. The goal of both teams is to eliminate each other.

History

Mafia was created by Dimma Davidoff at the Psychological Department of Moscow State University, in spring of 1986, and the first players were playing in classrooms, dorms and summer camps of Moscow University. The game then became popular in other Soviet colleges and schools and in 1990s it started crossing borders, first in Europe (Hungary, Poland, England, Norway) then the United States; now it is played virtually everywhere. Considered to be one of "The 50 most historically and culturally significant games published since 1800" by about.com.

Andrew Plotkin rewrote the rules with the Werewolf theme in 1997 [1] Looney Labs has sold a version of the game called Are You a Werewolf?

Basic gameplay

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. Each player retains their card without revealing it. In this manner a few players are designated as Mafia (alternatively, Werewolves) and the majority of players are designated as Innocents (alternatively, villagers, townspeople, or citizens). Other roles are possible (see Variants).

The Narrator (alternatively, God)—a person not playing, but moderating the game—tells everyone to close their eyes and lower their heads ("Go to sleep..."). The narrator tells the Mafia to open their eyes and silently select another player to kill; generally, the Mafia must all agree on someone to kill, and may signal to each other during the night, but in some versions, such as the original, the Mafia must decide independently and a person is only killed if they all agree, so in order to get someone killed they must somehow communicate during the day. In some variants for a large number of players and a small number of Mafia, each Mafia member may individually get to kill a player. They then close their eyes before the Narrator tells everyone to wake up and announced the Mafia's victim. This player is dead and may no longer participate in the game in any way, although they are permitted to keep their eyes open at night. Other variant characters can have "business" during the night also.

During the daytime phase, the players deliberate over which player they should execute. The Innocents want to execute a Mafia member but all players are allowed to vote. Generally, The Narrator will administer the election and a majority is required to kill players, although voting variants abound. The same rules apply to players who are executed as to players killed by the Mafia.

Depending on the variant, The Narrator may reveal the identity of dead players, dead players may reveal themselves by flipping their cards face up, or the identity of dead players may not be revealed.

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). A tie generally goes to the Mafia.* Other variants have different victory conditions.

  • The reason a tie goes to the Mafia is because if there are an equal amount of Mafia & Innocents, a majority vote to kill a Mafia will never pass. Even if the Innocents realize this, they won't be able to pull together the number required to kill a Mafia, and night will [eventually] fall, during which the Mafia will kill an Innocent and gain a complete majority.. and they win.

Minor Variants

Over the years, players have created Mafia variants which utilize alternative names for characters, additional characters, and different methods for conducting deliberation, voting, and killing.

Optional Characters

  • The Doctor (alternatively Guardian, Angel, Guardian Angel, Doctor Mom or Nurse) is on the side of the Innocents. During the night, he or she chooses one person to save. If this person is the Mafia's target, the individual survives. Some narrators allow the Doctor to save himself; others do not. Some versions allow the Doctor to succeed in saving characters killed by non-Mafia variants (see below).
  • The Detective (alternatively, Sheriff, Police Chief, Seer or Psychic) is on the side of the Innocents. During the night, he or she chooses a player to investigate and the narrator reveals the identity of that player to the Detective. The Detective can reveal their identity during the day, but then again, any player may reveal themselves as the detective, often resulting in confusion and deception. In some variants, the Narrator may lie to the Detective by "revealing" a player as Innocent (Naïve Sheriff) or guilty (Paranoid Sheriff), or giving the Sheriff false information (Insane Sheriff) or random information (Crazy Sheriff). Some variants allow multiple Detectives, sometimes collaborating as Deputies. In some variants, all of them must agree on a single person to investigate; other times they can investigate separately, to try to determine their sanity.
    • A Corrupt Deputy is on the mafia's side, but investigates together with other investigators such that he knows their identities and can throw sand in their gears.
    • The Godfather (alternatively Master or Alpha Wolf in Werewolf variants) is a member of the Mafia who appears Innocent when investigated.
    • The Miller is the opposite of the Godfather, a townsperson who will come up guilty if investigated. This role is very difficult, as the player generally does not know they will come up evil, and may accuse their investigator of being Mafia, or having false results.
  • The Vigilante is on the side of the Innocents. During the night, he or she gets to kill someone; in some cases they are limited on how many times they may perform this function. If they are required to kill every night, they may be styled Madman or Lunatic, because this hampers the town.
  • The Village Idiot (alternatively Lackey, Jester, or Joker) is on the Mafia's side. He knows who is in the Mafia and the Mafia knows him (he opens his eyes on the first night), but he does not kill, and is immune to investigation. His main task is to spread confusion between citizens and to discreetly refute arguments against real Mafia. As he doesn't kill, he cannot win the game alone. As soon as the Mafia itself is entirely exterminated, it loses, even if the Village Idiot is still alive.
  • The Devil's Advocate (alternatively Devil or Agent) is the opposite of the Sheriff, investigating people each night in an attempt to figure out who the Sheriff is. Since they are on the Mafia's team, they then try to kill the Sheriff either through lynching or informing the Mafia of their identity. In some variants, if the Devil's Advocate is investigated by the Sheriff, the Devil's Advocate will come up innocent.
  • The Little Girl (or Reporter) can "peek" during the killing phase. This role is primarily found in werewolf-themed games, although other names for roles with similar abilities exist.
  • The Bomb, (alternatively "spontaneous human combuster" ) a player who can be on any side (depending on the variant) and kills those sitting adjacent to him or her when killed. Some variants restrict the conditions for when the Bomb goes off (e.g. only when killed by the Mafia). In some variants, God randomly chooses the bomb and the individual remains unaware of their identity until detonation.
  • The Role Blocker (sometimes Prostitute, Pimp, Tax Collector, or Thief) can choose to disable the abilities of any character during the night (the Mafia won't be able to kill, the Detective won't be able to investigate, etc.). Some variants prevent this effect on certain characters, which can strengthen the role.
  • Freemasons (alternatively, Confirmed Innocents) are townspeople who know each other (their identities are revealed to each other the first night), and thus can work together.
  • The Serial Killer (alternatively Mass Murderer or Demon) is on their own side. They get a kill during the night and only win if they are the last one standing. As this role is difficult, it is sometimes given additional benefits, such as immunity from night kills.
    • The Hunter is on the side of the Innocents and allows them to win ties if he or she is alive at the end of the game.
    • Alternatively the Hunter is a villager (or Innocent) who, when killed, kills one other person in the game. They do not know the identity of the person, and no-one may influence their decision. They do this anytime they are killed, whether during the day or during the night.
  • The Lawyer is an Innocent who knows the identities of the Mafia before the game starts, and works to get them lynched.
  • Cupid and The Lovers. Cupid (or Grocer) is an Innocent (or Villager) who, in the first night, chooses two other players to be 'lovers' (or Wheelbarrows). Cupid does not know the identity of those players and may choose themselves as one of the lovers. Cupid then falls asleep. The 2 lovers are then woken so they can recognise each other. Cupid's role is now over, and they play now as a normal Innocent (or Villager). When one of the lovers is killed, the other lover dies of a broken heart. The lovers can only win if they are both alive at the end, even if they are on different sides (i.e. one lover is a werewolf (or mafia member), the other is a villager (or innocent)).
  • Swinger is a person who swings the fate of two characters. Hence, if the Mafia chose to kill a person, and the 'dead' persons fate were swung with another, then the person it was swung to would die.
  • The Ninja is a villager who has two special powers. Their first power is that they may dodge one bullet in the night. Their second power is that at any point during the day, he or she can say "I flip out and kill [insert name of person here]". Once the ninja says this, both the ninja and the person they named instantly die.
  • The Giant Clam is not an individual position, but rather a group which every player has the option to join. During the first night, God will say "Giant Clam, please wake up". Anyone who opens their eyes during this time is in the Giant Clam. Any time during the day (before voting takes place), if a member of the clam says "I am the Giant Clam", then everyone who is in the Clam dies.

Mafia killing variants

Some variants require all Mafia members to choose the same victim independently for a kill to succeed. Theoretically, this requires them to "communicate" in some way during the daytime and thus increases the chances of detection. This can be achieved either by waking the Mafia members up separately or by having them write their kills. Under this variant, Innocent players write the word 'honest' on a piece of paper; Mafia members write down the name of a player for elimination. If all the mafia notes have the same name on them, that player is considered killed by the Mafia.

Voting variants

Some variants have a more complicated process of selecting players to be executed. One variant allows multiple simultaneous nominations and only requires a plurality. Another requires the vote to be unanimous but allows multiple players to be added to the execution cue to ensure unanimity.

Random narrator variant

To eliminate the inconvenience (especially in large games) of being killed on the first day, this variant has the Innocent who is killed on the first night become the Narrator. The Mafia, of course, has to find a way of informing this person that they are dead without revealing their identities. The writing variant works best. Some players complain that this variant is a tax on those who are skilled at narrating.

Major variants

Multiple families

This variant has multiple Mafia families who act and win independently of each other. This allows more kills and thus a faster gameplay and also creates the potential for "cross-fire" between the families.

Prison

This variant allows players to be sent to prison as an alternative to execution. Depending on the variant they can either be sent there by vote or at the discretion of an optional character. Players in prison exist in the separate room possibly with the separate narrator. Murders can happen in prison and certain characters or events have the ability to bring characters back from prison.

Evil Narrator

This variant has the Narrator make all the players Innocents but continue to narrate the game as though other specialty characters existed.

Optimal Ratios

The optimal number of each type of character depends on the skill level and preferences of those playing. Generally, 9 Innocents and 2 Mafia (plus the Narrator) is the smallest version of the game that works. Too few players leaves too few turns to legimately determine the identities of the Mafia (because two players are killed every turn) and having only one Mafia exacerbates the problem of trying to identify the Mafia (and makes it anticlimactic when they are finally killed). Beyond that, variant characters can be added to create a balance between the Mafia and Innocent teams.

Online Play

Although Mafia is usually played face to face, playing it online is also fun. This adds a new dimension to the game, making it last longer and allowing people to have a record of what others have said and how they have voted. There are many forms of online play: one could do so with the BYOND, where the game was implemented by "LostRealm" with multiple icons for player use. As part for the promotion of the film Cry Wolf a site was set up to play a similar game using AIM Instant Messenger, pitching wolves against sheep.

Online forum play was first known to be run on the Internet forum Grey Labyrinth by a regular poster from that site. The game requires 1 or 2 moderators to control. A sign up thread is created announcing the game. The game usually starts in the night phase with players messaging the moderator with their choices, and the mafia teams communicating via email before submitting their kill. The moderator will process the choices, write the appropriate death scene for those that were eliminated, and post a dawn scene. Then the players will vote for who they think is mafia. Generally speaking the first day of the online game is very random in nature, but as the game progresses the lynching becomes more strategic and planned.

Themes are the most common method of online play. Any group of well known characters or groups will work. The Simpsons, Hanna Barbera, Lord Of The Rings for example have been used because of their extensive character sets. In themed games, Roles tend to be more creative and relate to the scenes in which they are set. It is not uncommon for major characters to be left out of the balance of roles to allow the mafia teams to lie about who they are. Themes can also be Types - such as a Canines-themed game, or more extreme such as Time Travel Mafia or Deep South (a variant with no night phase).

Moderating online play generally requires you to attempt to balance the game well so any team or group has an even chance of winning. This is even more pertinent when using powerful creative roles. The balance is usually 25% mafia - so a 12 player game would entail 3 or 4 mafia depending on the balance of the remainder of the game. A brief listing of the known online variants follows (some would be near impossible to play in real life).

  1. Deep South Mafia - also known as nightless mafia. The game is broken into choice blocks which last a set amount of real life time. During a choice block, players can vote to lynch and/or submit their choices to the moderator. The moderator will action them at a set time. If a player is lynched during that time, the choice block will end immediately, and all votes are nullified and the next block begins. Choices are always made first as part of an update, and then voting. Some moderators may care to flip this rule around. Choices are made in the order received. Common roles for this variant are "Lie Detector" who can detect a lie in a role claim by a player. "Mafia/Serial Killers" who kill during the day at any time. "Advance doctors" who can protect one choice block in advance. "Chef" who can call lunch and end a choice block once.
  2. Grey Labyrinth's Designer mafia is to have all prospective players invent a role and submit it to the moderator. The moderator tones the roles down to make them playable and then shuffles them up amongst the players.
  3. Location-based games often have maps involved in which players have to travel to different destinations.
  4. MafiaScum.net Time Travel mafia allows players to alter history with their night choices. Roles are not revealed on death in this variation because players can be brought back to life at any stage. Time travelling roles are usually restricted to prevent chaos. Standard roles are "Coroner" who can investigate a corpse at night. "Blocker" who can prevent a player time travelling. "Serial Killer" who can travel back 1 or 2 nights to kill someone. One of the major changes in Time Travel mafia is that the person with the most votes at the end of a set time is lynched. This means that if a player votes and then dies on a previous night due to a history change, the vote is effectively nullified.
  5. Romanian Mafia Club's Ebony and Ivory mafia games give every player a black ebony ball and a white ivory ball which stand for votes, and the players can effectively work towards lynching or saving others, because every white ball (a vote in favor of that player) takes out a black ball (a vote against him) that he received. The end of the day brings death to the role that has the most black votes.

Mafiascum is an Internet forum where registered members can play a game of Mafia with other people over a message board. Mafiascum has been around since October 2002 and is a direct descendant of the Grey Labyrinth, an Internet forum dedicated to all types of puzzles and games; when Mafia began to dominate the site's traffic and player base, one of the administrators set up a separate forum specifically for those games. Since its creation, membership has grown and diversified, with games now played under different rulesets, in different languages, and at different skill levels. Recently the gamesite moved to an independent server to accommodate these levels of growth. Players have also contributed to a Mafia-specific wiki about gameplay, strategy, roles, and local players.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mafia_(party_game)&oldid=47992043"