Mafia (game)

Mafia (also known as Werewolf, Assassin or Witch Hunt) is a party game created in USSR modelling a battle between an informed minority and an uninformed majority. Players are secretly assigned roles: either "mafia", who know each other; or "town", who know only the number of mafia amongst them. In the game's "night" phase the mafia covertly 'murder' a townsperson. During the day phase, all of the surviving players debate the identities of the mafia and vote to eliminate a suspect. Play continues until all of the mafia have been eliminated, or until the mafia outnumber the townspeople.

[edit] Basic gameplay

One person is the Game Master (GM) - they moderate the game, rather than participating. Everyone else is sent a private message that gives them their secret role as a player.

[edit] Factions

• Town (Who win by killing off the Mafia)
  
• Mafia (Who win by killing off the Town)

[edit] Night

Each night, the Mafia select to kill off one of the other players by communicating secretly amongst themselves, then indicating their target to the GM by means of private messaging.

Certain Roles with abilities that activate during the Night may also use their power if so inclined.

[edit] Day

During the daytime phase, the players deliberate over which suspected Mafia member they wish to vote for execution. Whoever receives the most votes is lynched; they are now "dead" and must spend the remainder of the game within the confines of the "graveyard" or "dead thread".

Because players have less information and more freedom to deliberate, during the day, the day phase tends to be longer than the night phase. The day phase normally lasts 48 hours, and the night 24.

[edit] Win condition

The game ends either when the last Mafia member is killed (Town victory) or the Mafia members outnumber or equal the Town during the day (Mafia victory).

Unless otherwise specified, the GM generally reveals a player's role upon their death, providing reliable information to the Town.

[edit] Roles

A Role is a player's identity and faction alignment for any given round. Normally when designing their round, the GM will include a variety of different roles that have special abilities that can influence the outcome of the game. These "power roles" are not exclusive to the Town. It is common for GMs to include power roles among members of the Mafia, with the similar functions as their pro-Town counterparts.

[edit] Abilities

Different roles can have abilities that players can activate by sending a message the GM. These abilities, or powers, can include (but are not limited to) affinity investigations, ability prevention, kill protection, and identity concealment.