Roleplaying discussion

When you suggest a game, give the rules and give an example. Don't make the topic. I do(or a MOD)

Mafia (also called Assassin, Werewolf or Village) is a group role playing game of strategy, survival, and the ability to spot a fraud. The imaginary setting is a small village where the local townspeople and Mafia are in an all out battle for survival.

There are numerous variations of the game. The version described here requires a deck of cards and works best with between twelve and twenty four players.

Rules:

If there are as many mafiosi as innocents in the day-phase then a mafia victory is declared immediately, under the original Mafia rules. Other variants suspend this rule, and only declare the game after every member of one faction has been eliminated. There are several reasons not to end the game while innocents are alive:

It makes the game easier to explain, and run.
The variant may have mechanics that allow the out-numbered innocents to win (e.g. via protection or resurrection of innocents, or the mafia being unaware who their teammates are).
Or because other win conditions are in-play for certain players, and need the game to finish to be judged.

Other win conditions that may be assigned include:

The Cupid and the Lovers variant; the Lovers can also win by being the last two in the game even if one is Mafia while the other is innocent -in these cases the game is played until a definite outcome is reached. (Even if three mafioso and two innocents remain it is important to the Lovers which of the innocents is killed.)
If a game has a card assigned Head Mafia or Don role, a variation has the Innocent members win when they vote successfully for the execution of the Don, regardless if there are other surviving Mafia members remaining.
The Survivor is a neutral player, and wins when any other team or player wins (the survivor merely needs to avoid elimination).
To win, a particular player (the jester) must be lynched.

Election variants-

Nominees for lynching may be allowed to make a speech in their own defense. Usually, each player must vote, can only vote once and cannot vote for themselves. But some variants have a more complicated process of selecting players to be executed. Davidoff's original 'Mafia' allowed multiple day-time executions (per day), each needing only a plurality to action.

Voting variants abound, but any lynching usually requires an absolute majority of the electorate, or votes cast. So, the voting is usually not by secret ballot for multiple candidates, with the highest vote count eliminated; it is more usual for the voting to be openly resolved either by:

A nomination or series of elections structured to ultimately offer a choice between two candidates, or
An option to lynch (or not lynch) one suspect (with a new suspect produced if the last one survives the vote).

Tied votes-

Deadlocked elections can be resolved by lot, or by killing the player with the scapegoat special role.

The special case of one mafioso and one innocent remaining can be decided randomly, or be ruled a Mafia win (this is more usual in live play).

Another form, tie-breaking, can be had with a seance of the person who was last killed by the mafia, since night has not yet fallen and they have not yet seen the mafia during the night phase.

Optional lynch variant-

The Innocents can choose not to kill anybody during the day. Although commonly unsure of Mafia identities, the Innocents are more likely to randomly kill a mafioso than are the Mafia (at night). Therefore, not lynching anyone (even at random) will typically favor the Mafia.

However, when the number of survivors is even, No Kill may help the Innocents; for example, when three Innocents and one mafioso remain, No kill gives a 1/3 chance of killing the mafioso the next day, rather than a 1/4 chance today (assuming random lynching). Lynching an innocent either day gives a Mafia win.

Timed days-

A public timer is set to a pre-determined length at the beginning of each day. If the players lynch someone, then the day ends immediately. If time runs out, the day is over and there is no lynching, or the person with the most votes is lynched.

Mafia killing methods-

Some variants require all Mafia members to choose the same victim independently for a kill to succeed. 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 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. In some online versions of the game, a particular player (the Godfather or a designated mafioso) must send in the kill. Another variant requires the night-time vote to be secret and unanimous, but allows multiple players to be added to the execution queue to ensure unanimity.

Random narrator-

To eliminate the inconvenience of being killed first, this variant has the Innocent killed on the first night become the Narrator. The Mafia must inform this victim of their death without revealing themselves. The writing variant works best.

Multiple families-

Multiple, independent groups of mafia or werewolves act and win independently, giving faster game-play and the potential for cross-fire between the factions.

Imprisonment-

This allows players to be sent to prison as an alternative to execution. They can either be sent there by vote or at the discretion of an optional character. Imprisoned players move to a separate room, possibly with a separate narrator. Murders can happen in prison and certain roles or events can liberate players.

A similar variant is Kidnapping, which allows for a Kidnapper character to remove individuals from the game temporarily. If the kidnapper is killed (or, in some cases, investigated by an Investigative role), the kidnapped return. While kidnapped, players are inactive, and cannot watch night-time events.

Plague-

A random player dies of plague each morning. A player who had targeted the plagued player the previous night may be infected.

Punishment-

This variant is generally used as a drinking or risk based game. When a person is killed in the game they are made to take a punishment. In drinking circles this may be a shot of Gin or Vodka.

Lives-

This variant requires the Narrator to keep track of the players' lives on a piece of paper, because every player has two or more lives. This extends the game when there are too few players for the standard rules. Kills (in the night & day phases) reduce these lives, until a player reaches zero lives and is eliminated. Mafia 'kills' which reduce lives are usually not announced to the innocents.

Attributes-

In this variant, players are given two cards: the first contains their role, the second an attribute. Attributes were originally derived from roles that could apply to both Mafia and Innocent alignments such as Bulletproof (cannot be killed at night), Mayor (has two votes in the lynch), and Siamese Twins (more commonly known as Siblings or Lovers).

Ultimate Werewolf-

The day time rounds remain the same as players sit around a table or in a circle in the candlelit base. The night time rounds are played roaming around the house in complete darkness. Innocents are killed by the werewolf tapping the victim on the shoulder in the dark. The victim must wait fifteen seconds until screaming in order to allow the werewolf to get away. Once an innocent is killed by the werewolf, everyone re-assembles in the base for the day time round. This variant of the game includes the Little Girl character who is allowed to collect a flash light from a prearranged place (e.g. at the bottom of the stairs) at the beginning of each night time round. Innocents who have been killed in the game become zombies and roam around in the dark (after a 30 second advantage on the innocents) in each night time round. Lovers need to find each other in the dark and protect each other from the werewolf.

Quantum Werewolf-

This variant was developed by Steven Irrgang and used for a puzzle in the 2008 CISRA Puzzle Competition. He later published more formal rules so that it could be a fully playable variant. The difference from a standard game of Mafia is that players are not initially assigned roles, but rather on each day are given the probabilities describing the game's current quantum state. Each player with a non-zero probability of being a seer or a werewolf performs the appropriate night actions (which may not be effective if it is later determined that the player did not have that role). When a player is killed, the wave function collapses and the players are given updated probabilities.

Train Mafia-

Traditional Mafia re-envisioned and heavily modified by the Copenhagen Game Collective to be played in a subway metro. In this variation, players who are 'lynched' are kicked off the train (at the next stop), and must wait in shame for the following train – a kind of 'afterlife' train – to join a second, interwoven game.

Invisible City: Rebels vs. Spies-

A location-based mobile gaming variant for Android, designed for city center play. The two factions are: the Rebels, the majority; and the Spies, the informed minority. The rule-set replaces explusions with scoring by round. Each player is assigned an individual mission each round. Some missions are critical and if one of those fails, the round goes to the Spies, but only one player knows which missions are critical.

Ex- So say there was a group playing. There's Kamille, Cady, Sarah, Connor, Caroline, Stephanine, Karla, Angel, Yaritza, Jennifer, Nyla, and Yvette)

Okay so they are playing with the normal mafia rules.

There's a story teller/narrator/moderator, which for now will be Connor. Okay so the moderator is going to pick the mafias, which will be Cady and Kamille. So then everyone closes their eyes again and this time two angels will be picked. They will be Yvette and Nyla. Then their the other people. So they start playing, so the mod will be like: "Close your eyes. Mafias only open your eyes. Pick who you want to kill."

Cady: *picks Sarah to kill*
Kamille: *picks Angel to kill*

Connor: "Mafia close your eyes"
Cady and Kamille close their eyes
Connor: Angels open your eyes, pick who you want to save
Yvette: *picks Karla to save*
Nyla: picks Angel to save*
Connor: Angels close your eyes
Nyla and Yvette close their eyes
Connor: Everyone open your eyes
Everyone will open eyes
Connor: Last night there was a death. Sarah was walking down the road and a car came and hit her. She was not saved so she died. Sarah I'm sorry your dead, you are out of the game. Everyone pick who you think the mafias are
Everyone Else: *pick Cady*
Connor: Cady were you one of the mafia?
Cady: Yes
Connor: Then your dead, out of the game. Everyone else close your eyes.

The game continues like this and there are other versions that have win conditions.