Mafia

Suggested rules


"It could be described as a card game, although it's more of an experiment in psychology and mass hysteria!"
The Home Page of The Graduate Mafia Brotherhood of Princeton University


Introduction
This page describes the basic rules of the game of Mafia.
Some variant rules are shown and, towards the end, you will find a number of possible extra characters to add.

The Scenario
Mafia is a game that pits the forces of light against the forces of darkness. The players in a game of Mafia are residents of a small Italian village. The village is being terrorized by the Mafia. During the night, the Mafia roam about the village, selecting a law-abiding civilian as their victim. During the day, the villagers gather together, seeking justice, and vote to convict one of their number of secretly being a member of the Mafia.

The Number of Players
12 or more is ideal, 8-11 is acceptable. No maximum number, although the game becomes unwieldy with 24+.

The Equipment
One deck of cards - ideally the cards should be marked with the various roles of the game (citizen, Mafia, Policeman etc), but a standard deck of playing cards can be used, with particular cards representing the roles (e.g. court cards are Mafia, ace of hearts is the Doctor etc.)

The Goal of the Game
The goal is different depending on what sort of player you are. If you are a member of the Mafia, your goal is to kill off all the civilians in the game. If you are a civilian, your goal is to kill off the Mafia before they kill you off. If you are the Policeman (or one of the other special characters), you are on the side of the civilians and share their goal.

The Moderator
One player is selected to be the moderator for the game. The moderator does not participate in the game as a player, but manages the game and remains absolutely neutral.

The Deal
It is recommended that the number of each type of card be adjusted according to the size of the game. For twelve players, select three Mafia, one Policeman. Fill up the dealing pile with civilians to the total number of people in the game. If more than twelve players are in the game, consider replacing one of the civilians with an extra Mafia member. If ten or fewer players are playing, consider having only two Mafia instead of three.
The moderator will ascertain how many of each card to deal and will deal each player, face down, one card. Each player will look at his or her card to see whether he or she is Mafia, Policeman, or a plain civilian. No one shall reveal his identity before the first day. No one shall ever show his card to anyone else while they are still alive.
(As a variant, the moderator may deal the cards out non-randomly, choosing secretly who is to play each role. This will raise speculation as to whom the moderator would have liked to be Mafia.)

Playing Mafia
Each turn consists of two phases. The first phase is night; the second phase is day. The moderator shall announce when each phase is occurring.

Night
At the beginning of the game, and at the beginning of each subsequent turn, the moderator shall announce nightfall, e.g. by saying "citizens of the village, go to sleep." All players (but not the moderator) shall close their eyes (and no peeking is allowed). The moderator should take pains not to speak in any particular direction lest he give out information as to the identity of the Mafia or Policeman. The night phase is divided into two parts:

(i) The moderator shall announce "Mafia awake." The Mafia, and only the Mafia, shall open their eyes. The Mafia may kill one person per night. They may also elect not to kill anyone (although we have yet to come across a case in which this would be advisable!). They shall decide amongst themselves by means of hand gestures who should be killed. They shall communicate to the moderator by means of pointing. The moderator, once he understands who is to be killed, shall announce "Mafia asleep." and the Mafia shall close their eyes.

(ii) The moderator shall announce "Policeman awake." The moderator shall ask, "Who do you want to know about?" The Policeman should point to one person, and the moderator shall indicate by nodding or shaking of head and not by speaking whether the person indicated is a member of the Mafia (nod) or not (shake head). The moderator shall then ask the Policeman to sleep. (As a variant, the moderator shall speak aloud whether the person is or is not Mafia, carefully avoiding using gendered pronouns-- this allows the Mafia to know whether the Policeman has discovered one of their number.)

Day
After this is done, the moderator shall ask everyone to wake up. Before anyone speaks, the moderator identifies who (if anyone) was killed in the night. The person assassinated by the Mafia shall turn over his card (face up) on the table and is out of the game. As soon as someone is killed, he may not speak at all for the rest of the game (no dying words permitted!) or in any other way communicate with the living. He may, however, keep his eyes open at all times.
(As a variant, the true identities of persons assassinated at night are not revealed, [although the identities of the victims of the day lynchings still are.] Therefore, the Policeman could be lost unknown to the group. It is crucial that the moderator continues to ask for the Policeman to awake, etc., at night, even if the Policeman has been killed in the night, in order to keep up the general confusion!)

At this point, the remaining survivors may vote to convict someone of being Mafia. The survivors may freely discuss the situation. The Policeman, members of the Mafia, or any other special added characters, may reveal themselves publicly if they feel that it is in their best interest to do so (which it mostly is not), provided that they never reveal their actual cards. Lying is permissible, and, for instance, a Mafia member may claim to be the Policeman for the sake of having someone (non-Mafia) convicted of being Mafia. No player, though, under any circumstances, may display their card to another player.

The moderator, after allowing for a period of discussion shall ask for accusations. Any player may accuse any other player of being Mafia. If an accusation is lodged, the Accuser shall be allowed to explain the reason for his accusation. Then, the moderator shall ask for a second. If the motion is seconded, then the accused shall be allowed to state a defence. Other players may comment briefly on one side or the other. Then, the moderator shall take a vote. If a majority of the surviving members vote to convict, then the convicted player turns their card face up-- they have been put to death and may no longer participate in the game. If there is no majority in favour of conviction, the accused is acquitted and may not be accused again in the same turn.

The day ends when:
(a) Someone has been convicted and killed, or
(b) The moderator determines that no more accusations are going to be (or can be) made.

In case (b), no one is killed during the daytime. The moderator shall allow sufficient time for accusations to be made, but shall not allow the game to drag on unnecessarily.
At the end of the day, the moderator shall terminate discussion immediately. Then, night falls and the moderator shall ask everyone to close his or her eyes.

Winning
The game shall be won by the Mafia if there are no more civilians left or if the number of civilians left is less than or equal to the number of Mafia left (in which case the civilians will never be able to muster a majority to kill a member of the Mafia.) The civilians win if all of the Mafia are convicted and killed.

Other characters
In larger games and/or once players are familiar with the basic game extra intrigue can be added to the game by the addition of other characters, for example:

The Doctor
The Doctor is a protecting character, who wakes up once during each night and indicates someone who is to be protected. During the night, the moderator shall announce "Doctor awake." The Doctor shall open his eyes. The Doctor may protect one person from Mafia assassination during the night. The moderator shall ask, "Doctor, who do you want to protect?" The Doctor shall point to someone. The moderator shall announce "Doctor asleep" and the Doctor shall close his eyes. If that person is chosen to be killed by the Mafia during the same night, then the moderator merely announces at daybreak that no one was killed during the night.
This is a very powerful character, so you may wish to limit his power to protecting people other then himself. (This avoids the nasty problem of a game ending in a tie-- with one member of the Mafia who cannot kill the Doctor and a Doctor who cannot muster a majority during the day to kill the lone remaining Mafia member.)

It is important to note that the Doctor does not protect against anything else than being killed by Mafia at night. The player can still be killed by being lynched and can still die of a broken heart.

Governor
The Governor is an ordinary citizen who once per game may issue a "stay of execution" to save any one person who is being convicted during the day. During the day, if a majority vote has been achieved that would result in someone being lynched the Governor calls out "Governor overrules!" and turns his card face-up to prove that he is the Governor. This prevents the lynching.
(As a variant the moderator should see if the Governor is voting for the person on trial. If so, then that person dies if a majority is reached. Otherwise, he does not die, even if a majority IS reached. This keeps the Governor's identity a secret, but requires the moderator to keep a close eye on voting!)
People saved from execution by the Govenor may not be accused again on the same day.
The Governor may not issue a stay on his own execution.

Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet are ordinary citizens, except that they are madly in love with each other, and if one dies for any reason the other will immediately commit suicide of a broken heart. So that the lovers know who each other are, during the first night only, the moderator shall awaken Romeo and Juliet.

The Saint
Introducing the character of the Saint may work against both the Mafia and the citizens! The Saint is a citizen who is SO good and saintly that people are horrified if he or she is falsely accused and lynched, and will therefore immediately lynch the Saint's accuser.

This is how it works: if the Saint is accused, convicted and lynched (and not saved by the Governor!), when they reveal themselves by turning over their card (to reveal the Saint card), everyone is then horrified and the Accuser is immediately lynched. The Accuser, of course, could be another citizen or could be a Mafia! The Saint can be killed by the Mafia at night without repercussion.

In practice this is an interesting character, because it make people more wary of being the 'Accuser'. They'd rather someone else accuse and join in seconding or convicting, in case they're accusing the Saint. It gives people another defence (true or not) that they shouldn't be lynched because they are the Saint. And it's another character that the Mafia have to be wary of (the Saint could end up getting them lynched) or exploit (hope that a citizen accuses the Saint, getting rid of two citizens in one day).

Private Detective
If there are lots of players it may be appropriate to have more than one person acting as a Policeman. In this case, introduce the Private Detective. His role is identical to the Policeman, however the two shall be awakened separately at night so that they do not see each other.

Irregularities
Occasionally, there are irregularities or violations of the rules during a game of Mafia. We present possible solutions to irregularities below. It is always better if you can salvage a game instead of throwing in the cards and starting over.

Irregularities - Suicide
A suicide occurs when a player shows his card to someone or flips his card over before he has been killed. A suicide flips is considered dead and then the game proceeds as normal.

Irregularities - moderator gives incorrect information
If the moderator gives incorrect information to the Policeman, or kills the wrong person at daybreak, try to ignore it and continue play. If the moderator has forgotten at daybreak who was killed, he should put everyone back to sleep and ask again. If available, a laser-pointer is very useful during the night for being more certain about exactly who is indicated.

Scott Latham
October 2003


Sources:
This page draws heavily upon material from:

(1) The Home Page of The Graduate Mafia Brotherhood of Princeton University
http://www.princeton.edu/~Mafia/

(2) http://www.eblong.com/zarf/werewolf.html

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