Learn all about the infamous mafia game!

Okay, what's all the fuzz about? Well, this is just a game I learned at our most recent and famous family weekends. The game charmed me , because it is easy to learn, yet challenging, and fun to play. The game, however, is not at all spectacular in any way, but since it's involving lying and detecting if someone else is lying, it appeals to pretty much anyone. The only real problem that I'm facing right now, is that the so called mafia game is one of those games that is hard to explain, and is best taught by playing it a few times. As much as I would like to invite you all over to come and play it here, I think it would be best if I just dedicate some Kb of webspace and some of my cheap-priced time in trying to explain the rules to you. I'll try a Q&A approach. I'll do the best I can, if you notice errors, inconsistencies, or just things that don't seem right, please mail them click. OK, here goes nothing.

• Q: why is this game called "Mafia". Is it because it has something to do with violence? Is it illegal?
• A: No not at all. It's not about violence at all. It's pretty much called mafia because some players are members of the mafia(and (how very surprising) some are not !). The goal of the non-mafia-players is to catch the mafia players as quickly as possible. The goal of the mafia-players is to avoid getting caught by the non-mafia-players, by eliminating them.

• Q: What do I basically need to play this game?
• A: Not much or indeed very little. Some people(preferrably friends or family) and a table and some chairs should suffice. At least one of the people involved should know the game(or have visited this website) in order to be able to explain it to the other players of course. As it is very easy to cheat on this game, you need to find some players that are willing to follow the game rules. A game leader makes sure that the persons trying to cheat will get caught. A round or oval shaped table would be ideal to play this game, since it is all about observing other people.

• Q: How does the a round of mafia start?
• A: The game starts when everyone gathers at the table. A game leader is appointed. The game leader should have some experience with the game, and he supervises the game(he's not an actual participant). At the beginning of the game, the players have to be divided in 2 groups: the members of the mafia(MM) and the normal people(NP). The more mafia members, the easier the mafia will win the game. The choice of how many mafia members is up to the game leader(he will appoint them, see later), but MM/NP should be about 1/3. The whole purpose of the game for the NP is to track down the mafia members and have them executed. The whole purpose of the game for MM is not getting discovered, and lasting until the end of the game.
  An NP does not know(can only guess) whether a player is an NP or MM, an MM knows which players are MM and which are NP.
  How does the game leader appoint the members of the mafia? The whole purpose is of course to make sure that everything goes as described in the above paragraph. Here's how it goes: everybody lies down on the table, as if they would be sleeping(the game leader makes sure nobody is looking up) - snoring is optional. Then the game leader makes a round of the table, and (quietly) gives the normal players one tap on the back, and members of the mafia get 2 taps on the back. When the game leader has finished his round, he announces so to the players, after which the appointed members of the mafia are allowed to lift their head, and look around the table, to find out who the other members of the mafia are(just to be really clear here, Np players may not lift their head). From now on, there will be a sequence of day and night scenes, until only NP players or only MM players remain.

• Q: What happens during a day scene?
• A: Everybody is awake. Now here comes a part that is hard to explain, but comes pretty natural in practice. In daytime, every remaining player has a vote. He can vote for someone that he thinks is a member of the mafia(well this only is really true for a NP player, as said below, MM don't benefit from voting their collegue MM players out). But how can one decide who to vote for?
  Well, the usual thing that happens is the following: one player claims (truthfully or untruthfully) to have a suspicion for one of the players (he can argument why he thinks so, but this if far from necessary. Often people get accused at random). This easily leads to a discussion, in which the players can listen to the discussion and observe other players, and give their own suspects and arguments. They can now detect suspicious behaviour. When the discussion has gone on long enough, the game leader calls it quits. He then calls out the name of every remaining player. When hearing the name, a remaining player can vote(only once, of course) for this player by raising his hand. Basically, the player with the most votes, gets voted out (but what happens if there's a tie? see problems below). That player is then out of the game. Only at the beginning of the following day scene, the game leader then reveals whether the eliminated player was a mafia member or wasn't (to inform the NP if they were or weren't on the right track). Then everyone must go to sleep again.

• Q: What happens during a night scene?
• A: All remaining players are asleep(well, actually in a sleeping position, so that they can not see the actions of other players). At night, the members of the mafia have a possibilty to eliminate a player(any player, nevertheless, it is pretty obvious that actually eliminating a member of the mafia does not really increase the chances of the mafia winning the game).
  Here's how it goes: when everybody is sleeping, the game leader exclaims (in arbitrary or non-arbitrary order) the names of all players that are still in the game. When the game leader says the name of a player that a MM wants to eliminate, he quietly lifts his hand/finger up so that the game leader can see it. A MM is only allowed to raise his hand/finger once every night. A player is only eliminated when all remaining mafia members lifted their hand/finger when the game leader said the name of that player. (it is of course the task of the game leader to detect whether this is the case or not. ) When he has gone through all names, the game leader, informs the players whether someone has been eliminated, and the name of the eliminee if there is one. Then is it time to wake up.

• Q: What happens when a player gets voted out , or gets eliminated by the mafia?
• A: Well, he no longer gets to vote other players out, or take part in the discussions that precede that voting. Dead players don't sleep, so they can see what happens at night, when can be very interesting sometimes, although getting voted out in early stage of the game isn't fun, especially when there are a lot of players.

• Q: What happens if there's a tie in the daytime vote?
• A: Well, this is a really big problem. It can be solved if there are still many players and some of them aren't sure and willing to change their vote when convinced by other players. However, when people are really sure and don't want to change their vote, this causes problems. Suppose the following situation: It is day, and only 2 players remain: one belonging to the mafia and one normal player. Of course every player then votes for the other remaining player, leading to a tie that can not be solved in any way. I've been thinking about a fair solution for this, but the only thing I could come with so far, is flipping a coin or a trick like that, which might be one of the least unfair methods to solve this.
  Somebody else thought of a pretty nifty way to avoid the above situation. If only one mafia member, and 2 normal players remain during a night scene, the mafia member actually benefits from not voting anybody away. Then, the situation is solved in a natural way. Luckily I must say, ties do not occur that much in practice, and when players are a bit reasonable, they can usually be solved in a natural way.

• Q: Are there game tactics?
• A: Well. Let's divide this one into 3 parts.
  • Game leader: well, no real tactics here. As game leader, it is your responsibility to make sure that no player cheats. However there are some tactics here worth mentioning.
    In consecutive rounds, it is important to choose the members of the mafia as random as possible, so that players can not guess/derive who is a member of the mafia.
    When some player is easily discovered as being member of the mafia, it's a good idea not to make that player member of the mafia again quickly. Being discovered quickly will make him even more nervous, and he risks being discovered once again.
    Letting the same players be members of the mafia in consecutive rounds, or choosing members of the mafia adjacent to one another can be funny, but gets predictable when used too often.
  • Normal players: well, not much tactics here, except maybe the following.
    Getting voted out quickly isn't fun at all. When people accuse you in the early stages of the game, it is vital for your survival to convince them of your innocence, and lead them to another scapegoat.
    Of course, there are no actual rules to discover a member of the mafia, but of course there's body language(shaking, stuttering, sweating, . . . ), but what a person says can also be very revealing. Is he really quiet, or is he constantly babbling? How does he react when somebody accuses him? Personally, I'm not very good at all this, but I guess it something you can learn if you're really attentive.
    Other ways to track down the members of the mafia can be: if several persons constantly vote on the same person, or people that raise their hand after some other player raised his hand first, are suspicious. (it's is pretty normal behaviour for mafia members to vote on the same player, because this usually lowers the chance of getting voted out themselves). Another thing to watch out for is the following: if someone gets eliminated during the night, it is usually someone that is a threat to one of the mafia members. The above are only general rules of course, the mafia can act differently as distraction/confusion.
  • Mafia members: This is the hardest part I guess. Being a normal player is pretty straightforward and easy once you know the game. It's all about self-preservation and detecting mafia members. Being a mafia member is usually harder, because it mostly comes down to being to act normally during daytime. This is harder than it might seem at first sight: when you see everyone peering at you and observing you closely, (at least in my case) some body parts suddenly seem to have a will of their own, and you're constantly wondering what you would do now, if you wouldn't have been chosen as a member of the mafia.
    if there are still several members of the mafia in the game, it can be important to predict how the other members of the mafia think, because in the night vote, a player can only be eliminated if the mafia members all vote for the same person.
    If all mafia members always vote for the same person during daytime, this is also very suspicious for the other players. Try spreading the votes in safe rounds(when no mafia member risks to get voted out), and sticking together in dangerous rounds.
    You can also try voting on fellow mafia members(this can really cause confusion), but you risk getting your collegue voted out, when other players follow your vote.

• Q: How should I choose the number of mafia players? And what about the the number of total players?
• A: I think 8-10 of players are pretty much ideal and 2 or occasionally 3 mafia members is enough(the game leader must of course inform the players of the number of mafia members before a round starts).
  Too many players makes it really hard to cast a vote in the early stages of the game, because there is simply too many people to observe. When there are a lot of players, players that get voted out in an early stage have to wait too long before another round starts, and it gets really boring for them.
  If there are too many mafia players, they have too much influence in the day scenes, and this can easily and quickly lead to a situation in which there are more mafia players remaining then normal players, a round that is guaranteed to be won by the mafia.
  If there are very few mafia members(especially the case where there is only one), they have an advantage during the night scenes.

• Q: How long can I play this game before it gets boring?
• A: Well, that depends on how well your fellow players are at lying and deceiving, and how easily you yourself get bored. I'd say you should usually be able to last about to ten rounds with the same team. Of course, if there would be several teams playing at the same time, one could exchange players between teams.