Mafia (game)
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Template:Infobox Game Mafia is a party game modelling a battle between Past (information) and Future (cooperation). Mafia is played in groups with at least six 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.
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Gameplay
In its simplest form, mafia is very easy to learn. Have everybody sit so that to see everybody else. Pick the same number of tokens as you have players (cards are convenient). Mark a third of the tokens or close to that ratio (take 3 red and 6 black cards if you have 9 players); if you are playing with roles, associate tokens with them. Distribute tokens randomly and secretly, everyone should remember its meaning (red or black; a special role) and return it to a pile - someone begins the game by asking everyone (including the speaker) to close their eyes and lower their heads: - the speaker then tells the mafia to look up, see each other and look down again - the speaker tells everyone to open their eyes and start the game (alternatively, some variations include extra activities here with special roles and special tasks need to be performed. Sometimes the speaker can not play in order to perform function of a narrator for coordination of roles).
During the daytime phase, honest players (black card) should try to figure out who is in the mafia (red card). Members of the mafia have to hide their identity and try to put honest people under suspicion. At any point of the game, anyone could ask for a vote to eliminate someone as a member of the mafia. If majority agrees, that person is out of the game (dead), and can not participate in further discussions (though one can not avoid their witty remarks =). Otherwise game continues as if nothing happened.
Dead people do not reveal their identity. Therefore, in order to check game's progress, anyone could suggest to have a 'Mafia night' (majority has to agree). During that phase, honest players who are still in the game have to write word 'honest' on a piece of paper; mafia members have to write down the name of a player for elimination. Notes are written in secret, then collected and revealed. Number of notes that have names on them gives the number of mafia players still in the game. If all the mafia notes have the same name on them, that player is considered to be killed by mafia (if only one mafia player is still in the game, her/his single note is enough to kill). There are other procedures to have 'mafia night': usually an eliminated player becomes a moderator/narrator and suggest to everyone lower their head, put a hand on top of it and then calls names of players. Mafia members have to move their fingers to signal a shot. Chances for an honest person to be killed during 'mafia night' grow towards the end of the game. Game ends with no shots during a night or mafia players gain majority to vote all honest players out during a day.
During the years, players add more rules, roles and limitations. For example, some groups prefer more structured games with rigid order of days and nights. Role of policeman was introduced in order to balance game dynamics after allowing mafia cooperation during 'mafia night' (thus one night = one kill). External links provide a good overview for different versions of rules. Some of popular special roles are discussed below.
Special Roles
There are different roles that go beyond the basic honest (or townspeople) and mafia (or werewolves) roles. Some are on the side of the townspeople and some are on the side of the mafia. This is by no means a comprehensive list, and many groups invent their own special roles. These are just the most common. Also, these jobs can have different names; for example, the role listed under "Doctor" is sometimes called the "Guardian Angel".
The Doctor (Guardian in Werewolf variants or Archangel in others) is on the side of the townspeople. During the night, he chooses one person to save. If this same person is a mafia target, the targeted individual survives the night, and the narrator announces the next morning that there was an unsuccessful attempt on the person's life. Some narrators allow the Doctor to save himself; others do not.
The Guardian Angel ( also known as Detective) is a townsperson to whom the narrator secretly reveals the identity of all mafia members. During the daytime, the guardian angel tries to inform the townspeople of who the mafia are without arousing suspicion and being killed. This role introduces another level of deception to the game because a member of the mafia may publicly claim to be the guardian angel and try to lead the townspeople to lynch innocents.
The Sheriff (Seer in Werewolf variants, often called Cattani in European variants, after the main character in La Piovra, an Italian television series about Mafia) is also a townsperson role. Each night, the Sheriff may investigate one person by pointing to that person. The narrator will inform the Sheriff whether that person is mafia. The Sheriff is a prime target for Mafia kills, like the Doctor and Guardian Angel. In some variants of the role, the Sheriff returns readings that are either always innocent (sometimes dubbed the Naive Sheriff), guilty (a Paranoid Sheriff) or random (a Crazy Sheriff).
The Godfather (Master Wolf in Werewolf variants) is a member of the mafia who is immune to investigation. If the Godfather is investigated, he will come up innocent.
The Miller is the opposite of the Godfather, a townsperson who will come up guilty if investigated. This role is not used as frequently as other roles.
The Devil's Advocate 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 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 Vigilante is on the side of the townspeople, and can kill one person during the daytime at his discretion. The narrator will confirm for the group the Vigilante's role when he makes the kill, thus it cannot be faked.
The Bomb, when killed either by being lynched or by the mafia also kills the people on either side, when sitting in a circle, or two people at their discretion when not.
Masons are more frequently found in larger games. They are townspeople who know each other to be innocent, and thus can work together with greater confidence.
Serial Killers are also more native to larger games. They are an independent role with a killing ability, like the mafia. They kill one target each night, and win if they are the last individual standing. It is rare for a serial killer to win the game.
There are a wide variety of other possible roles and ways to play the game. Some narrators give clues pointing to the members of the mafia or other killing roles, such as describing patterned methods of death. Sometimes everyone has a special role of some sort, but no one knows what all the roles are.
Although Mafia is usually played face to face, some enthusiasts play online. 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.
Another form of online play is to do so using the BYOND program. Someone going by the name of "LostRealm" re-created the game there. He added in multiple icons for player use, mainly because most of the icons came from players, multiple backgrounds, and more classes.
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 (http://boardgames.about.com/cs/gamehistories/a/timeline.htm).
Andrew Plotkin wrote the rules with Werewolf theme in 1997 [1] (http://www.eblong.com/zarf/werewolf.html). Looney Labs made commercial Werewolf version in 2002 [2] (http://www.wunderland.com/LooneyLabs/Werewolf/Rules.html).
External links
- The Original Mafia Rules (http://web.archive.org/web/19990302082118/http://members.theglobe.com/mafia_rules/)
- Hungarian Mensa Society (http://www.cab.u-szeged.hu/local/mensa/SIG/mafia/mafia.html) - first Mafia page on the net
- Vegard Engstrøm (http://org.ntnu.no/mafia/) page with a scoring system
- The Graduate Mafia Brotherhood of Princeton University (http://www.princeton.edu/~mafia/)'s page has an extensive list of variations
- MafiaScum.net (http://www.mafiascum.net) provides detailed strategies and forum for playing online
- The German language Mafia! (http://www.mafiaspiel.de) website describes new roles and has an online version
- Werewolf Statistics (http://www.eblong.com/zarf/werewolf-stats.html) analyzes the likelihood of the villagers winning based on the number of players and the number of Werewolves.
- Model of the game Mafia (http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&lr=&newwindow=1&c2coff=1&safe=off&q=cache:-ddcpM17h88J:www.ai.rug.nl/conf/bnaic2004/ap/a47new.pdf+de+haan+hesselink) as a multi-agent system.
- Rules and Variants
- Werewolf: A Mind Game (http://www.eblong.com/zarf/werewolf.html) describes the original 'Werewolf' variant of the game.
- Looney Labs' online version of the rules (http://www.wunderland.com/LooneyLabs/Werewolf/Rules.html) includes a sample script for the narrator.
- Advanced/Tournament Werewolf (http://www.wunderland.com/WTS/Jake/hidden/Advanced_Werewolf.html) variations for the Looney Labs rules above
- Mafia rules (http://www.gameideas4all.com/mafia.html) at GameIdeas4All
- Online Play
- Werewolf Play by Email server (http://www.gamerz.net/pbmserv/werewolf.html)
- Russian Play-By-Email (http://www.kozanostra.ru)
- The Romanian Mafia Club (http://www.romafiaclub.net) plays the game online in Romanian and English
- Commercial Versions
- Board Game Geek (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/) lists lists several commercial variants of Mafia (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/viewitem.php3?gameid=925)
- Looney Labs' commercial version "Are You a Werewolf? (http://www.wunderland.com/LooneyLabs/Werewolf/Index.html)" repopularized the game among role-playing game players in the early 2000s
- da Vinci Games rebranded the game with a wild west theme and added a more involved rule set as "Bang! (http://www.davincigames.com/page_eng.cfm?sez=01&gioco=bang!)".pl:Gra_w_mafiÄ™