Mafia / Werewolf (Party Game)

[b0rR*4cHo]

Mafia (also known as Werewolf) is a party game created in the USSR by Dimitry Davidoff in 1986, modeling a battle between an informed minority (the mafia) and an uniformed majority (the townspeople). Players are secretly assigned roles: either mafia, who know each other; or townspeople, 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. A typical game starts with seven townspeople and two Mafiosi.

One person is the game's Narrator - who moderates the game, rather than participating. Everyone else is dealt a card that gives them their secret role as a player.

Basic roles

• Two or more Mafia (who win by killing off or outnumbering civilians)
  
• One Detective (a Civilian who can inspect players in the night as to whether or not they are mafia)
  
• A number of Civilians
  

It is recommended to have an odd total number of players to prevent ties during lynch votes, and to ensure that the game ends dramatically on a lynching, rather than with an anticlimactic murder.

Night

The Narrator tells everyone to close their eyes ("It is now nighttime and everyone in the city is asleep..."). The Narrator then asks the mafia players to open their eyes and acknowledge their fellow members. They agree to kill off one of the other players by silently gesturing to indicate their target and to show unanimity. Then the Narrator instructs the mafia members to "sleep", by closing their eyes again.

Next, the Detective is asked to open his or her eyes and point at a suspect; if that player is mafia-sided, the narrator nods. Then the Narrator instructs the Detective to sleep and the Doctor to open his or her eyes; he or she points at someone to save, then goes back to sleep.

Day

The Narrator tells everyone to wake up. Unless the doctor and the Mafia selected the same target a murder is announced, sometimes with a little narrative detail. (For example, "David was shot seven times, stabbed three times, and drowned in the river.") This player is "dead" and may no longer participate in the game in any way.

During the daytime phase, the players deliberate over which suspected Mafia member they wish to nominate for lynching. Once nominations are made, the narrator administers an election between the nominees, in which all players vote - whoever receives the most votes is lynched; they are dead, and may no longer participate in the game in any way.

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 either has a set time limit, or continues until a lynching has been performed.

Win condition

If all Mafia members are killed, then the Townspeople win the game. If the Mafia outnumbers the villagers, then the Mafia win.

Investigative role

• —The Psychic
  

Allied with the Innocents, the psychic can detect whether a player is a Mafioso. They will typically wake up, and point at one person; the Narrator will silently indicate to the Detective whether that player is Mafia or Innocent. As with other roles, which player is the detective is not generally known, leaving anyone the option of pretending to be the Detective.

Protective role

• —Guardian Angel
  

Allied with the Innocents, the guardian angel-type role defends others at night. Typically, they will awaken at night after the Mafia have gone back to sleep and point at one person to protect; that person will survive any night-time attack. They are barred from protecting the same target on successive nights. A Guardian Angel can only protect others.

Handicapper role

• —Dentist
  

The Dentist may select any other player at night, and remove all of their teeth to prevent them speaking during the following day. The silenced individual wakes in the morning and is immediately instructed not to talk until the end of the day. They can still raise their hand to vote in live games, but being silenced in online games typically prevents any postings, including that needed to vote.

Reanimation role

• —Witch
  

The Witch has a (single-use) revival potion. At night, she's shown who will die in the morning, and can choose to save them

[b0rR*4cHo]

I would like to see if anyone is interested in playing this game. It requires a number of people but not too many as roles can be eliminated if necessary. However, it is best played if each of these roles can be filled with the addition of normal villagers.

I know by reading the instructions you may wonder how this would work on the forum.

Since it would be the first time playing I would be the narrator meaning I would not actively participate in the game other that what is behind the scenes. I would randomly assign the people who choose to play their roles and message them on here as to what they are. A separate thread for the game would be created where during the "day" you all are allowed to make accusations as to who is who and try to persuade others on who to lynch. A time limit would be set such as 24 hours when everyone must cast their vote (your vote would be messaged to me and not posted). I would announce who is lynched and that player would no longer be able to participate. The "night" would fall. Secretly the mafia / werewolves would cast another vote on who to murder that night. I would then reveal to the witch who the victim would be and that person can decide if they choose to save that person (one time use).

 

The psychic, guardian angel, and dentist would all send me their selections.

 

In the morning, the victim would be revealed (if there is one that did not survive through the witch or guardian angel). Then the process would continue on till one side wins.

 

Oh btw just because you are not the psychic does not mean you cannot pretend to be to fool others. Basically, at the end of the game, the wolves / mafia want to win OR you can be that small group of villagers that convinced people to lynch others and not yourself and you win while everyone else is big fat loser.

[Butterz]

Best game ever.

 

A group of friends and I used to play it on Facebook, using text documents as the forums, and it worked reasonably well. Just make sure that you have only people who want the game to work, because even 1 person trolling can ruin the entire game (vote off cop or doc lol).

 

If you can't get enough people to play here, you can try epicmafia, which is a flash-based player (I believe) and it works quite well. Just be careful, the sandbox lobbies are strictly for trolling, so don't try to be serious there.

[m4G-]

Syre sounds fun, i have once played it couple rounds as a kid in a party.