How to Play: Mafia
Story
10 Friends booked a cottage in the woods for a long weekend getaway. They carpool up to the cottage together early one morning and all are full of excitement at the sure to be fun weekend ahead of them. They arrive, each pick a room and unpack their things. They enjoy their first day together playing games, swimming, BBQ-ing and all the other usual cottage activities.
Night arrives and each of them go to sleep in their own rooms. After what seemed like a peaceful night, they wake up the next morning to find that one of their friends was murdered in his sleep.
They gather together in the living room to discuss what happened. They realize that since they are in the middle of nowhere, and so the killer must be among them and before you know it the accusations start flying. After a very heated debate, they agree on who the killer must be. In their frenzy, they promptly tie him up and throw him in the lake.
Still shaken by the whole ordeal, they feel a little bit of relief and all go to sleep that night. The next morning, yet another friend is found murdered in their sleep.
The remaining friends gather in the living room once again and start pointing fingers and flinging accusations. They come upon another unanimous agreement on who the killer is, tied him up and throw him in the lake.
Stressed and exhausted from the last two days, night approaches once again and they all go to sleep, only to wake up to find yet another friend murdered.
The remaining 5 friends gather and furiously discuss who the killer could be. And after another execution that morning and a murder that night, there are 3 friends remaining.
These 3 friends are certain that one among the 3 is the killer and this is their last chance to find out who, for if they pick wrong, the last friend will be left alone with a deadly killer.
Does this story sound thrilling to you? Great, because you too can have you own party of murders and executions. The game is called Mafia, and is perfect for big hangouts. Think birthday parties, a classroom activity or just around the campfire.
Setup
There is a killer whose objective it is to kill everyone, and there are villagers, whose objective it is to execute the killer as quickly as possible.
This game is best played with groups of 7 or more people, but can accommodate many players, even as much as 20 or more if the moderator is good enough. As you add players, you'll want to add more killers to balance it out, a ratio of 7:1 is decent.
The most important part of this game is the moderator and this role should be done by someone familiar with the game, and since you are watching this video, you should be that person.
You'll need a deck of cards. Each player is given one card. Draw a Jack, Queen and King and numbered cards from the deck until you reach the total number of players, not including the host.
Shuffle the cards and deal out one card to each player. Tell the players to look at their card discretely and keep it secret.
Explain that if they have a Jack, they are the killer. If they have the Queen, the doctor. The King, the detective. Everyone else is a villager.
That's it for setup, let's get into the game.
Playthrough
Night falls upon the village and all the villagers go to sleep. All players please close your eyes and keep them closed until I say otherwise.
If you have the Jack, open your eyes and look at me so that I know who the killer is. Okay, now point at who you want to kill. Let me make sure I see who you are pointing at. If this is your first time moderating, it might be worth writing down who points at who, otherwise you'll just have to take a mental note. If you have two killers, they kill twice and have to agree on both kills. Okay killer, close you eyes.
If you have the Queen, open your eyes and look at me so that I know who the doctor is. Okay, now point at who you want to save. If you point at the same person the killer did, you save them from dying tonight. Let me make sure I see who you are pointing at. The doctor is allowed to point at themselves to save themselves, but may only do this every other night. Okay doctor, close you eyes.
If you have the King, open your eyes and look at me so that I know who the detective is. Okay, now point at who you want to inspect. If you point at the killer, I will give you a thumbs up, if not, a thumbs down.. Let me make sure I see who you are pointing at. Okay detective, close you eyes.
It is now the next morning, everyone open your eyes. Green is dead. Green can no longer play the game but must watch in silence. The village meets up in the village square to discuss who among them is the killer. Give the players a timer for discussion, like 5 or 10 minutes. After a few names are thrown around, you as the host will call a vote. By show of hands, who wants to execute Red? 5 for Red. Okay, how about Blue? 4 For Blue. Since this is a close vote, you may give Red a chance to defend themselves for a few minutes and call another vote. If the vote is clearly in favor of executing Red, you can ask Red if they have any last words.
Red has been executed. Red can no longer play the game and must watch in silence. It is night time again and all the players close their eyes. Once again you ask the Killer, Doctor and Detective to point. Always do this step even if these characters are dead so that you don't accidently reveal secret information.
It is the next morning, and nobody died. This is because the doctor pointed at the same person as the killer. The villagers still meet to discuss an execution but are not obliged to execute anyone. Whether or not anyone is executed, after the 5 minute timer ends, move on to the next night and repeat.
Repeat this cycle until either the killer is successfully executed, in which case the villagers win, or there are 3 of less players remaining after an execution, in which case, the killer wins.
Pretty straight forward game, but tons of depth because of the group discussion, secret keeping and special roles. If I did a good job with the explanation, please sign up for the newsletter. Also feel free to ask any questions in the comments. Until next time, good luck have fun, and go get lost in play.