The rules for Mafia

The best group game I've ever played.

For: 6 to 21 people
Needs: Chairs, arranged in a circle facing each other.

The object of this game is to make your affiliation win. If you're part of the mafia, you want the mafia to win. If you're part of the innocent, you want the innocent to win. This will make more sense as we go along.

You start off with 6 to 21 people. Choose one person to be the GameMaster (GM).

At different times during the course of this game, you will be asked to put your heads down for the sake of secrecy. It is in the interests of a fun game to be honest during this period of time. Please don't cheat by looking or raising your head without being asked. The GM has the authority to disqualify a person from a game in the middle of a round. Other than this time, if you need to, you can lie as much as your heart desires.

The GM stands, and everyone else sits in a circle, or in a way that everyone can see everyone else's face.

Then, the GM instructs everyone to put their head down. The GM walks around and secretly chooses TWO people to be Mafia (M) and one person to be the Confidant (C), I personally do this by walking around and saying, "If you're tapped on the head, you're mafia. If you're tapped on the shoulder, you're the confidant."

Once the GM has made his choices, he asks the M to look up, recognize each other, and put their heads back down. When the M heads are down, he asks the C to look up and silently accuse someone. The C can then point to someone in the group and the GM will nod to the C if they are M or not. When the C puts his head back down the GM will begin the first round by instructing everyone to raise their heads.

The round consists of three parts, the killing, the murder, and the accusation:

1. The Killing
The killing is a GROUP decision. The group must decide to kill someone. This is where the mafia try to get an innocent killed and the innocent try to get a mafia killed. To kill someone, three things must be done.

• A vote must be taken to accuse someone. Majority rules. If there are 21 people in the circle, 20 people are voting, so 11 is a majority. If there are 20 people in the circle, 19 are voting, so 10 is a majority. If the vote passes, the person is accused.
• The accused gets a set time (usually 30 seconds, but it can be changed from game to game) to defend themselves. They are allowed to speak uninterrupted. The GM is in charge of making sure no one else speaks until the accused is done.
• When the accused is done, or their time is up, another vote is taken. This is the vote to kill. Again, majority rules. If a majority votes to kill, that person is dead, and out of the game. The GM then announces whether they were M, the C, or innocent.

At this point, the killing is over. If one of the following conditions ARE MET, do not continue with #2 and #3. Go back to #1 until the game is over.

• There are 3 people left, and 1 is mafia.
• There are 5 people left, and 2 are mafia.

If one the following conditions ARE MET, the game is over, and the mafia has won because, in any situation, the mafia will be the majority.

• There are 4 people left, and 2 are mafia.
• There are 2 people left, and 1 is mafia.

2. The Murder
If none of the above conditions apply, the GM stands up and asks everyone to put their head down. Then he asks the M to raise their heads and silently kill someone. The M can then choose anyone in the circle to kill. When the M have decided and the GM knows, the GM asks the M to put their heads back down. The GM does not announce the choice, unless the choice happened to be the C, or the C is already dead.

At this point, I'd like to define what the C's goal is. The C is an innocent. They are to gather information and steer the conversation and arguments of the group to kill the mafia. However, although they CAN announce to the group that they are the C, it is in their best interest to not do this unless it guarantees a win. In almost all cases, if the M know, the M will kill the C in part #2.

3. The Accusation
If the C is still alive, the GM asks the C to raise their head and accuse someone. The C can point to anyone in the circle and the GM will tell the C if that person is M or innocent. After this, the C puts his head back down. The GM then instructs everyone to raise their heads. He announces the murdered player, and the next round begins. At this point, go to #1.

The game is over when:

• One of the above conditions are met: The mafia have won.
• The mafia members are killed. The innocent have won.

Enjoy, and have tons of fun!

Send me back to Beer's eKeg, The Games, where he knows when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em.