The rules of the game Mafia

"applied socialpsichology"

Introduction

Mafia - a game played by groups of people who like to hide their motivations, measure their ability to persuade others, and argueing for hours. Almost no resource is needed for this game except the players of course. During the most of the game the players are only expected to talking to each other and there is absolutely no phisical action involved in this game. That's why people of any age can play it. You only need good mental abilities to play mafia succesfully.

Requirements

1. Some players. The game is the most enjoyable when the number of people is between 9 and 18.

2. A room or a place where nobody disturbes the players during the game. Seats and minimal comfort is important as the game can last for hours. It should be a quiet place because in some parts of the game small noises have great importance.

3. At least 2 or 3 hours. In some cases the game last longer depending on the number of the players.

4. A referee who controls the game.

Basic ideas

Every player represents one of the residents of an imaginary town. All inhabitants can be divided into two groups: citizens and mafia members. Of course every criminal looks the same as the citizens so a citizen can never know whether another person is a criminal or not. On the other hand every member of the mafia knows all the others. The citizens try to stop the mafia while the mafia tries to hide its members and asassinate the most dangerous citizens. The game is about the fight between this two group. One of these groups will win the game while the other will lose.

The main purpose for both of the groups is to survive - in this game this means the total destruction of the other party. The citizens looks for the members of the mafia and execute them while the criminals make an effort to mislead the citizens and annilihate them one by one. At the beginning of the game there is a lot more citizens than criminals.

To die means in this game to be out of the game. No dead person can exert influence on the game any longer.

The imaginary town is democratic. The citizens and also the mafia members decide the important problems by voting. If more than the half of the voters votes for something then it will be done, otherwise the voting will have no result. As the criminals seem to be innocent citizens they can vote in every case the citizens can vote.

The game is composed of days and nights. Every day all the inhabitants live their life: citizens look for criminals and mafia members defend their incognito. Nights on the other hand give place only the mafia to kill someone. Like in the real life nights and days periodically follow each other.

There is a special citizen that has exclusive rights: the inspector. The inspector has the right to check someone at the end of every night. This means the inspector asks the referee if that a certain player is criminal or not. Both the question and the referee's answer has to be quiet so that noone else should know the information that the inspector has. That's why the inspector is the only one who knows somebody's real identity for sure (except the mafia members of course). It's clear that the inspector is the most powerful enemy of the mafia so the members of the mafia will immediately kill him when it turns out that he is the inspector. Consequently to reveal that you are the inspector is not a good strategy at the beginning of the game. After many nights you will know much more about the players so the later you share your information with the citizens the more benefit they will get from that. On the other side the risk of being killed by the mafia or even by the citizens (in some cases) raises as the time goes by. The question of the timing of reveal is maybe the most important for the inspector in the game.

Preparations

1. A referee have to be chosen.

2. The citizens and the criminals must be selected. This can happen by random selection eg. picking cards or some way like this. If you choose picking cards you have to know how many players will play. Then calculate the number of the maffia members. The game is the most enjoyable if the citizens are about 3 times more than the maffia members. (2 criminal against 6-8 citizens, 3 criminal against 9-11 citizens etc.) It is very important that noone would be able to discover what kind of cards the other players got.

3. Everyone but the referee should sit down. The "classical" way of placing during mafia is to sit in a circle. Every player should be able to see all the others as clear as possible.

4. Be sure about that everyone knows the others' name.

Rules

1. The basic rule : one can do anything that doesn't violate the rules below. Some ways of activity can be unethical but not prohibited. For example going out in the middle of the game and taking parts only in the votes is not forbidden but very unethical. Such behaviour can easily be honored with execusion by the other players.

2. Noone can reveal his role in a way that insures by 100% that he is not lying. This means anyone can argue for hours proving his innocence asking some others for help to verify it, but he doesn't have the right to show the card he picked at the beginning when the criminals were selected.

3. Dead players that are already out of the game cannot influence the game and the players still playing in any way. Any verbal or nonverbal message to the living inhabitants is forbidden.

4. The referee should also be careful what he says and does because he has no right to give any information to the players apart from some cases described below.

The game goes like this:

5. After the preparation the game begins with a special night. The actions made at this night are exeptional : they won't be repeated any more in the game. At the beginning of this night the referee requests the players to "sleep" : this means everyone should close his eyes, bow his head and be in silence. After that the referee order the members of the mafia to look up and recognise each other. Till this point nobody have known who are the criminals but from now the referee and the members of the mafia will know all the members of the mafia. The referee's duty to be sure that the same number of people looked up as the number of the maffia members. After the recognition the referee requests the criminals to sleep again, and then says that the night is over and everyone can open his eyes and raise his head. This the first day starts.

6. The days are all the same in the game. Most of the time a conversation is going and anybody can take part in it. The aim of this conversation is for the citizens to find out who can be mafia member and who seems to be innocent. The citizens can use many things to decide who is suspicious and who is not: the noises heard during the nights, the behaviour of the other players, the little signs players seem to make which can be some kind of secret communication, nonverbal signs coming from each other player, things other players say, opinions other players have, etc. If someone has a suspect against someone then a little trial would be held:

The player can "accuse" the other. This means he should tell the referee that he has the suspicion. Then the referee ask everyone for vote about the guy have fallen under suspicion. Everybody who thinks that the suspicion is correct should vote at the same time when the referee gives the sign. Everyone can vote but the fellow under suspicion. If more than the half of the potential voters has voted, the suspect will be charged. If only the half of them (or less) voted then the suspect will be claimed clear and the day continues as just nothing has happened before.

If the charge exists the player being charged get a chance to prove his innocence : the time of his "last words" has come. This means he get a short time to persuade the others to change their opinion about him. During this time only the accused person can speak. He can give the right to speak to anyone and can forbid anyone to tell anything. During this short period the charged player can direct the conversation. The last words are over when the charged player or the referee says so.

After the last words a new voting comes immediately about the charged guy's death. Noone can say anything between the last words and the voting. If more than the half of the voters votes again, the person under suspicion will die. After his/her death the next night immediately begins. Noone is allowed to say anything till the beginning of the next day.

A day can contain many accuses, last words and votings but only one succesful execusion. Some time after a failed charge or execution a new accuse on the same person is not against the rules. The important thing is that someone must die every day, and immediately after the execution a new night comes.

7. After every single day a night comes. Nights are going the same way except the special first night described previously. First, the referee requests the players to "sleep" in silence with closed eyes and bowed head. After this the referee lists the names of the players in some order. Every "living" player's name have to be mentioned. During this name list have the mafia the possibility of asassination using the following method : Every member of the mafia have to decide who to shoot at. Everyone can shoot but only once pro night. The criminals have to make a well-visible sign when they hear their victim's name. This sign symbolises the shooting. Of course the mafia members cannot raise their head or open their eyes so they won't know who the others have shot at. It is a wise thing to be as silent as possible because even an extremely low level noise can be a telltale sign. Only the referee will see the "shots" and his duty will be to summarize them as well. The asassinate is succesful if more than the half of the criminals have shot to the same player. (This means if there are 3 mafia members alive, at least 2 of them should shoot at the same player to kill him. In the case of two living criminals they both have to shoot at the same person otherwise they fail.) Consequently if there is only one criminal alive he will succesfully kill someone every night. None of the mafia members have the right to shoot at himself but they can shoot at the other fellows in the mafia if they want. If there is only 3 living criminal two of them can annihilate the third. Only in very extraordinary situations should they do that.

The rules above insure that only a cooperating mafia can be succesful. The members should communicate and decide together who to kill at the next night. Days are the only platform for this kind of communication and the mafia members must be very careful. If the citizens observe someone sending secret signs to somewhere they will reward him with immediate execution. Anyway, there are many forms of cooperating and the criminals should find the way they can use by the minimal risk.

After the name list and the shots the referee should call the inspector to look up and "check someone". Checking means a silent pointing at the player to be checked. The inspector points at someone and the referee will inform him quietly whether that player is an innocent citizen or not. All the players but the inspector must not know whom the inspector checked and what was the result of this. After informing the inspector the referee orders everyone to "sleep" and after a short time he say that the night is over. If the mafia have killed someone succesfully the referee have to tell it now the players. This is the moment the next day starts.

8. The game is over when the referee says so. This can happen when :
- Every criminal has died.
- The number of citizens is below the number of criminals. In this kind of situations the mafia can direct the game both at night and on the days because they can vote anything they want. That's why they can reveal they real identity and surely win.

Notes

1. Referee
It's not necessary to find a referee before the game starts if there are exercised players playing. While only the first not special night needs a really outsider referee the referee can be the first dead person killed in the first day. If this is the situation the special night and the first day should be regulated by a chosen player. This player cannot violate the rules either so eg. he/she must "sleep" at the spacial night unless he/she is a criminal, etc.

2. Time
Sometimes the days going for a long time when nothing important seems to happen. In the case of not skilled players can it be the situation. It can be a wise idea to limit the time one day can last. The time limit can be 10 or even 40 minute depending on the number of players and the time you have for the whole game. If the time is over and the players don't have someone to accuse and execute, the referee can randomly select one of them who will die. Of course the referee should warn the players when the time is close to the limit. If someone dies by this way it can be very useful to let him tell one or two sentences as his last words.

3. Versions
Almost every company playing Mafia often has their own corrections in the rules. I have heard about many versions myself and some of these were quite defferent from each other. The usability of a new version depends on two things: have the citizens and the mafia the same chance to win? and can the players play the version having enough fun? If the answer of both questions above is yes then you can play the game with changed rules. The rule set described above insures equal chances to both sides and the players usually love it. I offer to use it unless you are skilled players with special demands.

Send comments and questions to:
András Kuba, jzp3210@stud.u-szeged.hu

Last Updated:
2nd Jan 1997