The Mafia Game

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Furie
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The Mafia Game

Post by Furie »

A forum I used to frequent was really interested in a game called "Mafia". What is it, you say?

Mafia is a sort of "Who done it" game. Players are divided randomly into groups by the game moderator- the groups are called "townies", "mafia", and "third-party." Players use deduction, instinct, and deceit to try to win the game. Whoever meets their win condition, wins! (Win conditions can be anything, though the most common are "When all the mafia are eliminated, the town wins." or "When the Mafia outnumber the town, the Mafia wins.")


The game is divided into "day" and "night" sequences, and sometimes "twilight" sequence.
During the day phase, everyone is allowed to speak. They point fingers at or vote for people they find "scummy" (another name for the mafia members). The player who either reaches the majority vote or simply has the most votes as the day ends, gets lynched and is out of the game (though they can still watch and even comment as long as they don't give any information about other players away). The length of the day sequence is decided by the moderator, though players are allowed to call for a vote to shorten or lengthen the day.

During the night phase, any player with a "power role" (I'll get to those in a sec) will send a private message to the game moderator about what they'd like to do, or who they'd like to protect, and the mafia will get their votes in for who they want to night kill. The day phase begins again once all the PMs from power roles and mafia members are in to the moderator. Speaking in the game thread during the night phase is prohibited. Violators can be mod killed.

The twilight sequence is the grace period between the day and night, when a majority vote is reached, but the moderator hasn't been online or hasn't been able to commence the lynch and begin the night phase. Speaking is still allowed in this phase.

The game characters and power roles are decided by the moderator before the game starts, so there many games might not have all the roles, and some may even have more! But here are a few examples:

The Doctor- A player who, during the night phase, gets to choose a player to protect. If that player is a target of a night kill, that player will live and continue playing.
The Cop- This player gets to investigate one player's role during the night phase. Some roles are immune to investigation, however.
The Vigilante- A player who, once a night, gets to choose another player to Night Kill. This is indistinguishable from the mafia night kill. Not all Vigilante players are on the town side.
The Godfather- Usually investigation immune. Usually the cop investigating the godfather will turn up with a positive or pro-town result.

http://wiki.mafiascum.net/index.php?title=Roles <-A list and more in depth explanation about some of the roles.
'

Anyway, that's the gist of it. I'm curious how many people would be interested in playing this game here? If people would like to play, I could also give some general tips, and I'd also very happily moderate a beginners game for everyone. =) Note that this game may take a few tries for everyone to get up to speed, but it's really fun if everyone can get into it.

I would also like to note that this game can be any size. Even just three players can play together, though the game would only last for one day sequence (which could still last about a week) and I've seen games go up to 40 players (but that gets a little bit nuts, and inactives are a huge issue in those games, but when everyone participates, they're usually the most fun)
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Erranty
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Re: The Mafia Game

Post by Erranty »

The roles are usually clearer when you're playing Death Note Mafia.

Kira - The Executioner.
Misa - 2nd Kira if needed.
X-Kira (Teru Mikami) - 3rd Kira if needed.
L- The investigator.
Mello - Replaces Near if Near dies.
Near - Replaces L if L dies.
Matsuda - When he dies everyone screams "Damnit Matsuda!"

http://www.desunoto.com/post/5166300443 ... cards-game

If I remember right there has to be a minimum of 3 innocent bystanders, 1 Kira, and 1 L no matter what.
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(Phantom) Thief
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Re: The Mafia Game

Post by (Phantom) Thief »

There was a Umineko no Koro Ni version of this. Alright I'll try it.
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Furie
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Re: The Mafia Game

Post by Furie »

Erranty- That's awesome. If we find enough players, would you be willing to play?
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Erranty
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Re: The Mafia Game

Post by Erranty »

I think it'd be extremely hard to do online.
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Furie
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Re: The Mafia Game

Post by Furie »

You've played in real life? I've only ever played through forum style. The only issue was inactive posters. Also, I guess in real life you can detect body language and weed out the scum that way. Online, only words are available. But, having it online does allow people to go back and find inconsistencies and even quote them verbatim.

In real life, does mafia games start out with the "random voting stage"?
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Erranty
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Re: The Mafia Game

Post by Erranty »

First night the Kira(s) pick someone to kill.
Then then someone can accuse another person of being the killer.
The motion has to be seconded by another player.
Then a group vote is done on whether they should execute the suspect or not.
If they do he reveals his card and is out of the game.

Also, anyone can claim they're L (the investigator), but nobody may reveal their cards. This added obstacle is rather interesting because one Kira may claim he's L and then "prove" it by ratting out another Kira, making his story seem plausible.
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Furie
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Re: The Mafia Game

Post by Furie »

Ooh! That's a neat trick. Where I played, there was a person who, on the first day, would vote for and push random people hard. It's a very scummy tactic, but he usually got a member of the mafia lynched before the night phase could even occur, so people would start to jump on with him. He'd use this advantage the whole game to get people on his side, though he wasn't always town.

Man, I'm getting all fired up to play!

Mafia sign ups, lets do this~! The game will be deathnote. I'll be the moderator if no one else wants to.
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Giegue
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Re: The Mafia Game

Post by Giegue »

I down for this. As long as it's Death Note could I perhaps clear this up?

To my understanding. There would be a Kira and a L.
Basically ultimate good and bad. They decide who dies and who is incriminated respectively.
You'd have a member(Aizawa cuz' he's awesome.) Who might decide to attempt to kill the Kira before it gets too out of hand. The rest of the task force would be playing guinea pig like roles, while protecting L from being chosen by Kira to be murdered?
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Furie
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Re: The Mafia Game

Post by Furie »

L - doesn't know anyone else's role. He's trying to kill Kira.
Task Force Members - may know each other's roles, but don't know who Kira or L are. (depending on the amount of players, we may have the task force not know each other's roles. So they'd be like L- trying to kill Kira without know which side anyone's really on.) One of these might have the "cop" role.
Third Party/Shinigami- Shinigami in this game might know everyone's role depending on who moderates it. Shinigami would be a sort of wild card. Might also have a "doctor" role. (the doctor might even be a "townie" who doesn't know anyone other than himself)
Kiras/Light- Would know each other's roles. They want to turn everyone else against each other. They'd also get to kill a person each night.
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.hack-fan7
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Re: The Mafia Game

Post by .hack-fan7 »

this sounds very interesting
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