Ever played the game mafia around a campfire or simply when you were bored? If you have ever played this survivor-esque game then you know how intense and fun it can be and if you haven't then you may be about ready to find out.
The game is extremely popular as a party game and among psychology students as a way to pit your intelligence against your friends and your peers; interested? I hope but let me give a brief overview of the rules.
In the game of mafia there are 5 types of characters I will randomly choose the positions players are in and you must never reveal to someone what you are by showing them my correspondence with you as this will ruin the fun of the game
Non Player Character:
Narrator: I will be the only narrator in the game and it will be my job to control the story. I will appoint roles to each player (more on this later) and will oversee both the day and night phases (again more on this later) of the game to insure it runs smoothly and is enjoyable.
Player Characters:
Townspeople: The townspeople are exactly what you would expect them to be; people of the town. It is there job to kill the mafia and restore peace to their town. They will be the majority during the game however they will only be "awake" during the day phase of the game and have to stick together for strength. The number of Townspeople will vary depending on how many players there are.
Nurse: There will be only on Nurse who, during the night phase, will be able to choose one player to save from the mafia (explained further in mafia description). The nurse can choose to save themselves but this can be dangerous if an important player is in danger of being killed by the mafia. For practical purposes the Nurse is considered a Townsperson as they will be attempting to defeat the mafia as well. The Nurses actions are secret to protect their identity.
Sheriff: There will also be only one sheriff per game; it's their job to try to discover who the mafia is during the night phase of the game by selecting one person they think is mafia and the narrator (myself) responding yes or no. As with the nurse the Sheriffs actions are secret to protect their identity and so they must be tactful in revealing how much they know as the Sheriff and Nurse are prime targets of the mafia.
Mafia: Finally you have the games namesake; the mafia. This group of players have the ability to kill one townsperson per night; however they are a much smaller group than the townspeople and must be as discrete as possible in order to win the game. The kill can only fail if the nurse saves the player the mafia chooses to kill.
Game Play: I'm sure at this point new comers are completely confused by many of the terms I used to let me give an explanation of the game play that will occur.
Night Phase The Night phase is the time the mafia will be active as well as the time the Nurse and Sheriff can preform their duties. The order is as follows:
1. The mafia will decide on a player to kill this should be based upon players who are getting to close to the mafia's true identity but you must be sure not to give yourselves away in this killing. Then again random killings aren't the worst idea; all in all the decision of who to kill is the mafia's but should be carefully thought out. Because the night phase is completely private the mafia will either need to email me or (preferably) form a private chat room where they can discuss who to kill and then email the results to me. 2. The Nurse will choose who to save, this can be themselves or any others, from the mafia. Usually the nurse would want to select someone who is leading the townspeople and may be in danger of being killed. The Nurse can only choose one person to save per night. 3. The Sheriff will email me a players name who they believe is mafia and I will tell them either yes or no in an email back. This is purely on the basis of who the sheriff thinks the mafia is. 4. The night phase is concluded.
Day Phase: The other phase of the game is the Day phase and will be presented in a debate manner on this thread; the order will go. 1. I will announce who died the previous night. 2. All players will discuss who they believe is mafia (Note: The mafia are in this debate as well and may attempt to steer the townspeople away from discovering their true identities or follow any other strategy they see fit.) 3. Players will accuse two other players that they believe are mafia; the first two players to be nominated and seconded will be the ones in danger of being killed. 4. The two players will attempt to show why they aren't mafia (alibis and other stories can be made up to make the game more fun but this isn't necessary) through past voting (see bellow) or any other reasons they see as proof they aren't mafia. Lying is key to this game and it's important to remember you want to be a townsperons in the day phase in order to stay alive, at lest you want others to believe you are. So lie, lie, and lie some more to try to convince people that you are a townsperson any method of lying is acceptable. The two accused will get one post to explain why they aren't mafia and there will be no further debate. 5. Voting will occur; whoever gets the majority of the votes is dead and out of the game. They do not revel what they were and can no longer contribute to the current game.
I understand that not everyone can be on at the same time therefore deadlines will be given on, how long night will occur, how long debate will be, how long players have to post a defense, and how long voting can take. If the deadline is reached you will not be able to submit anything further on the current topic; in other words you won't be effective in the current objective.
Finally you have to use email at least once in order to play and you may have to continue using it through the duration of the game. Also chat rooms will be allowed but if they are for a day discussion they must be reveled to all players in that a link must be posted on the thread.
Actually now finally; although lying is encouraged cheating is not. Do not attempt to show someone else your email telling who you are unless you are both dead. However; go ahead and discuss this on your profiles if you want but again all activities need to be transparent.
P.S. If you are interested post here and if you're confused ask any questions you want I'm sure others will have the same questions as you.
I'll join, but people need a little more information about how the game is going to be played, for example: who is what type of character and how they are chosen?
I've got a few things to write down to try and help with the organization, I've already samy you most of it, but he's right that this should be out in the open.
Hope this isn't too messy and full of holes, but here's my attempt to be helpful:
First off, I'd suggest that people read the instructions with every round, this is drawn out and confusing, don't try to memorize it; I did, and I have a slight headache now because of it.
We are going to need to organize at least two chatrooms to facilitate this, as I assume samy will know who the members of the mafia are, he will need to notify them of the room by a private means such as e-mail, so everyone make sure he has such a method of contacting you, as profile comments aren't secure.
Discussions on this thread would probably be much too messy to be feasible, so mandatory times for meeting might be needed. As it has been realized, however, that not everyone is going to be as active as each other, or even be on at the same time, someone is going to need to take minutes, or at least tally votes of the discussions.
I'll probably be thinking of things to add on to this later, I know it's missing quite a bit that would be required to make it properly helpful.
Your role will be randomly selected by me; you wont get to choose it but it will be completely random and fair.
As Ph said don't worry about memorization right now that will come as you continue with the game. I promise this will be really fun if we can just get it started so that all the kinks can be worked out and we can form a great core group who can help others.
