Mafia (now with unique playing cards)

By Steve On April 27, 2008 · 1 Comment

Mafia has been a game that has been floating around since some time after the 1920′s and now your youth group can play this game with some unique cards that Paul Moorhead told me about this weekend. Paul was previously involved with youth life for 8 and a half years (congrats) and he told me that he is absolutely crazy about this game and apparently there are lots of youth out there that love the game too.

Please note that this game can be played without that cards, but the cards just bring more fun to it and help those playing it get into the roles. Please visit the site that Paul Created for his cards: www.mafiacards.com

Guess what else he said? If you email him directly (email on his site) he will get you the cards for only $8.00. Just mention that you found it from my site.

Here’s how you play:

Requirements:

Number of players: 7 – 29
- 12 – 20 players ideal
A place to play
Your Mafia Cards
At least 30min to a few hours of playing time

Set up:

A deck of Mafia Cards
Have all players sit in a circle

THE GAME:

Each player is a citizen in the imaginary town of “___________” (it’s fun to come up with a name of your own for the town). Your imaginary town has been infiltrated by the Mafia! The players in your game are composed of two main groups: The Mafia and The Citizens. The problem is you don’t know who the Mafia are! The game is a battle between the Mafia and the Citizens. In the end the Mafia or the Citizens will win as a group (whether there are 1 or more left in the group).

So your main goal is to survive! This is a game of social interaction, so choose your words and behavior wisely!

THE ROLES:

Mayor: This person acts as the moderator in the game of Mafia. He is not an actual player in the game. He can not make any accusations or persuade any player in any way. He is simply to run the game and makes sure everyone has fun (try to find someone with a good sense of humor and imagination for this role).

Mafia: There are multiple Mafia members in the town (the actual number dependent on the total number of players). During each night the Mayor will give them an opportunity to “knock off” any citizen in the game. The mayor will ask who they want to kill; the Mafia needs to come to agreement in silent gestures and choose who to do away with. After this point, the person who was killed is out of the game and cannot speak in the game again.

Citizens: The rest of the players are ordinary citizens. When a citizen is killed, the Mayor will announce their death by making up a clever “accident” in which they lost their life – best as an occupational hazard. Citizens have no role during the night. But, during the day all people will converse and decide who to put on trial for being a suspected Mafia member. This is done purely through your own free interactions.

Inspector: This person is the local sleuth in town. During the night he will be given a chance to ask the Mayor about any single person alive in the game. He will simply point to an individual and ask if that player is a member of the Mafia or not. The Mayor will simply nod “Yes” or “No”. This process should be completely silent, as to not to give away the identity of the inspector.

Angel: During the night the Mayor awakes the angel player and asks him or her who they would like to save. Whoever the Angel player points to is safe for the night. If the mafia pick a player to be killed in the night, but if the angel picks that player to be saved, then the Mayor will announce that this player was almost killed, but managed to escape with his or her life (be creative). The Angel player is an optional role to play in the game. It is best used in games with larger numbers.

GAME PLAY:

The game is composed of playing periods called Day and Night. During the day, players are free to interact and talk with each other. During the night every player (except the Mayor) is to sit with his or her eyes closed (unless specified by the Mayor).

At the beginning of the game each player will pick a card from the Mayor’s hand (all face down). On this card the player will find his or her role for the entire game. You must keep this completely secret. Keep your card so that you can reveal your identity for when you have been killed or convicted.

The Mayor will then announce the name of your town and welcome you to the game. He will then say, “Town, go to sleep.” At this point the entire group must close their eyes and bow their heads. Keep those eyes shut! The Mayor will then say, “Mafia, wake up.”

If you drew a Mafia card you wake up at this point. You will now know who all the mafia members are. The Mayor now says, “Mafia, who do you want to kill?” The Mafia must silently agree upon their victim, making sure the Mayor has seen who they chose. Then the Mayor says, “Mafia, go to sleep.”

Then the Mayor says, “Inspector, wake up.” The inspector is to then silently inquire about one player (by pointing). The Mayor will then nod, “Yes” or “No.” (Yes for Mafia, No for Citizen). Then the Mayor says, “Inspector go to sleep.”

Then the Mayor says, “Town, wake up!” He will then announce the unfortunate “accident” that occured the night before (make it interesting). The player who was killed, now shows his card and can no longer participate.

At this point the group is then free to talk openly and make accusations as to who the Mafia might be. After a period of discussion, the Mayor then opens the floor for formal accusations. Any player may acuse any other player of being the Mafia. When an accusation is made, the accuser is given a chance to state his or her reasons for the accusation. The Mayor now asks for a second to the accusation. If no second is made, then the player is off the hook. If the accused is seconded, then the player is put on trial. This player states his or her defense, then others are allowed to briefly make comments. The Mayor now takes a vote from all the players – if a majority vote is reached the player is convicted and must show his or her card, and can no longer participate. If a majority is not reached, he or she is free (no player can be put on trial twice in the same day period). This process repeats until a conviction occurs.

Each day period ends once a player has been convicted. It is now considered “night” and the Mayor asks everyone to slumber once again.

The process continues until one of these three things happens:

All Mafia players are convicted and revealed (Citizens Win!)
All Citizens are killed (Mafia Win!)
There are an equal or lesser number of Citizens left as there are Mafia – at this point the Citizens would never be able to come up with a majority vote (Mafia Win!)

Note: You can choose to have no deaths the first night of game play.