Mafia is played between two teams; the Mafia and the Town. At the beginning of the game each player is told using a private message what role they are playing. A Town player only knows his own role; the role of everyone else is a mystery. A Mafia player knows his own role and also the identities of the other Mafia players. If all of the Mafia players are dead, then all of the Town players win (even if they are dead). If the Mafia players comprise at least half of the remaining alive players, then all of the Mafia players win (even if they are dead).
The game is split up into Day and Night phases. During the Day phase, all living players will talk amongst themselves using the forum thread and try to determine who the Mafia players are. The Mafia players will be trying to blend in and act as if they are Town players. Each player can vote who they want to be lynched. Everyone gets a single vote and can change their vote at any time by posting in the forum thread. When someone has reached a majority of votes (for example 4 votes if 7 people are alive), then the Day phase will end and that person will by lynched. This means they are dead and can no longer participate in the game; sorry!
During the Night phase, the Mafia will choose one person to kill by sending that choice to the moderator. The Mafia may also communicate with each other via PM during this phase to decide who they wish to kill. Some other roles will have abilities that they can use during the night phase which will be specified in their introductory PM. Once all actions have been submitted the Night phase will end. Anyone who was killed during the night is out of the game and can no longer participate. A new Day then begins and the cycle continues until one team has won.
The game starts with a Day phase. When a player is lynched by the Town or killed by the Mafia their true identity will be revealed, i.e. what role they were playing. When the game is over all identities will be revealed and the winners can do a small dance; the dead winners can do a Thriller dance.
Player Roles
Each player is assigned a particular role which determines which team they are on, their abilities and how they win the game. There is a separate topic with information on the different roles that may appear in our games:
Mafia Roles
The Actual Rules
- You may not quote PMs sent from the moderator or other players in the forum topic. You may paraphrase them however, i.e. rewrite that information in your own words.
- You may claim to be whatever role you like, whether this is true or false. You may also hide your role from the other players as much as you wish. However it is considered bad form to get yourself lynched by making people believe you are a Mafioso on purpose. The point of the game is to win!
- You may not communicate about the game outside of the forum topic unless your role allows it, e.g. the Mafia may communicate during the night phase. Obviously it is very hard to prevent you doing this but it’s a game and it will be more enjoyable if you don’t communciate. Also remember that as a Town player you simply do not know if the person you are talking to is another Town player or a Mafia player pretending to be a Town Player.
- If you have night actions then you should PM them to me before the deadline that I will post with the announcement of the night phase. If you do not PM me in time then you forfeit your action for that night.
- If you want to pass on your opportunity to perform a night action then please PM me to let me know that you are performing No Action. This will help move the game along faster.
- You should try to be relatively active in the forum topic. Not posting can often be taken as a sign of guilt. It also makes the game less interesting if nobody is playing! You should make a minimum of one relevant post per real life day.
- When multiple night actions interact, they will be resolved using Natural Action Resolution from mafiascum.net
- A majority of living players are required to lynch somebody.
- Once a majority has been reached that player will be immediately lynched. Any changes in vote after the majority has been reached will be ignored.
- If no majority is reached by the deadline then someone can still be lynched if they have a majority of votes amongst those people who have voted.
- You can vote for no lynching. This means your vote will be counted towards the total number needed for a majority if the deadline is reached. If a majority of people vote for no lynching during the day, then the day will end with no lynch.
- Votes must be posted in bold using the format VOTE: PlayerName. If you are changing your vote you should post UNVOTE. VOTE: PlayerName. This is to make it easier to see the votes when skimming over the topics.
- Once a player has been lynched the game will enter a transition phase (Twilight). During this phase everyone (including the person to be lynched) may continue to post. I will then post a death scene and announce that the night phase has been started. At this point the thread will be locked to prevent any further posts being made during the Night. You are meant to be asleep!
- Once you are killed (either via a lynch or a Mafia hit) then you may no longer post. Not even to call your fellow players names. Dead people don’t talk!
- I will make posts using Blue text. You should refrain from using this colour to make it easier to see my moderator posts. You are not allowed to use very small, invisible or coded information in your posts.
- If you have any problems with the game then please contact me directly using a PM. Do not post issues or complaints in the thread itself.
- If you notice that I have made a mistake then PM me. I will try to reverse the change but sometimes this is not possible. In that case you can blame me after the game.
- Breaking the rules will be punished suitably; up to and including death (in the game).
Mafia is a competitive game but there is no point in getting personal. The aim is to win and this involves removing people from the game. However the roles people have are assigned randomly and there is no point picking on people due to personal reasons. The idea is to have fun (by picking on people for game related reasons).
I will try and post some basic tactics and ideas here.
You can find lots of information on the game at the MafiaScum Wiki.
The Newbie Guide is a good place to start. (or here )
If you have any questions about the game please post here and I will try my best to answer them.
This post will be updated with all rule changes and FAQs. If you are only interested in the rules of the game then you don't need to read any other posts in this thread.
