IMPORTANT: Mafia Rules

[Butterfree]

Mafia, also known as Werewolf, is a popular social game, often played in parties or at conventions but also over the Internet through forums and chatrooms. To quote Wikipedia, it is at its most basic a clash between the informed minority, the mafia, and the uninformed majority, the citizens or innocents. The game is split into two alternating phases, day and night; the mafia attacks a single player of their choosing during the night, and during the day all players vote on one person to lynch. The mafia faction wins if they successfully kill all the innocents, and the innocents win if they successfully lynch all the mafiosi.

Games are rarely just this basic setup, however; most games add several extra roles in addition to the fundamental mafia and innocent designations. Generally the only limit to how these roles can function is the imagination of the game master (GM); they may have special actions they can perform during either the night or day phase, some particular passive property, or even their own alignment and win condition. Some of the more common roles are explained below.


The Mafia Faction

The mafia know of one another, may communicate privately at any point during the course of the game, and will show up as mafia when killed or inspected by the inspector, unless otherwise stated.

Mafia don: The leader of the mafia. During the night, he sends in the mafia's choice of target to attack, and if other mafia members send in a night action, his choice always overrides theirs.

Mafia goons: The other members of the mafia. May send in the mafia's night action if the mafia don is away. One of the mafia goons at random will become mafia don if the original don is killed.

Terrorist: The terrorist is on the mafia's side; however, they do not know of him, and he does not know who they are (and as such, he may not communicate with them during the night). The terrorist's goal is to ensure that the mafia win, and to achieve this, he has one secret weapon at his disposal: he is a suicide bomber. At any point during the day phase, he may blow himself up and take one player of his choice with him. If the inspector inspects the terrorist, he will be shown as not mafia, and if he dies, he is also shown as not mafia.

The Innocent Faction

Unless otherwise stated, innocents do not know the role of any other player, may not communicate with other players about the game outside of the public day discussion, and show up as not mafia when killed or inspected by the inspector.

Inspector: During the night, he may inspect one player to find out whether they are aligned with the mafia, though certain roles may show misleading information (as described for each role).

Doctors: During the night, each doctor chooses one player, other than himself, to heal. If this player is targeted by the mafia, vigilante or a fishing brother's revenge kill on this night, he does not die. However, if two or more doctors choose to heal the same player, that player overdoses and dies, even if he was not targeted by the mafia.

Lover: On the first night, he picks one player as his lover. From this point on, regardless of either player's previous alignment, their ultimate goal for the game is to be the only two players left, and they may communicate privately with one another at any point during the game. However, if one of them dies, the other immediately commits suicide in grief.

Vigilante: During the night, he may kill one player of his choosing.

Fishing brothers: There are always two of them. Every night, each of them targets one other player of their choosing; if the other fishing brother is killed that night, the live one will kill the player he targeted in revenge.

Roleblocker: During the night, the roleblocker's target's night action (if any) is nullified. The roleblocker's role may also be aligned with the mafia, or there may even be one for each faction, depending on the game master's preferences.

Singletons

These roles are an alignment of their own, having their own specialized win conditions. Unless otherwise stated, they show up as not mafia when inspected by the inspector, do not know any other player's role and may not communicate with other players outside of the day discussion thread.

Alien: If the alien is attacked by the mafia, a vigilante or a fishing brother during the night, he does not die; instead, he turns into an activated alien.

Activated alien: If the activated alien is chosen to be lynched during the day, he wins the game. When inspected by the inspector, he shows up as mafia. The activated alien role is never given directly to a player; activated aliens only exist when a regular alien has been activated.


Individual game masters may modify, add, remove or rename roles as they see fit; the list above is merely a rough guideline for some of the most common generic roles. However, if game masters use these roles but choose to make them function differently than specified here, they should be sure to note this in their sign-up thread.

Some game masters may also play with secret roles, where players do not know beforehand what roles are present in the game. Often these kinds of games will also ditch the rule about innocents not communicating with other players outside of the day discussion. Again, everything is completely up to the game master; all that is required is that they give all necessary information in the sign-up thread for the game.


The Game Process

So you want to join or create a game? Well, then you should go to the Mafia Sign-Ups forum. To start a game, simply create a thread in that forum to explain the particulars of your game. To join a game, view an open sign-up thread and post to indicate you'd like to be part of it. (Some games may require you to provide some information or pick a flavor when you sign up; be sure to read the sign-up thread well.)

When a game has enough players and is about to start, the game master will use a random generator of their choosing to assign roles to players. He sends a PM to each player with the details of their role and then simply creates a thread here in the main Mafia forum. Once the thread has been created, the first night phase of the game will start (unless this is a game that doesn't start with a night phase, which may happen depending on the GM).

The Night Phase

During the night phase, those players who have night actions will have to PM the names of their targets (remember: the target is always the username of the player you want to target, not the role of the person you'd like your target to be!) to the game master. The night phase lasts until either all night actions have been received or some set deadline has passed, generally around 48 hours from the beginning of the night phase. Posting in the game thread is forbidden during the night phase.

If a player foresees not being able to send in a night action during the night phase, he may PM the Game Master beforehand with an advance choice. The advance choice may use conditionals, but only concerning things that would be public to the player if he were active during that night, e.g. "I will heal X if Y claims to be the terrorist in the thread," but not something like, "I will heal X if X is not mafia," because that is something the player would not know.

Once the night phase ends, the Game Master will randomly generate any night actions he has not yet received, in such a way that a mafia attack will target a random non-mafia player and all other night actions will target a random player excluding the user and any other players the player could reasonably be assumed to never want to target (such as a vigilante's lover), and then execute the night actions in the following order (eliminating, of course, any steps pertaining to players not currently in the game):

Game Preparation (these night actions occur with a shorter deadline on the first night, and then never again)
1) The lover picks a player to be their lover. They may then immediately begin to privately communicate with one another to plan out their strategy. If the other lover has already sent in a night action at this point, they will be allowed to reconsider in accordance with their changed goal for the game.

Evening (these night actions directly affect other subsequent night actions)
1) The roleblocker picks a target to block. If the targeted player has a night action appearing at any subsequent point in the night, it will not take effect.

Midnight (these night actions determine the deaths of the night)
1) The game master creates a death queue, starting as an empty list.
2) The mafia attack their chosen target. That target is placed on the death queue, unless it is the alien, in which case it is instead activated.
3) The vigilante attacks his chosen target. That target is placed on the death queue, unless it is the alien, in which case it is instead activated.
4) The doctors each heal their chosen target. If the target is currently on the death queue, that player is now removed from the death queue. If two or more doctors target the same player, that player is put on the death queue, regardless of whether he was on it before or not.
6) If either lover is on the death queue at this point, the other lover is put on the death queue as well.
5) If one of the fishing brothers is on the death queue at this point, the other fishing brother attacks his chosen target. That player is put on the death queue, unless it is the alien, in which case it is instead activated, or he was also targeted by a (single) doctor. If the targeted player is put on the death queue and has a lover, the other lover is put on the death queue as well.

Twilight (these night actions prepare for the coming day phase)
1) The inspector inspects his chosen target, and the game master PMs him with that player's current alignment as indicated by their role description.

Dawnbreak (some cleanup and messaging work for the game master to do before the day phase starts)
1) If an alien has been activated, the game master sends them a PM to notify them of this.
2) The game master kills every player on the death queue, in order, using the buttons given next to the players' names on the player list in the game thread. Note that since the players aren't actually killed until this stage, players who are already on the death queue by the time their night actions come into effect do, by default, use their night actions. This rule can be overridden by individual game masters as they see fit, but yet again, they need to specify this in their sign-up thread.

As with everything, individual game masters may decide to modify any part of this process, so long as they note this in their sign-up thread; this is merely here as a fallback unambiguous, algorithmic way to determine the outcome of the night phase if the game master is having a tough time puzzling out how all the night actions should interact. It is usually a good idea when creating new roles to pin down where in the order of night actions their action takes place in order to prevent ambiguity.

After the result of all night actions has been evaluated, the game master posts in the game thread, noting who died and whether they were mafia or not mafia. Game masters may, if they choose, write some creative descriptions of how the villagers discover the bodies, but this is not necessary - it's just for adding spice to the game - and the descriptions given are usually not indicative of how the player died. The game master's post should also contain an initial deadline for the day phase, generally between 48 and 72 hours from the start of the day.

The Day Phase

During the day phase, all living players may freely post in the game thread to discuss which player to execute at the end of the day (they may in most games also vote to abstain, which if it gets a majority vote means no player will be lynched on that day). Generally, they should post nominations for suspicious players by including their username clearly in bold, and at some point during the day phase the game master may either attach a poll to the thread, with the nominated users given as options, or simply collect the bolded votes manually.

Of course, nominated players are expected to fight tooth and claw to defend themselves from the accusations. Players may at any point claim to hold any role as a means of persuading others that they are not the mafia; however, they cannot conclusively prove their identity to be what they say it is, and any attempts to do so anyway - such as by posting purported quotes or screenshots of PMs from the game master - will be penalized.

At any point during the day phase, the terrorist (and nobody but the terrorist) may post Bomb [player name], in bold, in the game thread. If this happens, both he and the player he targeted, as well as the targeted player's lover if any, are immediately considered dead and may no longer post in the thread. When the game master sees this, he will then formally kill the players in question (first the terrorist, then his victim, then the victim's lover if any) using the buttons in the player list and make a post detailing their alignments. If any player who is not the terrorist posts Bomb [player name] in the game thread, that player is immediately disqualified; however, players may of course claim to be the terrorist and threaten to bomb people whenever they please, no matter what role they actually are. The purpose of the bolded phrase is strictly to indicate the actual terrorist actually blowing himself up here and now.

If the day phase deadline comes along and there is a tie, the game master may either extend the deadline (if some players have yet to vote) or PM the last player to die to make a tiebreaker vote. Once a victim has been decided upon, that player is killed, unless he is an activated alien, in which case he immediately wins the game. If the player is not an activated alien and has a lover, the lover will then also die. The game master then makes a day phase wrap-up post in which he details the alignments of the killed players (if any), optionally writes colorful descriptions of the execution, and declares the deadline for the next night phase, and the cycle repeats until a winner is found.

The game ends whenever:
- there are only mafiosi (possibly including the terrorist) left alive, in which case the mafia wins.
- there are only innocents (and possibly the alien and/or terrorist) left alive, in which case the innocents win (the terrorist and alien lose, however).
- the only players left alive are the alien and/or terrorist, in which case everyone loses.
- an activated alien is voted to be executed, in which case the activated alien wins.
- the only players left are lovers, in which case they win.

If every player dies in the same turn, the winner will be determined as if the final player to die had in fact not died (this is where the order of night actions, as well as the fact a terrorist dies before their victim, comes into play).

 

[yiran]

Something is slightly unclear here; are you allowed to post in the game thread during the night phase? I'm asking this since there is no mention of it but the post says that during the day phase players are allowed to post.

EDIT: Thanks for the help!

 

[Superbird]

You're not supposed to, because technically you're supposed to be asleep. Questions for the GM can usually be fit into PMs.

 

[yiran]

Ugh, sorry for having so many problems, but are you allowed to edit posts in mafia games? I've seen many people double- or triple-post, so I assumed there is some unspoken rule of the sort.

 

[ultraviolet]

Ugh, sorry for having so many problems, but are you allowed to edit posts in mafia games? I've seen many people double- or triple-post, so I assumed there is some unspoken rule of the sort.

as far as I'm aware, you generally aren't allowed to edit posts in mafia, which is why there's a lot of double-posting going on. If you're really unsure, you should ask whoever's running the game. Usually it's safer to just double-post; mods won't infract you for it here, anyway.

 

[yiran]

Me again :x

I have a suggestion (which you may or may not view as valid), and that is to extend the phase-changing when there is a vote sent in.

Why? First of all, stealth-lynching would very easy; just post right before the phase ends, and you could suddenly vote off the cop as mafia.

That, along with other things for convenience in the game. For instance, in my last mafia game, Song Choice Mafia III, I had something to say about the situation right before the phase ended, but I could not because then I would have to get up at 3AM and post.

If this is accepted, you can decide the time frame for extension. (I suggest something that's according to player amount.)

Thanks!

 

[Phantom]

Me again :x

I have a suggestion (which you may or may not view as valid), and that is to extend the phase-changing when there is a vote sent in.

Why? First of all, stealth-lynching would very easy; just post right before the phase ends, and you could suddenly vote off the cop as mafia.

That, along with other things for convenience in the game. For instance, in my last mafia game, Song Choice Mafia III, I had something to say about the situation right before the phase ended, but I could not because then I would have to get up at 3AM and post.

If this is accepted, you can decide the time frame for extension. (I suggest something that's according to player amount.)

Thanks!

This sort of thing really depends on the GM. These rules are more... guidelines. (At least that's what I think. Mod, if I'm wrong feel free to chew me out.

 

[1. Luftballon]

Me again :x

I have a suggestion (which you may or may not view as valid), and that is to extend the phase-changing when there is a vote sent in.

Why? First of all, stealth-lynching would very easy; just post right before the phase ends, and you could suddenly vote off the cop as mafia.

That, along with other things for convenience in the game. For instance, in my last mafia game, Song Choice Mafia III, I had something to say about the situation right before the phase ended, but I could not because then I would have to get up at 3AM and post.

If this is accepted, you can decide the time frame for extension. (I suggest something that's according to player amount.)

Thanks!

well, that's only a problem if the relevant player is on the edge of lynch, which, if they've claimed, they shouldn't be at; and if they haven't claimed, whoever wants to lynch them shouldn't know that, either.

and in any case, stealth-lynch is pretty much obvious anti-town.

 

[Flora]

IIRC, most game mods allow for more time if no decision has been made.

Steath-lynches can't really happen anyway, since there needs to be a majority.

 

[Mai]

Well, some mods might allow a one-vote kill if that vote is the only vote.

In which case... well, it's very anti-town, but the mafia might be able to get away with it if it's the endgame. I don't really care if it's a forced rule, although - as res said - the rules here aren't very forced at all.

 

[yiran]

Oh, if there has to be majority, then it's okay. But not all games use the majority rule.

And my second example still stands, about having to get up at midnight.

Also, if you succeed, it doesn't matter if it makes it obvious you're anti-town; you've just lynched off the cop and your teammates are pretty much safe now.

 

[Phantom]

As a GM I can say most people running the games are pretty laid back when in comes to the rules. I extend where it's needed, and if I am going to lynch one person for one vote, I let the town know, THEN I extend it. Anything that happens after that is the town's fault for inactivity.

 

[yiran]

The thing is, not all GMs are like you. Therefore I think there needs to be a rule that makes all GMs be responsible for the voting system. Maybe not as much as the stuff you stated, but more than what it's like now.

 

[1. Luftballon]

if the town's votes are arranged such that a malicious agent can cast a tiebreaker vote at the end of the day, that is a problem in the town's cooperation. it also pretty much exposes the person who broke the tie as anti-town. I see no problem.

 

[Mai]

Or you could post things earlier. Most GMs give a reasonable amount of time; stealth-lynching is eh, but what you're suggesting could make phases last way too long. Plus, making a mandatory rule just for that is a bit off; these are mostly guidelines (we've had a game with terrorists instead of mafia), and something like that really is a preference.

 

[yiran]

None of these are solutions to not keeping me from getting up at 3AM.

And no, it wouldn't last too long, because it can be flexible; if the extension is three hours, for example, and a vote is cast every two and a half hours to extend the phase, the GM could just say "screw it you're being annoying on purpose" and end the phase anyway.

 

[1. Luftballon]

but that would be breaking the rules one sets unpredictably, and that is a horrible thing to do. don't do that.

 

[see ya]

Me again :x

I have a suggestion (which you may or may not view as valid), and that is to extend the phase-changing when there is a vote sent in.

Why? First of all, stealth-lynching would very easy; just post right before the phase ends, and you could suddenly vote off the cop as mafia.

That, along with other things for convenience in the game. For instance, in my last mafia game, Song Choice Mafia III, I had something to say about the situation right before the phase ended, but I could not because then I would have to get up at 3AM and post.

If this is accepted, you can decide the time frame for extension. (I suggest something that's according to player amount.)

Thanks!

Hate to say it, but nothing you would have said would have changed that you were already on the chopping block. You had an overwhelming number of votes for you even after you'd had your say. I counted. There were six votes on your head. Versus the one from you, that you chose completely at random. That's hardly stealth-lynching. There's nothing I can do about that.

I would have had a time extension if there was any doubt, but there wasn't. You had plenty of time to have your say and you spent it making a claim that turned everyone against you, a claim you didn't have to and really shouldn't have made, as everyone in the thread already pointed out. Sorry. I would appreciate it next time that if you make a mistake like this you take it with some grace instead of passively-aggressively coming here to complain about it and try to get rules changed to cater to you.

 

[yiran]

but that would be breaking the rules one sets unpredictably, and that is a horrible thing to do. don't do that.

Then why do we have moderators? To enforce the rules, yes, but also to use their judgement in specific cases. It's not a horrible thing to do. Yes, do that. Why would we even need court cases in real life if everything could be determined by a rule?

The rule could just say "GM can use their own judgement if they believe the players are unnecessarily extending the game" or something similar.

Hate to say it, but nothing you would have said would have changed that you were already on the chopping block. You had an overwhelming number of votes for you even after you'd had your say. I counted. There were six votes on your head. Versus the one from you, that you chose completely at random. That's hardly stealth-lynching. There's nothing I can do about that.

I would have had a time extension if there was any doubt, but there wasn't. You had plenty of time to have your say and you spent it making a claim that turned everyone against you, a claim you didn't have to and really shouldn't have made, as everyone in the thread already pointed out. Sorry. I would appreciate it next time that if you make a mistake like this you take it with some grace instead of passively-aggressively coming here to complain about it and make excuses.

That's not about stealth-lynching. Stealth-lynching was given as a hypthetical (and very possible) scenario, and it is not related to the game. Plus, I never said I had a chance to survive. What I meant is that I had something to say (I obviously can't say it now since I'm dead) that in my opinion would be helpful to my faction, but since you ended the phase early I had no chance to say it.

And please don't start insulting me passively when you don't know my motive. I know what I'm doing, thank you. I would appreciate you to stop it. (And don't say you're not insulting me, please – "mak[ing] excuses" has a directly negative connotation, and that I should take a mistake (which I deny the fact that it is a mistake) gracefully which implies that I am not taking it gracefully and therefore is ungraceful, which is again negatively connoted.)

As a side note, you probably shouldn't offer your opinions on things as the host, as that would alter the gameplay.

Ugh, is it possible for me to have an opinion anywhere without people acting so negatively towards me? It's like purposely discouraging acts of dissent.

 

[see ya]

That's not about stealth-lynching. Stealth-lynching was given as a hypthetical (and very possible) scenario, and it is not related to the game. Plus, I never said I had a chance to survive. What I meant is that I had something to say (I obviously can't say it now since I'm dead) that in my opinion would be helpful to my faction, but since you ended the phase early I had no chance to say it.

And please don't start insulting me passively when you don't know my motive. I know what I'm doing, thank you. I would appreciate you to stop it. (And don't say you're not insulting me, please – "mak[ing] excuses" has a directly negative connotation, and that I should take a mistake (which I deny the fact that it is a mistake) gracefully which implies that I am not taking it gracefully and therefore is ungraceful, which is again negatively connoted.)

As a side note, you probably shouldn't offer your opinions on things as the host, as that would alter the gameplay.

Ugh, is it possible for me to have an opinion anywhere without people acting so negatively towards me? It's like purposely discouraging acts of dissent.

Except stealth-lynching is basically impossible. Usually there has to be a clear consensus for a lynch to go through, and if the person doing the voting has no explanation for their vote, it's extremely suspicious and usually a good way of getting everyone to turn on them. In cases of ambiguity, the time is usually extended.

And I'm sorry, but you only brought up this concern after you had died, and brought up my game in particular right there in your post. Time limits are time limits, and unless you come to me directly and bring up a concern in how a deadline might clash with your timezone, I am not going to extend the time just for you. Time limits exist for a reason, and I can't just change them arbitrarily because that would screw up everyone else in the game, me included. Yes, I'm irritated, because instead of communicating with the mod on what would best fit your timezone you decided to come here and try to get the official rules changed to something that would make life harder for anyone else trying to run a game (and it still doesn't change the fact that you did have a chance to post your input for the Day, so it's not like you were shut out completely)

Pretty much every mod you will encounter will work this way. You're getting a negative reaction because what you're saying is generally impossible or implausible. We're not here to just tell you what you want to hear. It's been clarified for you. Case over.