Mafia: The forum game

[dtsund]

So anyway, on another forum I used to post on we'd play a game called Mafia, and I was wondering if you guys/girls would be interested in having a game or two here. This is not an entirely unheard-of game, so if you already know the rules, feel free to skip to the bottom of the post. Everyone else, if you're interested, here are the basic rules.

The game of Mafia is played in a fictional town where each player is assigned a role. Most of the players (okay, a plurality at least usually) are Citizens with no special power. However, standard games usually also have on top of that Mafia, an Angel, and an Inspector. Their identities are secret; for example, only the Inspector knows who the Inspector is. The exception to this rule is that the Mafia know who the other Mafia members are.

The goal of all non-Mafia members is to 'kill off' the Mafia, and they win if this occurs. The Mafia win if their numbers are equal to or greater than the numbers of all innocent players. For the record, you can be considered to have won even if your in-game self was killed, so a dead Mafioso still wins if the Mafia win.

Play proceeds like this: first, we start with a 'day phase'. During this phase, all players who are still alive may post in the game's thread, trying to determine who the Mafia are. In addition, players may make accusations against other players; if another player seconds an accusation against a suspected Mafia member, that suspect is allowed to make one more post defending himself, after which voting on him/her begins. Each player (including the accused) may vote AYE or NAY on whether to lynch him/her; if the majority of remaining players vote AYE, he is 'lynched' by the town and ejected from the game, and day phase ends. If at least half of the remaining players vote NAY, he is cleared and day phase continues with more discussion and accusation. To prevent any sort of filibustering from going on here, I'm going to make the rule here that no player may be accused twice in a row in the same day.

After day phase ends, we enter night phase. Posting in the game's thread is forbidden in night phase, but each player may exercise the power given to them by their role:

Citizens have no power except to wait for day phase again.

Mafia may send Private Messages to one another (only during night phase), and may also PM the person running the game (probably me the first time) with the username of one player who they'd like to rub out that night. Unless that player is saved by the Angel (see below), he will be ejected from the game.

The Angel may send a PM containing a username to whoever's running the game. That person will, for the current night only, be safe from Mafia kills.

The Inspector may send a PM containing a username to whoever's running the game. The game's moderator will reply stating whether that player is a Mafia member or not.

In general, the night phase lasts for either 24 hours (subject to debate, but probably not less than that) or until all submissions have been recieved. After night phase, the game proceeds to another day phase, continuing until one side wins.

Now, I'm not going to say how many Mafia and Citizens there will be, since I don't know how many of you will be interested. If the game gets large, there are some other roles I can add too, and if it's huge we might even have multiple Inspectors and Angels (or I might break it into two games, since especially large games can get a little unmanageable).

Some basic strategy: you are allowed to claim that you have a particular role, but you are not required to tell the truth. In general, it is not best for the innocent power roles to come forward right at the start of the game, for this makes them easy targets for the Mafia. However, it might be a good tactic later on in certain situations. If someone does, though, keep in mind that they may be Mafia in disguise...



So who's interested? If this sounds like a game you might want to play, feel free to post below to sign up. You'll be required to respond to a confirmation PM (those who wouldn't respond would probably just stop playing after a while; the PM is to screen such inactives out), but then you'll be in the game when it starts. I'll probably close off signing up for the game this weekend.

EDIT: I meant to put this in the Pit of Flames, but I guess it could go in either one. Feel free to move it if you want.

EDIT 2: Links to all the games are now here!

The unthemed Game 1!

Game 2, East Sicily edition!

Game 2, West Sicily edition!

The computer virus-filled Game 3!

Game 4: The Thing (Lower deck)!

Game 4: The Thing (Upper deck)!

Planescape: Mafia Game 5!

[PapillonReel]

I'm down. Let the games begin.

[Comb Stranger]

Sure, I love whackin' guys.

[Lucas]

I'm in, but I'll be pretending the mafia guys are werewolves.

[DemoWeasel]

What about werewolf mafiosos?

[Lucas]

That is also acceptable.

[Silent Noise]

Sounds fun, I'll join.

[dtsund]

Originally Posted by Lucas

I'm in, but I'll be pretending the mafia guys are werewolves.

Originally Posted by Shinji-Fox

What about werewolf mafiosos?

In fact, it's a pretty accepted variant to have one evil faction be Mafia and another be werewolves. I wasn't going to bring it up, because this is only done in rather large and complicated games, and I wanted to keep the first game simple, but in such games there's also a 'Seer', which is like the Inspector except he finds werewolves instead of Mafia, and a 'Sorceror', who protects from werewolf kills. The Mafia aim to kill all the werewolves and outnumber the town (and vice versa), so there are really three sides in that variant.

[Comb Stranger]

If we get enough people, can we do Mafia/Werewolf/Ninja/Scissors/Communists/Hill Orcs/Scandinavians/Cupcakes?

[Brickroad]

I will play. Oh, yes.

[Lucas]

Originally Posted by dtsund

In fact, it's a pretty accepted variant to have one evil faction be Mafia and another be werewolves. I wasn't going to bring it up, because this is only done in rather large and complicated games, and I wanted to keep the first game simple, but in such games there's also a 'Seer', which is like the Inspector except he finds werewolves instead of Mafia, and a 'Sorceror', who protects from werewolf kills. The Mafia aim to kill all the werewolves and outnumber the town (and vice versa), so there are really three sides in that variant.

That sounds pretty complicated. All I know is that every time I've played this game it's been in real life as the Werewolves of Millers Hollow.

[fanboymaster]

Count me in.

[Paul le Fou]

I'll give this a whirl!

[Wolf]

I'm in.

[Epithet]

I'll join, it should be fun.

[dwolfe]

I really suck at these things, if you peek at the Qt3 forums.

That being said, I'm IN. I'm totally trustworthy and on your side, guys!

[Phantoon]

Yes please.

[Umby]

I'm in as well. I like playing mafia, but it's better if you know the people you're dealing with.

[spineshark]

I'll go for it.

[Guesty]

I'm in.
I've been in a mafia game or two before but they failed due to inactivity. I hope this doesn't happen here!

[Red Hedgehog]

Begin crotchety rant:

Man, I can't believe Mafia/Werewolf/etc. are played as forum games. The whole point of those games is the face to face social interactions where you try to suss out who's bluffing which you just kind of can't do over the internet where it is easy to perfectly lie. The game just loses its point and becomes random!

Ugh.

End crotchety rant.

I will not be playing, no.

[Brickroad]

Originally Posted by Red Hedgehog

I will not be playing, no.

Thanks for posting, grandpa.

[Merus]

If Red Hedgehog's out then I'm totally in. COMPLETELY POINTLESS BURRRN

[dtsund]

Initial batch of confirmation PMs sent.

Since we already have enough for a decent game, would anyone like me to start early? I'll still leave the signup open for a second game that could run at the same time if so.

EDIT:

SOME THINGS I'VE FORGOTTEN TO MENTION:

I'm going to make the night phase 48 hours, rather than 24. I though 24 might be a bit draconian.

When someone dies, whether by Mafia or lynching, I'm leaning toward that their role becomes known to all. This is actually not a standardized rule; in some games, it's played that if the Mafia kill someone, only they know what the victim's role is. Any preferences either way?

Under no circumstances are you to post a screen capture of the PM giving you your role!

[Brickroad]

Let's not reveal roles. The game is crazier if you play it with imperfect information all the way to the end.

(Then again I've never played a forum version.)

(And I've only played the RL version once.)

(And it was with werewolves. But gangsters are better so whatevs.)

Also I just re-read the first post and wanted to clarify some rules:

1) Do mafiosos not know who their fellow mafiosos are on the first day?

2) Is it possible to end a day phase without someone dying?

[Merus]

I want to clarify a strategy point: is there any reason why the Mafia would nominate someone from the Mafia for a hit?

[Brickroad]

Originally Posted by Merus

I want to clarify a strategy point: is there any reason why the Mafia would nominate someone from the Mafia for a hit?

Absolutely: doing so deflects suspicion off yourself.

[dtsund]

Originally Posted by Brickroad

Also I just re-read the first post and wanted to clarify some rules:

1) Do mafiosos not know who their fellow mafiosos are on the first day?

2) Is it possible to end a day phase without someone dying?

Good questions.

1) They do know who the other Mafia are. The PM giving the Mafia their role also gives them this information.

2) By majority vote, we can proceed directly to night phase with no lynch. Forgot to mention that...

[Phantoon]

Originally Posted by Brickroad

Absolutely: doing so deflects suspicion off yourself.

So Brick is fiendishly cunning...

[dwolfe]

Originally Posted by dtsund

Good questions.

1) They do know who the other Mafia are. The PM giving the Mafia their role also gives them this information.

2) By majority vote, we can proceed directly to night phase with no lynch. Forgot to mention that...

Ok, one BIG REQUEST.

The 48 hour turns? Mandatory and UNCHANGING, no voting to end early. It gives way too much advantage to people that happen to be on earliest in the day, and prevents that social interaction and bluffing that Red Hedgehog thinks can't happen online.

You need long turns so people can reply back and forth, especially if they don't log on during the day at work...we also need a vote for a starting day so people aren't going to miss the first day's early action and get screwed over thusly.

More than once in a forum Werewolf game I've seen the GM end the turn early because most of the votes are in...YET VOTES CHANGE. In the current Qt3 one (Paranoia-themed) i just got killed because they ended the turn at 24 instead of 48 hours...half the people were all 'oh noes someone has the ultimate security clearance we give up' and the other half were asleep...yet it's clear we could have countered the move if the turn hadn't ended.