Mafia is a character role play game that requires no equipment and is a fun (often chaotic) way to engage your group!
Before playing, you need to go over the rules and roles of characters:
Roles:
- Narrator: The role of Narrator will likely be portrayed by you, the group leader. The Narrator’s job is to lay out ground rules, give instructions, set the scene, and tell the “story” and happenings of the game.
- Mafia/Killer: The “Killer” works in secret to take out other players while maintaining the ruse that he is one of the “good guys.”
- Doctor: The Doctor has the power to heal the killer’s victims and save them from being eliminated.
- Detective/Sherriff: The job of the Detective or Sheriff is to find out and stop the killer. If he guesses correctly, then the killer is caught and out of the game.
- Villagers: The villagers are played by everyone else. Villagers work together to root out the killer from the group. Every round, Villagers take a vote for who they think the killer is and hold a mock trial to determine a player’s guilt or innocence.
Assigning Roles:
Everyone but the narrator is seated in a circle with their eyes closed. The narrator walks around the circle, at random tapping players on the shoulder to assign their role. He tells them that the first person he taps will play the Killer. The next will play the Detective and the next will play the Doctor. Anyone he doesn’t tap is a Villager.
How to Play:
“Now,” the narrator explains, “everyone open your eyes.” The narrator must set the scene and story. When he’s done this, the Narrator says “Villagers, go to sleep,” signaling all players close their eyes. After everyone has fallen “asleep,” the narrator will say, “Killer, arise.” The Killer opens his eyes and silently indicates to the narrator which player he is going to take out. Once the narrator acknowledges, he says, “Killer, sleep.” The narrator repeats the same with the Detective and the Doctor, allowing them the chance to indicate to the narrator who they think the Killer and the victim are respectively.
The narrator says, “Villagers, awake,” beginning the first round. The Villagers open their eyes. The narrator recounts an interesting tale of that night’s events: the Killer waking up and plotting his next target, the Detective in pursuit, and the Doctor who tried to find and rescue the victim. There are two exceptions that can happen next:
- If the Detective successfully guessed the Killer, then the Narrator announces this. The killer has been captured, he is out of the game, and the Villagers win. If he did not guess correctly, then the killer is still on the loose, and the Villagers must collaborate to figure out who did it.
- If the Doctor guessed who the Killer attacked, then that person is saved and survives that round. If he did not guess correctly, then the Killer’s victim is “dead” and must remain silent for the rest of the game. The game continues as usual, but the Villagers have the advantage of having not lost another player.
If the killer still hasn’t been caught, then the Villagers must get to work. Every time the Villagers wake up and discover a new attempted killing, they must vote, accuse, and try whoever they think is guilty of the crime. Students can make accusations against each other and, after they’ve made their petition, take a vote to see who the majority believes is guilty. If it’s put to a vote and a player goes to “trial,” he is allowed up to 30 seconds to “prove” his innocence (usually through an outrageously random story of what his character was doing the night of the murder). Then, by a raise of hands, the Villagers must vote whether to release the accused or sentence him to death and eliminate him from the game. Only after the player is eliminated can the narrator confirm or deny his identity as a Killer.
The game continues in this sleep/wake cycle of rounds. Every day, the Villagers put someone on trial and every night, the Killer chooses a victim, the Detective chooses his suspect, and the Doctor chooses his patient. This continues until either the majority of the group is dead (and the killer wins) or the Killer is caught (and the Villagers win).
One final note: at no point can a Killer, Detective, or Doctor reveal their identity unless they are eliminated. This includes when they are on “trial.”
It sounds complicated, but once you get the rules down and your students learn to get creative with their made up world, it’s a hit!
