Welcome to the Mobscene- Newbie Guide to Mafia

So, new to the world of the Sicilian streets? Have yourself a tough Italian accent and a fat cigar, a fancy moustache and a posh black suit- just can't wait to go tearing down the road in an oldschool gunfight or have people kneel at your feet to kiss your rings? Well, sorry kiddo, no can do. That isn't how it works here. See, around here, all we do is play a game called Mafia.

A game, you say? How do you play? Well, I thought you'd never ask!

...Not really, but it makes for a neat segue. In exchange for the lame joke, you can have smileys demonstrating the rest of the article. So there.


MEET THE TOWN!

<- See this? This is you. You live in the small, quiet, 7-person town of Retardia, where there is no system of government and your people bring about justice thorugh the use of a righteous lynch mob. How you got in this situation, no one knows, but you do know this.

You have a cop in your town.
You also have your local doctor.
And then there are your two friendly, local neighborhood Mafia members...

Wait, what? Mafia members? In your town? This is outrageous, I hear you say, and you walk out into the town square determined to direct the lynch mob at the nearest Mafioso. But while all your neighbors are there, you don't see Mafia, cops or doctors. Instead, all you see is this.


Six people- some among them allies, some among them enemies, and all you know is who you are, and that your enemies must fall. The Mafia are obviously aware of their own fellow Mafiosos but everyone else is in the dark and going on blind suspicions.

And of course, lets not forget that these six are just as suspicious of you and have their own goals to pursue.

Welcome to Mafia.

GAMEPLAY

So now that you know the basic premise of the game, how do you actually play?

You play to win, of course- innocent townspeople win when all the Mafia are dead, and the Mafia in turn want to kill the townspeople- or townies, as they are referred to. Even in death you can have victory, as you win with your side regardless- it is not necessarily bad to die in a game of Mafia- all for the greater cause, as they say.

The game is divided into two phases, Day and Night.

DAY

• Discussion
  
• Voting
  
• Lynching

During the day, everyone is wide awake and bustling about- but there is no time for the trivial day-to-day rituals of life when there is scum afoot! Day is when you talk with your fellow townspeople, from idle chatter to knife-edge arguments, trying to figure out who is who to best suit your needs. During the day, you vote for someone to lynch- a simple majority is required to do this. If you have seven people, for example, you need four votes on a single person to lynch them off. You may also vote for a no lynch, which is when the mob hangs up their torches and pitchforks and takes the pacifist approach for today.

A townie's job, here, is to try and discover through any (legal) means possible who are the Mafia in their midst.
A mafioso's job, here, is to avoid detection, shift suspicion, and do anything possible to survive the day.

Once the vote concludes, unless it was a no lynch, someone is lynched- and thereby killed, and removed from the game. His or her role is revealed- townie, cop, doctor, or evil scum- and the day then ends.


NIGHT

• Cop Investigations
  
• Doctor Protections
  
• Mafia Nightkills

Night is when the aptly named Nightactions take place. Most roles do not have night actions and only function during the day, such as the innocent townie. However power roles frequently have the ability to do things at night- no one is permitted activity or discussion at night, and the game moderator receives each role's decisions seperately- at no point, unless explicitly stated, do they become aware of each other's identities.

Cops have what is known as an investigative role. At night, they may target any of their fellow living players, and the mod informs them if the party is guilty or innocent, a mafia memeber or a townie.

Doctors have a protective role. At night they may target any of their fellow living players, and if the Mafia attempt to kill them that night, the night passes with no kill. While this varies in some games, the doctor usually may not protect himself.

Mafia are, well, Mafia. They are given the ability to converse with each other during the night, and by the end of the night must submit their choice of a kill. Though some games disallow this, they may also choose to go the pacifist route if they see fit.


The night ends when all the choices are made. Day begins again, and the morning begins with the moderator solemnly announcing the death of the Mafia's target- or for some reason, the mysterious lack of a kill last night- announcing the identity and role of the dead body, the game continues until either faction wins.


EXAMPLE GAME

So let us return to Retardia, and greet our dear 7-person town (of which you are no longer a part of- we are here to observe) and watch as they begin their first day.

Keep in mind that some games begin with a Night Zero, so it is possible for someone to never actually play the game and just die on the first night- most games however employ the Cop Head Start, which is when the only valid night aciton on Night Zero is the cop's investigative skill.

Quote :

DAY ONE



The day begins- but as is something common with all first days in Mafia games, there is little or no discussion to go on. Talk wanders to random things and people sling votes about at random in an attempt to pressure someone into slipping something incriminating. The day is slow until someone makes the tiniest mistake- but the frustrated town pounces at it and the poor man, unable to defend himself, soon finds himself hanging from a noose.

There is little celebration when it is discovered that they had lynched an innocent.

ALIVE:
DEAD:

NIGHT ONE

After careful discussion the Mafia send in their choice, the and the doctor his.
The Cop manages to find one of the Mafiosos, investigating someone based on a suspicion he had the previous day.

DAY TWO

ALIVE:
DEAD:

The town awake to find that, alas, in the night the Mafia had managed- through incredible luck or admirable skill- to kill off their doctor, who obviously missed his protect for the night.

A townie points out that they are currently in a LYNCH OR LOSE scenario- quite simply there are five of them alive, two of which are Mafia. If they kill the wrong person today and the Mafia make their kill tonight, the Mafia will outnumber the town- in other words, if the town does not make a proper lynch today, they lose the game.

After some discussion and accusations a man backed into a corner claims that he is the cop. Just as the town begins to back off him, someone claims that he was lying- Why? Because not only is he the real cop, he attained a guilty result on the man the night before!

Of course there is plenty of arguing and debating on who is right- the town eventually decides to trust the man who counter-claimed, and to their relief they find that they manage to lynch off a Mafioso.

ALIVE:
DEAD:


NIGHT TWO

The remaining Mafia is quick to take revenge for his Mafia buddy- the cop, suspecting that his time is up, investigates someone anyway- and attains a guilty result. If he lives to see the morning, he will be able to help the town greatly.

DAY THREE

ALIVE:
DEAD:

And the town greet the new morning with a funeral for their dead cop. They know that there are two innocents left and one very highly pressued Mafia member- they keep discussion heavy, watching every word for the slightest slip, but the final Mafia member seems entirely difficult to crack.

Thinking through the past games some of the town members question the habits of some, and defenses and accusations are shared all around- until that is someone pointed out that a certain guy had done his fair share of affiliating with the now-dead Mafia member. Unable to defend himself, the town's vote decides that he dies, and...

ALIVE:
DEAD:


He was, infact, scum!
The town rejoices in their victory, and the Mafia congratulate them- and they're already planning their revenge in another game looming on the horizon...