What Is Mafia?
Author: Vitaly - mr. Koteo
Mafia is a logic game played by a group of people sitting at the same table. The idea is very simple: some players know more than others, and everyone tries to figure out who is who. One team tries to hide, the other team tries to find them.
The game always has two sides:
Red team (civilians) — the majority
Dark team (mafia) — the minority
The red team wins if all mafia players are removed from the game. The dark team wins when the number of mafia players becomes equal to the number of red players at the table. This is called parity, and at that moment the game ends immediately.
Inside these teams, there are two special roles:
Sheriff — a red player who can check other players at night
Don — the leader of the dark team who can check for the Sheriff at night
These special roles help both teams gain information as the game goes on, but the basic structure of the game is simple: everyone speaks, everyone listens, and everyone tries to understand what is true and what is not.
The game moves in cycles, usually called night and day.
Night Phase
During the night, players wear masks and cannot talk.
On the first night only, the entire dark team opens their eyes to see each other. This is the only moment in the whole game when mafia players look at each other and decide together who they want to eliminate in future nights.
After this first night, the dark team never opens their eyes during night cycles again.
During all later nights:
Dark players keep their eyes closed the whole time.
When the judge calls for the night kill, each mafia player silently “shoots” at a target with their hand.
They must all point to the same player, without seeing each other.
If they point to different players, the shot is a miss.
(Just to be clear: during the day, dark players open their eyes like everyone else. The restriction applies only to night cycles.)
During each night, only two special roles open their eyes:
Don — checks one player to see if they are the Sheriff.
Sheriff — checks one player to learn if they are red or dark.
Day Phase
During the day, masks come off, and players speak one by one. Each player can explain what they think, who they trust, and who they want to vote for. At the end of the day, the table votes to remove one player.
This cycle continues until one of the win conditions is reached.
Mafia is a game of incomplete information, and this is what makes it exciting. The dark players know their team; the red players know nothing at the start. Everyone must decide based on logic, speech, and how the game develops.
Despite what many people think, Mafia is not a “guessing game.” It is not about reading emotions or making random assumptions. Those things may help later, but they are not the foundation.
The foundation is simple:
You listen, you think, and you choose the best possible action with the information you have.
If we remove all details, Mafia is a clean and structured game about:
Understanding limited information
Making logical decisions
Working together with your team
Adjusting to new events as they happen
This chapter is only a starting point. In Next Chapter, we will walk through a simple example of how a real game looks.
For now, remember:
Mafia is a team game of logic and information. Everyone speaks. Everyone listens. Everyone votes. And every decision matters.
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