What happens at the table

You are sitting at a long table. Nine other people are around you: some smile, some say nothing and study the rest. You look around too, and suddenly you realise that two or three of them know something you do not. They know who is really playing against you.

That is Mafia, the social deduction game. It sounds scary, but in reality it is a perfectly ordinary evening: tea, conversation and a very exciting game of attention and persuasion.

Who is who

There are ten players at the table and one more person who runs the game. He or she is called the host. The host does not play: they keep order and announce what is happening now, night or day.

The players split into two teams.

Red (seven players) are the peaceful citizens. Six of them are ordinary people without special abilities. The seventh is the sheriff, who can check other players, more on that later. The red team's task: find and remove all the black players from the game.

Black (three players) are the mafia: two ordinary mafia members and one don, the boss of the black team. The black players know each other. Their task: stay in the game and stop the red team from winning.

Only the player and the host know who is red and who is black. You get your role from a card that you take without showing your neighbours.

How the game goes

The game consists of nights and days. They repeat until someone wins.

Night. The host says: "The night begins". Everyone puts on a mask or closes their eyes and stays silent. On the first night the black players wake up, look at each other and agree, with gestures and without a single word, whom they will remove in the following nights. This is called the agreement. Then they go back to sleep. From the second night on, the black players choose each night who will leave the game and silently show it to the host. This choice is called the night shot. Meanwhile the don looks for the sheriff and the sheriff looks for the black players: each points at one player, and the host silently nods yes or no.

Day. The host says: "Morning in the city". Everyone wakes up and the host announces who left the game during the night. Then every player at the table has one minute to speak. In that minute you can say whom you suspect and nominate a player for the vote. Then everyone votes, and the player with the most votes leaves the game. They get a last word to say whom they suspected.

After that the night comes again, and everything repeats.

How it ends

The red team wins when there are no black players left at the table.

The black team wins when there are as many of them as red players. Then the red team can no longer remove the black players by voting.

One example in numbers

Say there are ten people at the table. At night the black players remove player 4. In the morning nine remain: six red and three black. During the day the red players make a mistake and vote out red player 7. Eight remain: five red and three black. The next night the black players remove another red player, and seven remain: four red and three black. If the red players make a mistake in that day too, there are six: three red and three black. The black team has won, although they were fewer from the start.

The conclusion is simple. Two or three unlucky votes by the red team almost always decide the game. So the most important thing for a red player is not to rush and not to vote "because the loud one said so".

How it sounds

Here is how player 3 might speak in their first minute:

"I am player number three. For now I am not calling anyone black, I have no grounds. But number 5 said that number 8 is suspicious and did not explain why. I want to hear the explanation. If there is none, I will watch whether number 5 is simply trying to shift the blame."

Notice that the person does not accuse at random. They name a fact ("number 5 did not explain") and say what they will do next.

Typical beginner mistakes

1. Treating suspicion as proof. "I do not like him" is not an argument. You need a fact: what the person said, how they voted, what they did not explain.
2. Mixing up the don and the sheriff. The don is black, the sheriff is red. The don looks for the sheriff, the sheriff looks for the black players.
3. Staying silent. Someone who is silent gives the team nothing. Even if you are unsure, say what you see and what you do not understand yet.
4. Swearing oaths. Phrases like "I swear I am red" are not allowed: you can be penalised for them. Persuade with facts.

Five-minute practice

Lay out ten pieces of paper in a row: seven red and three black. Now play a game on paper: at night the black players remove one red piece, during the day the red players remove any piece (make a mistake on purpose at least once). After every move write down how many red and black pieces are left. Find the move when the black team caught up with the red team. You have just practised the main skill of the game: counting.

Check yourself

1. How many red and how many black players are there at the table with ten players?
2. When does the black team win?
3. Who looks for the sheriff?

Answers: 1) seven red and three black; 2) when there are as many of them as red players; 3) the don.

What next

Next step: the rules of Sport Mafia in full, and then the beginner lessons: how to build your minute of speech, how to nominate a player and how voting works.

This is a training material of Fortuna Elite Club, not an official rulebook. Official tournament rules are set by the federation. These lessons follow the general scheme of sports Mafia; the host announces the exact club rules before the game.