The single line and the triple car crash

This device secures the advantage of the red town over the mafia when there is a single line of play. It noticeably lowers the mafia's win rate and lets you identify it by its actions in a non-critical round.

Why a single line is dangerous for the reds

Suppose the sheriff is dead and left a red check. No following vote will be informative. For a competent mafia, when there are many players around against whom one cannot play, it costs nothing to sell one or even two of its own blacks and win in the guessing round. Recall: to win, the mafia only needs to remove two reds one after another in any votes.

The reds have a way to gain an extra right to a mistake: lifting three players at nine. No black will be happy with such a move. It does not matter whether you lift one mafioso and two civilians or two mafia and one red: it is in any case better than removing a single player, because you deprive the blacks of the candidate for removal with whose help they could have won.

Who splits the table

The checked red splits the table, and those he chose must stand without objection: this substantially helps the town. Any unwillingness or protest against lifting three is interpreted as black behaviour, with the highest degree of reliability.

The red chooses a trio of players. It can be a whole trio from one team, or mixed colours plus a badly speaking player, or the worst players plus those the red considers black. It makes no difference: what matters is that among the three there is surely at least one mafia, and with luck all three.

How to arrange the sawing at nine

The sawing can be anything, up to trusting a player to vote against himself, relying on his awareness. But then he keeps an extra excuse in case of a break. If you do not know how to split, even this variant will do. The best split looks like this:

The civilian nominates three candidates in turn and demands it with gestures.
Under the first hands goes the reddest of the three.
Second to the vote goes the blackest of the three (the break usually happens on the second candidate).
Under the last hands goes the moderately black one.
The hand of the checked civilian goes against the player nominated last. He alone controls the break, adding a hand if one is not given.

Such a sequence partly insures against a break: most likely the blacks will break (first sabotage the vote, then disrupt the sawing), thereby giving themselves away. Against the player under the first hands this is impossible: he gets only four votes, which is not enough for removal. Through the shout, all votes fall on the candidate chosen by the red check. Then at seven the player who broke is removed, unless he was put up right after the break.

The red check, while alive, has absolute power over the choice of candidates, with no right to disobey. The split is made in any way, regardless of those who wish otherwise: they must put their hands as the check says. If somebody on principle wants to vote against a specific candidate, lift exactly him: he is black in 90 percent of cases (the author's estimate), interferes with the sawing and distracts. If the red erred on all three, that is his responsibility (an absolute failure, it happens, but almost never).

A single line and a sheriff with a red check

At the table there is almost always a red player against whom nobody will play because of the readability of the red line: at least one. This is a jackpot for the civilians, it allows winning almost mathematically. There are nine of you, and surely red are the sheriff, his check and one more player (he would win anyway, because nobody will turn the table against him). You lift three, and the sheriff goes for the red check. He dies, leaving at five players two red checks and the one who is surely red for the whole table. You lift the unknowns in turn and win.

The threat of this device provokes the mafia into a second line, which gives a lot of extra information and colours.

The outstretched hand rule

For the triple car crash to come out clean, introduce a rule at the table: if a player has decided to vote against a specific candidate, then before the slot is announced he clearly stretches his hand forward, showing that he will lower it. Two seconds before the vote everybody can count the hands that will fall against the candidate. If there are two, one of the citizens adds a hand to make three. If four, one takes his away. Everything goes smoothly.

Example of a vote

The host announces the sequence, the players memorise it: first stands player no. 4, nominated are no. 4, no. 7, no. 3, no. 10.

"Who is for player no. 4 leaving us?" Two hands hover over the table, one undecided adds a third. "Thank you, three votes."
"Who is for player no. 7 leaving?" One hand hovers, it is withdrawn, since diverting a vote is pointless. "Thank you, no votes."
"Who is for player no. 3 leaving?" Four hands hover, one is withdrawn, because exactly three are needed. "Thank you, three votes."
Result: a car crash between players no. 4, no. 3 and no. 10.

This method puts an end to endless absurd three-against-three wins and gives a conscious vote: an enormous amount of non-verbal information. The mafiosi will break and interfere with the sawing, and if they let it happen, they will be at a disadvantage. Remember: we saw three not for the sake of the tie vote itself, but to deprive the blacks of the chance to win by lifting two reds in a vote (we get one more right to a mistake), and to identify the blacks by their reaction to the call for a split.

For the black

If there is a threat of lifting three, urgently invent a second line. Campaign for lifting three reds: by your version there is surely a black among them.

Self-check questions

How to make your black look red if at the tie vote among the three are you and your mafioso? What order of voting is best for you?
The red leader did not announce his check in the round at nine. What can be said if three hands fly in for removing his black check? And with a spontaneous scatter?
Can three unknowns be lifted with two lines if everybody agrees? What does such a situation say?
Can three be lifted at six?
Under what condition can you make a 2-2-2-2 scatter by lifting four at eight at the table?

Practice

Play the triple tie vote ten times. The host's task: after each vote say how many hands fell; the participants' task: always show the outstretched hand beforehand.

Typical mistakes

Allowing a split without a red check.
Not insuring a break.
Putting a hand against your wish without stretching it out in advance.
Forgetting about the right to a mistake.

Source of the idea. The chapter "A single line. The triple car crash" from Dmitry Novik's book "Mafia in the Style of Zen" (2020); the author attributes the idea of lifting three to Alexey Bychkov. The percentages are the author's estimates.