How to play Mafia
5 to 12 playersA phone each, everyone in the same room
Also called Werewolf · Mafia party game · Mafia card game
The game
Somewhere at this table is a crook. Maybe two. Maybe the friend who swore on their mother that they were a Villager. Every night the Mafia quietly whack someone, and every day the town argues, accuses and votes somebody out — sometimes even the right person.
Around a table, Mafia needs a narrator: one poor soul who sits out all night dealing scraps of paper and saying “everyone close your eyes”. Here the phones do that job. Roles land on each phone, the night happens on the screens, and the person who always gets stuck narrating finally gets to lie to your face like everyone else.
Nobody closes their eyes. Every living player taps their phone every night and every screen says the same thing, so the person tapping next to you could be the Doctor or the one who just picked you.
The rules
- 1
Gather the suspects
One person hosts and reads out the four-letter code. Everyone else types it in on their own phone. The lobby tells you what the table will be dealt: one Mafia for five or six players, two for seven to nine, three for ten to twelve, plus a Doctor. Everyone else is a Villager. No powers, all opinions.
- 2
Peek at your card
Press and hold to see who you are, and let go to hide it. The card opens in the same frame whatever is on it, so your neighbour learns nothing from watching you squint. The Mafia also find out who else is in the family.
- 3
Night falls
Every living phone asks the same thing: pick someone. The Mafia pick who gets whacked, and they all have to agree or nobody gets got. The Doctor picks someone to save — themselves included, but never the same face two nights running. Villagers pick whoever looks shifty. Change your mind as often as you like until the last pick is in.
- 4
Morning brings the body count
Every phone announces who didn’t make it, and what they were. If the Doctor guessed right, everyone wakes up and the Mafia look quietly furious.
- 5
Court is in session
Argue. Accuse. Swear you were asleep. When the table has had enough, anyone still breathing puts it to a vote. Ballots are secret until the last one lands, then every single one is shown with a name on it. Most votes gets exiled and flips their card. A tie, or No one winning, and everybody lives to lie another day.
- 6
Until somebody wins
Anyone still in brings on the next night, and round it goes. Catch every crook and the town wins. Let the Mafia match your numbers and they own the place. Then every card flips, with a replay of who went after whom, every single night.
Ways to play it
Scoring
Everyone on the winning side scores a point, including the people who got whacked along the way — dying for the town is still winning. The end of every game shows the running tally, so a night of five games crowns a real champion.
A phone falls asleep
Locking your phone doesn’t cost your seat; you just show as away. If the night is stuck waiting on someone who wandered off for snacks, the host can wake the town from the room menu and any picks not made count for nothing. The host can close a stalled vote the same way.
Someone actually goes home
Walking out mid-game, or being shown the door by the host, counts as going out: the card flips and the game checks whether anybody just won. Latecomers pull up a chair and join the next deal.
Being dead
Ghosts keep watching the board and the votes but see nothing secret, so there is nothing to give away. Ghosts also don’t talk. Try it. It’s harder than it sounds.
Questions people ask
- Does everyone need their own phone?
- Yes. Every role and every night pick is private, and one phone passed around the table would give the whole game away.
- Do we need a narrator?
- Nope. The phones deal the roles, run the night and announce the morning, so everybody plays — including the friend who usually gets stuck narrating.
- Why does everyone tap at night, even Villagers?
- Cover. If only the Mafia and the Doctor touched their phones at night, you could find them by watching hands. Villagers point at a suspect instead, and those hunches come back to haunt everyone in the replay.
- Is this the same as Werewolf?
- Werewolf is Mafia with more fur. Same game, same roles under different names, and if you can lie in one you can lie in the other.
- How many players do we need?
- Five at least, twelve at most. Seven to nine is the sweet spot: two Mafia, a Doctor and enough Villagers to start a proper argument.
Office Paglu
Unprofessional office wear for corporate mazdoors. Wear the joke to the party you just won.