Mafia FAQ

Mafia FAQ

What is Mafia?
Mafia is a forum based game played over the course of several days. The object of the game is to kill your opposition and be the last team standing.

What are the teams?
Players are divided into two groups; the townies and the mafia. The mafia is a small group of people, led by the Godfather. The townies are the rest of the players and include a Doctor and a Sheriff. The townies have no idea who among them are mafia, but the mafia knows who is a townie and who is mafia. The roles are assigned by the moderator and kept secret unless you choose to reveal your role.

Awesome! How do I kill people?
There are three ways in which player death can occur. The first is the mafia hit, which happens in the morning of each day. The Godfather PMs the mod with the mafia hit. The second is the lynching. Each evening the town comes together and lynches one of its members. This is done by a majority vote, and all players have one vote, including the mafia. In the instance of a tie, the mod will decide randomly whether both or none of the parties in question die.

The third way a character can die is via natural causes. If a player does not vote for two consecutive lynches and does not post on the game threads for two game days with no notice to the mod of their status, that player will die quietly in their sleep. Or through a freak, horrible, bloody accident.

What happens if I die?
Even after you die, it is generally not in the best interest of the game to reveal which role you played. You are permitted to continue posting on the game threads as a “ghost”, but you will not be allowed a vote or to reveal your role after death.

So what do the Doctor, Sheriff, and Godfather do?
The Doctor is a townie with the ability to save a life from a mafia hit. At the end of each day, after the lynching, the doctor may submit one name in secret to the mod. At the same time, the mafia will tell the mod who they would like to hit the following morning. If the doctor has selected the person who is meant to be hit by the mafia, the mafia will still attempt the hit, but the player will survive.

*note* The Doctor is permitted to save the same person (including him/herself) no more than twice in one game. We feel this will make games more exciting and dynamic for everyone!

The Sheriff is also a townie. At the end of the day, after the lynching, the Sheriff submits one name to the mod for identification. The mod will then send back a PM to the sheriff that will simply say “mafia” or “not mafia”. The mod will not reveal if a person is the doctor, and in the case of the Godfather the mod will outright lie!

The Godfather enjoys a special status among the mafia. The Godfather’s key responsibility is to submit a name for the mafia hit each night after the lynching. Also, the Godfather has an in with the mod; the mod will send back an ID of “not mafia” should the sheriff ask.

Okay, got it. Now how do I get started?”
The Mod will post a thread that outlines the basic scenario of the game. This is where the mod will state the date the game will start. Additionally, the mod will post a character/signup thread. In this thread, each player will post both their interest in playing and a character outline. The exact information required for your character will vary according to the scenario; the mod will post the requirements. Creativity in developing your character is encouraged.

When everyone is signed up, with characters created, the mod will begin the game with a mafia hit. The first mafia hit will be a throw away character created by the mod. That evening the town will come together to do their first lynching, which will begin the cycle of lynch, SKID, hit.

Huh? What’s SKID?
SKID is short for Save, Kill, Identify. That is the point of the game where the Sheriff, Doctor, and Godfather submit their names.

So how are we supposed to figure out people’s roles so we can kill the right person?

1. Read the death scenes carefully. The mod will sometimes (but not always) include clues that lead to the identity of different characters.
2. Talk. Call people out. Send PMs. Watch who’s voting for who. Lie your ass off, or tell the truth. Post your suspicions, get a discussion going. This game is about being sneaky. That said, don’t cheat. The following things are cheating:
Using any sort of hacking or whatever to get dishonest access to PMs or parts of the board you’re not supposed to have.
Making anon IDs to point fingers or otherwise behave stupidly.
Forwarding any message from a mod to prove your status. This is easy enough to fake anyway, so perhaps this rule is antiquated *shrugs*. Don’t drag the mod into your dirty little head games!
Private communication is fair game, but please do not spam or harass your fellow players.

I’m dead, but I’m dying to know who was who! Will you tell me?
No. Everyone will find out who was who at the very end of the game, when all of one side is dead.

Post any questions here, or PM me and I’ll post the question and answer for you (with a great deal of discretion).

Guest 18 years ago
What happens if the Godfather is lynched? Does another mafia person take over?
Verileah 18 years ago
Ah yes, forgot to address that. Only the original Godfather gets the protected status from the Sheriff, but the remaining mafia would be given an opportunity to choose a new leader to send in the kills. However, if they drag their feet or can't come to an agreement in a reasonable amount of time, the mod will assign the next leader. The mafia would have until the next morning to chose a new leader or be assigned one so that the morning kill can be posted on time.
ROzbeans 18 years ago
Oh, I got pm'd a good question. How time intensive is this? My berry gurl Rasberry wants to play but she only has mornings and late night to be online. Busy schedules and all, will it be difficult to keep up?
Verileah 18 years ago
The voting adheres to a schedule, but it's actually fairly flexible. Once the mafia kill is posted in the morning, I follow up by posting a voting thread. You have all day to talk and discuss your votes, and there is a cut off time late in the evening when all votes must be in. You could pretty much just check in the morning to see who died, and then catch up with any voting discussion in the late evening before the votes. Or you can discuss as much as you can and submit your vote early if that's what works for you. SKIDs are due by 8:00 am est the next day because that is typically when I start writing the hit.

A couple more things to remember: communication doesn't just have to be via the boards; you're permitted to use email or IMing or whatever other form of behind the scenes talk you wish. You can vote early. It's also permissable to miss two consecutive votes. Any more than that and you should let me know if you still want to play but need a couple of off days; what I normally do in that situation is put the person in a coma. This doesn't make you immune from being killed, but it does let people know that you aren't around to defend yourself and there may be a very good reason for the trail of evidence leading to you!

At any rate, that was a long answer, heh. In short, yes, you should be able to keep up just as you would be able to keep up with a regular message board conversation.

Vulash had the same time type of concerns. What with so many people having various time commitments, I'm open to suggestions for the due times for votes. I was thinking midnight est. I actually have done slower games where the mafia hit is on the morning of one day and the lynching takes place on the evening of the next. I'm not opposed to doing that again, but feel the game loses some momentum that way when you don't have 30 people playing, heh. Hell though, we might end up playing on a larger scale than I thought O_O.
ROzbeans 18 years ago
Ok so now that we're getting our roles (/SQUEAL) can we tell other people? Can we ask? What are we limited to doing?
Verileah 18 years ago
Well, I wouldn't expect an honest answer, but sure, you can ask and get to talking . You can start threads to discuss things or you can talk privately. The next day is basically a free day to get any questions answered, make sure everyone knows their roles, and start getting comfortable, so feel free to get things rolling.
Verileah 18 years ago
Some Mafia Q&A, ladydaybillie=me and you are welcome to IM me with questions. This is mostly for the townies, but I would be more than glad to do something similar for the Mafia.

lalala: I think people might be confused as to what they're supposed to discuss
lalala: I mean, what exactly are we doing? we're trying to figure out who's getting it next, who the godfather is?
lalala: and with each death that narrows the possibilities, right?
ladydaybillie: *nods* you're trying to figure out who the mafia and godfather are, and get all the other townies to agree with you so you can lynch them. At the same time, you're trying to figure out who the mafia might hit next so that the doctor can try to save that person
ladydaybillie: And you're trying to see who the sheriff is so that that person will share id info

lalala: I'm a townie and I need to seek out other townies (whoever isn't lying) either publically or privately. as townies can we snipe off mafia, right?
ladydaybillie: as townies you can vote mafia out in the lynch

ladydaybillie: It gets a bit more clear after the first kill, when there's some possible clues to hash out or use to misdirect


lalala: so you write all the clues, correct?
ladydaybillie: I get the clues from the character thread. Or rather, I take details from the character thread and develop clues around them. As the game is played, I might draw from other in game threads to write my clues.

lalala: I'm confused if we're actually suppose to 'write' anything
ladydaybillie: For the players, the writing is mostly conversing in character, Though you could, for example, start your own completely irrelevant thread about, say, who the new guildleader should be or what it's going to take to kill quarm. I do that kind of thing sometimes, just to get the shy ones out and about.
Verileah 18 years ago
More Q&A:
Do all the mafia know who the other mafia are?

Yes they do! They find out when roles are assigned.


Do the townies know who the doctor and sheriff are?

Nope, those roles are secret and it is up to the doctor and sheriff to reveal their ID as they see fit.
Verileah 18 years ago
*bump*

Hey, I hear there's a new role called the Serial Killer! What does the Serial Killer do?

The Serial Killer is basically a third team of one. The SK's goal is to kill -everyone-, both townie and mafia.

So how does the Serial Killer kill people?
After the Mafia hit but before the lynch, the SK gets its own kill. S/He submits this kill at the same time the Mafia submits their kill, but the SK's kill always comes after the mafia kill.

Yikes, another death each day! Can the doctor save me from this crazy killer?

Yes, the doctor's save counts for both kills.

I still don't think it's good to have the Serial Killer around. How do I get rid of him/her?

The SK can be lynched by the lynch mob or die in a mafia hit.

So what if the Mafia and the Serial Killer decide to kill the same person?

The death scene for that day would indicate that both the Mafia and the Serial Killer had a hand in offing the poor bastard who gets killed. The Serial Killer will not get to chose another victim should the mafia happen to pick the one he/she chose.

Will the Sheriff be able to ID the Serial Killer?
No. As always, the Sheriff only recieves "Mafia" or "Not Mafia" in response to queries. The SK is not mafia.

Okay, I just got my role and I'm the Serial Killer. How can I possible win this when I'm hopelessly outnumbered on all sides?"
The SK has a very hard role to play, and frankly it's somewhat rare to see the SK win. Take advantage of the fact that you cannot be IDed, and remember that your daily kill is a very valuble asset to the townie and mafia teams. Either side might find it worthwhile to keep you around if you kill their enemy, and you can work that to your advantage .
Masoyama 18 years ago
I am kinda unfamilliar with all of this .. can I watch you guys do one before I participate? will the forum be open to all on the baord ?
ROzbeans 18 years ago
Masoyama
I am kinda unfamilliar with all of this .. can I watch you guys do one before I participate? will the forum be open to all on the baord ?


Read over EQ Mafia, all the posts there. It'll give you an idea of how it all worked. You can't really jump into it in the middle since Verileah has to assign roles. IE Mafia, townies, godfather...etc. Character descriptions aren't due until march 7th and we kill on the 9th, but if you have any other questions, just post em. Make a toon though using Veri's guidelines and then you can watch and plot. You do have to vote nightly and throwing in some extra scenes on your own (like vulash and I did) is purely up to you. You can get totally involved or play it low key - granted being quiet might get you sniped early. =D
Verileah 18 years ago
/agree Mae. Pretty much everyone is fairly new at this and I don't expect people to jump in and start pointing fingers and whatnot on the first day. Please feel free to ask any questions you have on the boards or via PM.

With that in mind, there will be other games to play. I think you'll be fine though .
Cobert 18 years ago
So can I post " OMGZ VULASH IS A FRICKEN MOB"?

If I am the sheriff, can I say also say " OMGZ VULASH IS A FRICKEN MOB CAUSE I AM A SHERIF AND VERILEAH SAID SO"

whats the townie / Mafia ratio? and can a SC also be a Mafia? Or are they picked from the townie group?

Do I have to be long winded and RP? Or can I be short and to the point like I always am?

Can I post " OMGZ I TRANSLATED VERILEAHS LONG WINDED DEATH POST AND VULASH IS A FRICKEN MOB"?
Verileah 18 years ago
You are more than welcome to point the finger at anyone you suspect, or just want dead as the case may be. Keep in mind that this applies to everyone, and some of you may be lying .

If you are the sheriff, you are permitted to reveal your role however you see fit. However, it's not exactly prudent to outright tell the mafia who the sheriff is, so you may want to be more subtle if/when you id someone as mafia.

The Serial Killer is its own team, and not ever part of the Mafia.

Feel free to go /ooc whenever you need to. You're not required to be long winded by any means and I don't force anyone to stay in character at all times, but playing your character is part of the fun .

The townie/mafia ratio is confidential . I will say, though, that there are many more townies than mafia.

And finally, absolutely feel free to use death scenes to back up your accusations. I put clues in death scenes that are meant to lead to the killer/s.
pooka 17 years ago
Are there limitations of Doctor saves in this game? I don't see any in this overview. I was wondering if the doctor has any motive to save anyone other than him/her self daily.
pooka 17 years ago
Are there limitations of Doctor saves in this game? I don't see any in this overview. I was wondering if the doctor has any motive to save anyone other than him/her self daily.
Verileah 17 years ago
Yeah, I keep thinking that will get abused enough to put restrictions on saves but honestly it hasn't been overpoweringly game defining as of yet.

Sooo, nope. Relying on people's sense of adventure for the time being .
Verileah 17 years ago
Yeah, I keep thinking that will get abused enough to put restrictions on saves but honestly it hasn't been overpoweringly game defining as of yet.

Sooo, nope. Relying on people's sense of adventure for the time being .
Verileah 17 years ago
And....an update to the FAQ! We have decided that allowing the doctor unlimited saves on him/herself (or anyone else for that matter) has been played to its extent and it is time for this group of players to move on to more exciting things. Therefore:

The doctor may save the same person (including him/herself) no more than twice in any given game.
Verileah 17 years ago
And....an update to the FAQ! We have decided that allowing the doctor unlimited saves on him/herself (or anyone else for that matter) has been played to its extent and it is time for this group of players to move on to more exciting things. Therefore:

The doctor may save the same person (including him/herself) no more than twice in any given game.