Mafia - the forum game - sign up here

**James R** · 08-21-08, 01:24 AM

An idea I saw on another forum... (In fact, I think there are whole forums devoted to this, but never mind.)

Just for fun, I suggest we try a game of Mafia on sciforums. Here's how it works:

1. Players sign up for the game in this thread (Just post that you want to take part).
2. When we have enough people (maybe about 12 people, depending on level of interest), I'll start the game.
3. The game has two teams and a moderator. Each player is randomly assigned to either team by the moderator (which will be me, first time around). The two teams are the Mafia and the Townspeople. Members of the Mafia team will be informed by PM of the names of all other Mafia members. Townspeople will not know who is Mafia.
4. The Mafia team aims to kill all the townspeople, one by one, while the townspeople aim to arrest the Mafia. When a player is killed or arrested, he or she is out of the game. The game continues until either all the Mafia are arrested or all the non-Mafia townspeople are dead.
5. The game alternates between night and day during play. The moderator (me) declares when it is night and day. Each phase will last for a certain amount of time. I'll have to think a bit about the time limits.
6. Every day phase, all players (Mafia and Townspeople) have to decide amongst themselves which single player to arrest. They do this by free discussion in this thread. That is, all players can discuss who they think is Mafia, and vote for who they want arrested. The person with the most votes at the end of the day phase is arrested and removed from the game. Mafia members may also participate in the general discussion and try to mislead the townspeople.
7. During every night phase, the Townspeople are not allowed to communicate with each other at all (i.e. no posts allowed in this thread, or by PM between players - I'll trust you not to break the rules!). The Mafia, however, may communicate with each other by PM. The Mafia must decide amongst themselves which townsperson they wish to kill during the night. They then tell the moderator their decision by PM. When night turns to day again, the moderator will announce who has been killed by the Mafia during the night, and that person is then out of the game.
8. Just for fun, there will be some other specific roles assigned to players in the game. This will be done randomly and announced at the start. Any of these people could also be Mafia, potentially:

a. The Policeman can name one person each day that they want to investigate. The moderator will tell the Policeman (privately) for sure whether the investigated person is Mafia or not.
b. The Travel Agent can nominate one person each day to take a trip out of town, meaning that they cannot be killed by the Mafia that night.
c. The Doctor can choose to "save" two people over the entire course of the game. When a death is announced in the morning, the Doctor can optionally use one of his or her two "saves" to stop the person who would otherwise have been killed from being eliminated from the game.
d. The Lawyer can choose to prevent the arrest of two people over the entire course of the game, again by announcing that he is acting for his "client" after an arrest is announced.
e. The Mayor can choose twice during the entire game to reappoint a player in any of the other special roles. For example, the Mayor might choose to appoint a different person as the policeman, thus removing the original policeman's powers.

Please post below if you want to play. When we have at least 12 people, I'll assign roles and get the game up and running.

If this turns out to be popular, somebody else can run the next round. Also, if you can think of any other "special roles" that could be good, I'm open to suggestions.

**Nonsense** · 08-21-08, 01:40 AM

I haven't read past point 1 but I would like to participate

EDIT: OK I read it. I'm in.

**Asguard** · 08-21-08, 01:44 AM

hell yea

**James R** · 08-21-08, 02:04 AM

We need to decide on a time frame here, because probably all players won't all be online at the same time. So, I'm going to suggest that the "day" phases of the game will run either for 12 hours or until all players have voted on the arrest for the day (whichever happens first). It is not necessary that all players vote each "day"; a majority will do.

Night phases will take however long it takes for the Mafia to communicate to the moderator (i.e. me) who is next to be killed, but no longer than 12 hours. If no communication from the Mafia happens in that time, I will "kill" somebody at random.

The game will not start until we have at least 12 players, and I am online. I will announce the start of the game, including all public roles, and will communicate Mafia roles by PM. (Make sure you're allowing PMs if you want to play.)

So far, we have 2 players.

**Betrayer0fHope** · 08-21-08, 02:05 AM

I'm in, but the mayor seems WAY overpowered. If he's on the mafia, he can just switch the roles to two other mafia players and after that the game seems like it's gonna be pretty much over. Also, can the policeman show the group a screenshot of the pm he receives that someone's the mafia? Or do people just have to guess if he's telling the truth when he says he's the policeman and he's received conformation that someone's mafia?

Edit: Alright so everyone knows who the policeman is?

**James R** · 08-21-08, 02:18 AM

I'm in, but the mayor seems WAY overpowered. If he's on the mafia, he can just switch the roles to two other mafia players and after that the game seems like it's gonna be pretty much over.

The townspeople can always vote to arrest the Mayor if he acts suspiciously. Also, he can only change two roles, and there are three roles that can help the townspeople, potentially (not including the Mayor).

Also, can the policeman show the group a screenshot of the pm he receives that someone's the mafia? Or do people just have to guess if he's telling the truth when he says he's the policeman and he's received conformation that someone's mafia?

The policeman can do what he likes. He can always be killed by the Mafia.

Edit: Alright so everyone knows who the policeman is?

All roles are public, except Mafia.

---

I should say, I'm no expert on this game. So, if anybody else has played it before and wants to offer some informed advice, that would be good. I'm not saying I'll necessarily follow it ...

**James R** · 08-21-08, 02:50 AM

Actually, I've just re-thought the issue about publishing PMs as "evidence". I think it's better to disallow the public posting of any PMs related to the game.

Players so far:

Nonsense
Asguard
BetrayerOfHope

Waiting for about 9 more players.

**Challenger78** · 08-21-08, 03:15 AM

I'll join in, But does it require constant vigilance? ,

**Asguard** · 08-21-08, 03:55 AM

umm james isnt there a problem if the mayor can switch the roles of the mafia and if the lawyer has to be a mafia person doesnt everyone KNOW who they are?

**Betrayer0fHope** · 08-21-08, 05:18 AM

Well the lawyer is probably gonna start out mafia anyways, so if the doctor switches them you know the doctor is a townsperson and if he doesn't then you're not sure. Then again, he could switch them and he could be mafia and fool everyone!

**James R** · 08-21-08, 07:55 AM

Originally Posted by Challenger78

I'll join in, But does it require constant vigilance? ,

You don't have to be online all the time, if that's what you mean. I'll aim to allow enough time for everybody to participate and make their decisions.

Originally Posted by Asguard

umm james isnt there a problem if the mayor can switch the roles of the mafia and if the lawyer has to be a mafia person doesnt everyone KNOW who they are?

The lawyer (and other specialist roles) doesn't have to be mafia.

However, I am thinking we might need another rule for the lawyer, because if the lawyer is a townsperson they won't have any incentive to protect any arrested person. So, here's what I'm going to do: if the lawyer is NOT Mafia, then each time he or she protects somebody else from arrest he or she is also immune on the next night from being killed. This gives him or her an incentive to protect somebody.

If anybody has a better idea, let me know.

4 players so far: Nonsense, Asguard, BetrayerOfHope, Challenger78.

Still need another 8 or so.

**Asguard** · 08-21-08, 08:03 AM

here is an idea james, make a mayor and a mafia don which do the same thing, one for the town the other for the mafia.

Then you can limit the lawyer to being mafia and make the protection by PM

**Enmos** · 08-21-08, 08:06 AM

Count me in.

Deciding who to kill might prove to be a bit problematic among all the members especially if some are not online. I guess we'll see how it works out.
Maybe the moderator should appoint a spokesman for the mafia, the spokesperson of course being the one that PMs the moderator which person to kill.

How long will each cycle (day/night) last ?

**S.A.M.** · 08-21-08, 08:10 AM

Count me in

**Enmos** · 08-21-08, 08:12 AM

*auto-arrest SAM*

**Challenger78** · 08-21-08, 08:18 AM

Originally Posted by Enmos

*auto-arrest SAM*

If I was a Lawyer, I'd act on behalf of my client.

**Enmos** · 08-21-08, 08:19 AM

Originally Posted by Challenger78

If I was a Lawyer, I'd act on behalf of my client.

Depends on which side you're on, I hope

**Enmos** · 08-21-08, 08:21 AM

Ok, we still need another 6 players.

**James R** · 08-21-08, 08:23 AM

I don't want to mess with the original roles too much at this stage, since I'd like to keep things simple for the first game. Then, if it all works and is popular, the next time we can make changes (and I don't have to be the game moderator).

Originally Posted by Asguard

here is an idea james, make a mayor and a mafia don which do the same thing, one for the town the other for the mafia.

Then you can limit the lawyer to being mafia and make the protection by PM

Having a Mafia Godfather with special abilities is a good idea, but not this time. Also, for this game I want all the special roles to be public (this isn't how it's always done, I know), so I don't want to have a secret Godfather, or for the lawyer to be secret. And since I want people to know who the lawyer is (they might want to hire him or her), we can't make him or her automatic Mafia, because the townspeople would automatically know one Mafioso to take out of the game early.

Originally Posted by Enmos

Count me in.

Deciding who to kill might prove to be a bit problematic among all the members especially if some are not online. I guess we'll see how it works out.
Maybe the moderator should appoint a spokesman for the mafia, the spokesperson of course being the one that PMs the moderator which person to kill.

If we get, say, 12 people playing, I suggest we have 4 Mafia and 8 townspeople (a 1:2 ratio), with special roles distributed randomly.

How long will each cycle (day/night) last ?[/QUOTE]

I have made a suggestion above, but I will try to be fair to everybody who is playing, to allow enough time and announce deadlines (which won't be too strenous).

----

Here's how I will count the votes.

At any time during the day, any player can include, on a separate line in any post, a line like this (which must be in bold so I can see it easily):

Vote: Asguard

This means you're voting for Asguard (for example) to be arrested when the day ends.

At the end of the day, I will look at the most recent votes from each person. Only your latest recorded vote counts, so you can change it during the discussion. The person with the majority of votes at the end of each day is arrested.

During the night, the Mafia can either appoint a spokesperson to tell me the votes of the Mafia (for the killings), or individual mafioso can send me a PM with "Vote: Asguard" or whatever. Again, majority determines who dies that night. Remember that at night the mafioso can all talk to each other by PM (they'll know who the other mafioso are).

6 players so far: Nonsense, Asguard, BetrayerOfHope, Challenger78, Enmos, S.A.M.

6 more players (or more), and we'll start.

**unixgeek13** · 08-21-08, 08:32 AM

Count me in please.

One question though... if the townspeople vote to arrest somebody and they turn out to NOT me mafia, what happens?

Vice-versa also... if the mafia vote to kill a fellow member, any repercussions?