Rating: *****
You will need: Deck of cards / 15+ people (this much is necessary to make the game interesting)
Creator: unknown
Category: Strategy/Teamwork
Review: Wow, I’m in love. If only I could play this once a week with a group of friends. My best bud Craig invited me over to his friend Eva’s house, where she was having game night. I was told we were going to play a game called Mafia. When I got there I wasn’t expecting 13 other people waiting to start the game. It was awesome! Read below on how to play Mafia.
How to Play: They’re can be up to 4 different roles in this game. Mafia, Doctor, Angel, and of course the Towns People. Each role has a vital importance to the game. The main goal of the game is different for each role. There is 4 mafia in the game whom work together. They must kill off everyone without being unveiled as the mafia. Towns people, angel, and doctor are all on a team. Unfortunately you don’t know who these people are without some clever strategy. They’re goal is to out the Mafia and get them killed. Ok so now that you know the roles this is how the game is played.
There is a person who leads the game as the narrator. The first round he/she passes out your card, let’s you read it, and memorize it. Comes back around to collect the cards after you have had a chance to memorize who you are. Each card has a different meaning.
Jack: Doctor
Kings: Mafia (awesome role)
2-9: Towns people
Ace: Angel
Now that everyone knows what role they are, the narrator will do the next few steps. I’ll write this out like a script to make it more understandable.
Narrator:
“Everyone shut your eyes.”
“Mafia only open your eyes. Agree on someone to kill. Now close your eyes”
“Angel open your eyes. Enquire about someone” – now the angel’s role is very important. What they do is during their time to open their eyes they get to ask the narrator by pointing someone out to see if they are a mafia person or not. The cool thing about that is then when it comes time for the towns people to open their eyes the Angel can call someone out and start accusing. “Angel close your eyes.”
“Doctor open your eyes and choose someone to save.” – Whomever the doctor chooses to save cannot die. So let’s say the doctor chooses the exact person the mafia chose to kill. Well then that person lives. “Doctor close your eyes.”
“Now everyone open your eyes”
After everyone opens their eyes the narrator will announce if there has been a death or not. If the doctor saved someone then there would have been no deaths. After the narrator says whether or not someone has died or not then the towns people can bicker back and forth and accuse people. If I say for example “I first Kevin!”, then someone else “Seconds Kevin”. That means the Kevin has 30 seconds to speak to the crowd. He must convince everyone he is a towns person to save his life. Even if he is mafia he has to try to convince everyone. Now after his 30 seconds everyone votes whether or not they want him dead. If the votes are more then half of the people then he is killed. If he is killed then the narrator asks…”Kevin are you mafia?” which in return he has to respond back yes or not. If he says no then we just killed a towns person, angel, or doctor. He cannot disclose whether or not he was any of those. All we can know is he is either a mafia member or not.
When that little round has been complete you repeat the process again. The exciting part is now you have one less person in the game. I personally love how people react. You really have to pay attention to see how people react to certain gestures.
I hope this better explains the game. If you have any questions leave a comment. I recommend also googling about the game a little. You will probably find a better explanation. Enjoy and kill some people :)
