Citizen
Red · cityMost of the table. Sleeps through the night and wakes to nothing but what people said and how they said it. The hardest card, and the one that wins the game.
The game
Somebody at this table is lying.
Mafia is a conversation with a secret in it. Most of the table are ordinary citizens who do not know who anyone is. A few are the Mafia, who know each other, and who quietly remove one person every night. Everyone talks; everyone votes; the room decides.
You do not need to have played. The game master explains everything before the first hand is dealt, and the first game is the lesson.
A round
The game moves between day and night until one side is gone. Every day ends in a vote; every night, the roles wake one at a time.
Day
The city speaks
Each player gets one minute, in turn, opening with “Good morning, city.” Say what you saw, accuse who you suspect, nominate who should hang. When everyone has spoken, the vote is called; then the masks go on.
Night
The roles wake
The city sleeps behind masks while the game master wakes each role alone: the Mafia choose a victim and the Don has the last word, the Don hunts the Sheriff, the Sheriff checks a card, the Lover visits, the Doctor heals, the Maniac kills. You hear only the game master's voice.
Morning
The night is read
Masks off. The game master announces who did not survive. The fallen get one minute for a final word and leave the table, and the day begins again, one seat along.
The vote
How the city actually decides, from the manual the club plays by.
Arms out, in silence. Once voting is called, talking or gesturing can cost you your seat without a final word. Nominees are voted on in nomination order.
Everyone votes once. Hold back and your vote counts for the last player in the nomination order. Most votes: one minute for a final word, then out.
A tie is argued, then voted again. The tied players get thirty seconds each, and the table revotes without them. Tied again? The whole city, nominees included, votes on expelling both: it takes more than half.
Immunity
A card the game master hands out between games. It is not a role and it is not dealt.
It stops a night kill, nothing else. A day vote can still put you out, and so can the Lover taking you down with her.
Earned on the first night. Anyone killed on the first night of a game by the Mafia or the Maniac carries a card into the next game of the evening. The Lover's drag earns nothing.
Never in the first game, two at most. The evening's first game has no cards. From the second game on, no more than two players hold one, and each is spent by the night it covers.
The tutorial
The rules, shown at a real table. The club films its own walkthroughs.
The cards
Seven roles. You are dealt one face down at the start and you never say which, unless lying about it helps.
Sheriff
Red · cityChecks one player each night and learns whether they hold a black card. The unofficial leader of the city. But be careful who you believe to be the real one.
Doctor
Red · cityHeals one player each night, anyone, himself included: that player cannot die before morning. Never the same player two nights running, and the Mafia are listening for the night you healed yourself.
Lover
Red · citySpends the night with one player, never the same one twice in a row, and that player cannot be voted out the next day. But if the Lover dies in the night, whoever she visited dies with her. The black cards fear this card.
Mafia
Black · mafiaWakes with the Don and picks the victim together, though the Don's word is final. Knows exactly who the other Mafia are, and spends every day pretending not to.
Mafia Don
Black · mafiaWakes twice: once with his Mafia to choose the victim, once alone to hunt the Sheriff. The one player at the table searching for a specific card rather than a side.
Maniac
Black · plays aloneKills one player a night, red or black, and answers to nobody. Wins only one-on-one with a single red card. While the Maniac lives, the Mafia cannot win at all.
The best players are not the best liars. They are the best listeners.
What the club tells every first-timer.Fouls
A foul is a strike, and it can be played strategically. Three fouls and you skip your next speech; then the count resets. Four and you leave the game.
Fouls are earned for: speaking out of turn · saying “hundred percent” (ninety-nine is fine) · calling a player by their real name instead of their nickname · foul language · insulting a player · referring to a previous game.
Out without a final word: taking your mask off at night uncalled, or talking or gesturing during the night or during a vote.
The game master's word is final. On fouls, on expulsions, on everything.
How to win
Three sides, three finishes.
City
Clear the table
The red cards win the moment no black card is left alive: every Mafia gone and the Maniac with them.
Mafia
Reach parity
The Mafia win once they number the same as the remaining red cards: the vote can no longer go against them. Unless the Maniac still breathes: then nobody has won yet.
Maniac
Outlast everyone
The Maniac wins alone, one-on-one with a single red card. Challenging is not the same as impossible.
Now you know how it works.
The rest cannot be read: it has to be sat through once, card in hand, with the whole table watching your face. The first game is the lesson, and the club deals you in gently.