Can five-player games provide a good player experience?

[Ythan]

You should really be drinking.

[Majiffy]

A 9-15p game is ideal. Big enough to have variety and balance, small enough to where you can actually keep track of all reads.

I'm more of a 7-13p guy but I agree.

[BBmolla]

9-13 is the correct range.

[The_Jester]

When playing forum mafia, I'm a fan of 7-9 people setups (with more players I have trouble remembering who said what and it takes a lot of time to ISO everyone).
If it comes to mafia irl, 5p is enough for me (although more is always welcome). Last weekend I've played with 4 people who haven't heard of the game before and we really had a blast. We played a vanilla 4 Townies 1 Mafia setup. As someone mentioned though- it's best to play these sessions back to back as you rely more on each person's meta rather than arguments. Alcohol helps keep the conversation going too, lol. (Side note: I almost pissed myself laughing when I got quicklynched during the first game for "being suspicious because of leading the conversation").
Irl LyLos are also something else, especially if you end up in it with the same people twice.

[IceGuy]

We played a vanilla 4 Townies 1 Mafia setup.

That's not really Mafia, though.

[BBmolla]

Mafia is fun because of connections between the scum and is an informed minority versus uninformed majority. Hencewhy you can't play less with 5. (We Need A Fifth isn't mafia, it's fun face to face but it isn't mafia.)

[The_Jester]

We played a vanilla 4 Townies 1 Mafia setup.

That's not really Mafia, though.

Well, I wanted to get them familiar with the general idea. Will introduce more mechanics when we gather more people.

[Majiffy]

9-13 is the correct range.

[BBmolla]

9-13 is the correct range.

[Majiffy]

*general harumph'ing and arm-crossing*

[BBmolla]

*awkward silent eye rolling*

[Ythan]

Noisy eye rolling is more awkward.

[IceGuy]

This thread is worse than a five-player game thread.