Mafia IRL

[SaberKitty]

I can easliy see how the game of mafia works over the net.  But, I don't see how it would work in real life.  how could the mafia retire for the night to discuss if everyone is there to see?  anyone want to tell me or direct me to somewhere where i could learn how to set up a game in real life from assigning roles, to the final death?  -SK

[SaberKitty]

sorry, didn't mean to double post- i got disconnected after i clicked add reply and wasn't sure if it went throughcan someone delete one of these?-SK

[eillid]

Maybe the rooms that the people stay in (they'd each have to have their own room, I'd imagine) would be joined to a large room belonging to the mod of the game? That way, he could unlock the doors of the people who were allowed in (mafia, then cop, etc.), and get the dead out of their rooms. This is, of course, if you're not doing it with playing cards and putting your head down on your lap, and want to have some huge, expensive, week-long murder mystery game.Otherwise, you hand out cards, and when it's night, everyone shuts his eyes. And doesn't peek. No need to ruin it for yourself. Then the mod says Everyone, go to sleep, and everyone closes his eyes. Then, Mafia, wake up, and they raise their heads, and so on.

[Pudd'nhead Wilson]

The tricky part about doing night kills and such is that the Mafia have to communicate with each other and with the Mod without sound--they generally do it by pointing at who they want to kill. ;If there are doctors and cops, they do it the way that the mafia do: all cops know each other, and all doctors know each other. ;Each of the two professions have to agree amonst themselves who to investigate/protect. ;Cops get a nod from the Mod for Mafia and a headshake for Townie. ;Voting works differently two: there is no I vote such and such. ;Instead players argue amongst themselves until one player officially accuses another, and gets seconded. ;The accused then has thirty seconds to offer any defense he wants short of revealing his card. ;When his thirty seconds are up, everyone else votes by raising their hands for guilty and keeping them down for innocent: tie goes to the innocent. ;Guilty lynches the poor sap and brings on the night, innocent sends it back to midday and the arguing continues until someone is lynched. ;Roles are usually very simple: 3 mafia, 1 or 2 cops, 1 Doc for nine or ten people works well.

[Pudd'nhead Wilson]

You know, eillid, that idea would knock Survivor off the ratings chart ;Televised Mafia, played over a series of real days and real nights in an abandoned house for a cash prize: the more survivors, the bigger the winnings.

[Antrax]

The way we did it, there was one cop and several mafia who knew each other. At night, the mafias would vote for who they want to kill, blindly (mod goes over everybody's names, mafia raise their hand if they want to kill that person). Whoever got the majority (or only if someone got all the votes) of the votes was killed. But IRL it was mostly a shouting match and killing people because their name rhymed with funny words (really. Our IS was someone named Baruchi, which is a very silly name, and rhymes with very stupid words in Hebrew. Poor fella never survived a game). Antrax

[mith]

We never used Cops or anything here before I started the GL Mafia craze. Just Mafia and Townies, everyone puts their heads down at night, Mafia wake up and decide on a victim by pointing. The lynchings usually happen by giving a few minutes for everyone to shout random things, the moderator deciding on two or three people that seem to be getting the most heat, and then people voting for one of these; if no one gets a majority, they discuss it some more. We did 3 Mafia for 20 or more players, 2 for 10-20, or something like that. Never bothered playing with less, I think.After the Mafia craze on the GL, I tried to get them to try with Cops, but most of them weren't all that interested to begin with (most of the people I had learned with had graduated and gone off); I didn't do the Cops and Docs together though, I just said ok, there's a queen of diamonds and hearts for docs, jack of diamonds and hearts for cops. queen of diamonds, wake up, and such things.I did do one game with a small group (5) with various basic roles. That was pretty funny. (It was Omega, Q, my sister, and two others)

[Luna]

I didn't understand how it would work IRL either... mith told me that the mafia discuss by pointing and shaking their heads and stuff, but I couldn't picture how it would actually work at all... It does though, but it's really a different game to internet mafia, much less subtle and strategic and much more she's looking a bit shifty, vote her. Funny when played with a drunk IS, though.

[verge_of_taboo]

i was actually thinking of trying to start a game of mafia at school that lasted a few weeks. communicate by notes, the mafia could talk to each other and send one person to the mod with the kill. voting the same way. daily updates on votes, deaths, etc. it would be amusing, if i could get it to work. it's a bit late in the school year to try it now, but next year is a distinct possibility.

[Neo]

*heavy sigh*

The people in my town suck. I can't even get one of my friends to even look at the GL, much less get any of them to play mafia

[verge_of_taboo]

i've played IRL, and playing online is so much more fun. IRL it's usually a random vote or "i heard her move" type voting unless you're the cop. games tend to end very quickly unless you have a

lot

of people. you don't get the great death scenes you get online, either.

[SaberKitty]

tonight was the first time i've played gl chat mafia. it was really fun! the only problem i had was that i can't type fast enough to say what i like. usually people would switch topics so quickly that i would have to erase what i said and type something else for it to make sense.
but in pick your own role, i won as mafia (psycoanalyze that sketch )

anywho- it was really cool- pika was there, and deathwing, and penguin/prodegy, and og, and thektulu.

can we have mafiascum chat? or designated mafiascum chatroom? because i think that would be really spiffy!
-SK

[Sketchwick]

The only analysis I can provide from that post is that spiffy must be the opposite of icky.

sketchwick

[SaberKitty]

yep

[CrystyB]

Sure. Designate MafiaScumCentral to hold all chat mafias. And maybe chat mafs have beginners' luck - i won my first (two) online games too!!!

[Q]

I've been kicking around the idea of starting an IRC server for mafiascum. I was planning on modifying (sp? everything looks like its spelled wrong tonight for some reason) cyclone to support some special mafia commands (such as /lynch ).

[Antrax]

Do you really think we need a dedicated server? We'd be 20 on, at most.
Antrax

[Q]

Why not? IRC takes up very little bandwidth and few system resources. If there's enough demand I'll do it.

[Pegasus]

I'd be interested in a chat-type format for a Mafia game!

[cuban smoker]

Before I stumbled across mafiascum, I ONLY played IRL. And boy did we have some good times. I would say I was almost opposed to online mafia before I read improbable role Mafia on this site. Reading that made me realize what you could do online. But I must say this: The two games are VERY different in their nature.

I was thinking of writing some kind of article comparing the two, the gist of which I could write here...

Anyway. When I play IRL, we play with playing cards as some people have noted above. You sit around in a circle, and begin to converse. We usually start with day. Why, you ask? Because you can actually "read" people wen you stare at them. Its not that hard to weed out the Mafia, even on day one! Watch for little subtle things. IRL Mafia is a psychological game. Logic has little place in the Mafia circle when you play with basic roles. Instead, you look for behaviours, who is looking at who, how everyone composes themselves. Some people just can't lie! Others you can "read" like a book.
We lynch by the formal accusation process I think pudd'nhead explained. Majority +1 required. (that is, tie is no lynch). Once someone gets lynched, on to night. Everyone closes eyes, hums and sways. As far as I can tell, we have never had someone open their eyes during this time. No one wants to ruin it for themselves. The Moderator (the first person lynched... see, everyone even gets to play!) instructs the Mafia to open their eyes, and agree by pointing. Of course, we have tried other versions, including where the mafia CAN'T open their eyes, and a kill only takes place if ALL the mafia agree on one person BLINDLY! This creates a very interesting day time scene, where the mafia silently, in broad daylight, try and communicate their intentions to each other. For a sillier game, don't have a recognition phase! The mafia desperately seek each other out, looking for signs, and trying to agree on who to kill. Of course, its quite easy to agree with an innocent to kill someone else!

Moving on... You go on and on until one team loses. If we are not playing with a doctor, then we always arrange it so there is an odd amount alive during the day. Better for lnyching, and 1 kill per night means there are 2 kills every turn in total. The goal is to line up for the crucial 3 person finish (with one mafia left) which is the best part about IRL Mafia.

I've got lots of cool stories too... I played on a coach once (big comfy bus), with 21 people playing. It was night, so we all turned on our overhead lights, and when we died, turned them off. That was quite an interesting game. We had 2 teams of 3 mafia, with 2 lynches a day. Unfortunately for our 2 team mafia, we lynched 2 members of one team the first day, and the other mafia team picked off the 3rd person that night. So it became a normal game with 17 people, 3 mafia. But it was still fun.
Some IRL games become very intense. Imagaine some of the heated conversations that have taken place here. Now picture two hotheads yelling at each other. We've only been close to physical violence once though... but I digress.

Anyway, we find the smallest quality number is 9 total, 2 mafia, sometimes 1 cop. Although more is better!
Well, hope this added something to the discussion. You should all do your best to find people to play with. Its a great game.

[Internet Stranger]

You havent seen anything until you have played drunken mafia.

[rOver]

cuban smoker: Good summary. Just one more point. Self-control is extremly important. A played with a guy who always pressed his lips together in a funny way when he was mafia. He just couldn't help it. Playing with a lighter is also a typical mistake Of course you learn to watch these things. But excellent players keep coming up with new ideas.

[The Accountant]

Playing IRL is almost harder than on the net, due to body language yada yada.
I started playing mafia IRL. One time, we had two mafia families, and Arminger and I were the opposing families (We were also sitting next to each other). On the first night, we both chose to kill each other. As soon as I heard the mayor (mod) stifle a laugh, I knew that I had killed the other maf, and he had killed me!
But there is a totally different dynamic when playing IRL, it is not as dry and logical as net mafia. IRL is more free flowing, you have to be on your toes, the whole game, and you don't have to wait hours for ppl to reply, its right in your face.