Classroom mafia game

[Kublai Khan]

Sorry if this topic has been posted before.

As school starts up, it's usually recommended to do some sort of icebreaker game to make day 1 less of a deluge of info and to get to know the students a little bit. I've flirted with the idea of doing mafia, but thought it might take up too much time. But now with the popularity of Among Us (and a desire to keep kids apart), I figure it might be a good year to try.

Problem is that I've never really run a real world mafia game and I've only played one time.

So I invite anytime who has run it or played it to give feedback and advice for how to run it with a group range of 13-27 kids aged 12 to 13. I've got a vague idea, but looking to learn from other's experience about what pitfalls to avoid or setup or directions.

[Cook]

ego

two competing mafias would be interesting

[Ythan]

No input atm but very interested in hearing how this goes.

[Kublai Khan]

I guess I'm going to use this: https://www.instructables.com/How-To-Pl ... out-Cards/

To play a basic game. I'm worried that the middle school kids are going to be way too self-conscious and timid to really play.

[Cook]

i have a feeling at least one of them's gonna try to get people to do follow the cop and it's gonna be funny

[Jake The Wolfie]

I've done this in the past with my old Youth Group, and one of the things we did was have one face card (Maybe a Black Jack?) be a cop, and a Black Queen be a Doctor. Anyone who got a red card was a mafia member, and everyone else was a townie.
Everyone would put their head down for the night phase, then the host would ask each role(s) to wake up in some order, then everyone would raise their heads and anything that needed to be announced at day was announced.

After some time, everyone would vote for a person to kill, then nighttime would happen.

Cop - Wakes up and points at a player. The host gives them a thumbs up if they are mafia, and a thumbs down if not. Falls asleep.
Doctor - Wakes up and points at a player, then Falls asleep. If that player was attacked that night, their death is prevented.
All Mafia - Wakes up and collectively votes to kill a player. Falls asleep after.

[Ythan]

Anyone else use red for town and black for scum when using cards? I remember this causing some confusion at a meet once since red is standard for scum in the forum.

[Cook]

Yeah that checks out. I recommend making cop macho.

Pedit: conspiracy uses that scheme but usually I make hearts Mafia.

[Ythan]

conspiracy

Love this game so much, would recommend it to Kublai in the future if Mafia doesn't work out but it's so focused on a single player half the time idk if it'd be good for a class.

[Ythan]

It's definitely more a play a bunch of times in a row game.

[Cook]

What about Avalon?

[Ythan]

Don't know it but maybe someone else does.

[Cook]

Don't know it but maybe someone else does.

Everyone is at the round table. The players are split into two,

Knights of the Round Table

and

Minions of Mordred

. The Knights outnumber Minions. Minions are self-informed (know who is Minion)

A Party Leader is designated at the start of the game, and selects a certain number of people to go on a quest (usually 3). This team doesn't have to include themselves. This proposed team is then voted on publicly. Majority rules. If the team is failed, then the player to the Leader's left becomes the new leader and proposes a new team. If the team is passed, then we go to the Quest Phase.

In the Quest Phase each team member gets a black card and a red card. The Black Card is a Pass and the Red Card is a Fail.

All team members silently cast a ballot for Pass or Fail. These ballots are then revealed. If all cards are Pass, the mission passes and a point goes to the Knights. But if there's even

one

Fail card, the mission fails and a point goes to the Minions.

Win a majority (usually 4 of 7) of points to win.

However, a twist:

One Knight is secretly Merlin, who knows the identities of all Minions. The Minions do

not

know Merlin.

If, at the end of the game, Knights win, Minions reveal themselves and decide on one person they think is merlin. If correct, the Minions instead win.

[Gamma Emerald]

that sounds a lot like Resistance

[Cook]

that sounds a lot like Resistance

it

IS

resistance

[Ythan]

I like the Merlin bit I think.

[T3]

It gets really boring if you don't have a pr.
Just make a high maf/town ration but a lot of town pr's.