Other metaphors for the game of mafia

[Psyche]

Here are a few ideas generated from ChatGPT:

1. **Political Intrigue:** The game is set in a court or political setting, where players are members of different factions. Instead of "killing," players are "exiled" or "impeached," losing their political influence and ability to participate in decisions. This setting can maintain the intensity of the original game while avoiding overtly violent themes.

2. **Corporate Takeover:** In a corporate-themed variant, players are members of a company's board. The Mafia could represent a rival company trying to take over. Players don't die; instead, they're ousted from the board, perhaps through scandal or hostile takeover, reflecting the cutthroat nature of corporate politics without resorting to violence.

3. **Mystery in a Mansion:** The game is set in a grand mansion or hotel, with players as guests or staff. The Mafia members could be spies or thieves. When players are voted out, they're not killed but instead "locked in a room" or "sent away from the mansion," thus losing their influence over the events in the mansion.

4. **Space Station Sabotage:** Set on a space station, where players are crew members and the Mafia are saboteurs. When a player is voted out, they are put into "cryosleep" or "quarantined," removing them from the active crew without death.

5. **Time Travel Paradox:** Players are time travelers, and the Mafia members are creating paradoxes. When players are removed, they are "erased from the timeline" or "trapped in a time loop," which keeps the sci-fi theme and explains why they can no longer participate.

IDK. Some of these are just vague, like the mansion mystery thing. The time travel paradox thing is plenty violent in my book. But the similarities between the political intrigue/corporate angles suggest that wherever you have an organization where some members could be working against its broader objectives, and alignment w/ those objectives doesn't depend on organization membership, traditional mafia wouldn't require too much of a suspension of disbelief.

The basic themes that all these settings seem to hit are:
- Rather than dying, eliminated players lose influence, their ability to interact with other players at day or night.
- Even if removed, players still have a "cause" they identify with that aligns them with a win condition. Someone excluded from a political party can still prefer its victory and even look forward to their rehabilitation once the conflict is resolved. Same for space station sabotage, etc.
- Despite the risk of elimination, players still have plenty of incentive to interact and be vulnerable to one another either because it's necessary to carry on their pre-existing roles and/or resolve the conflict, or because they have no other choice (there's nowhere else to go / there's no escape or prison cell they can lock themselves into).