Mafia is a social deduction party game for a group. A few players are secretly the mafia; everyone else belongs to the town. At night the mafia quietly eliminate one player. During the day everyone talks and votes to eliminate someone they suspect. The town wins by finding every mafia member; the mafia win by surviving until they are as many as the rest. This guide covers how to play Mafia from start to finish: every role, the night and the day, ties, win conditions, the rules this site uses, the Werewolf theme and the most common house rules.
Watch: how to play Mafia
How to Play Mafia: Party Game Rules Explained Simply
Chapters
A short history
Mafia was created by Dmitry Davidoff at Moscow State University in 1986, as a game about trust and suspicion that could be played by a group with nothing more than a few cards. It spread through schools, universities and summer camps and then far beyond. In 1997 Andrew Plotkin introduced the werewolf theme, moving the story to a village where some of the villagers turn into werewolves at night. Both names are still used for the same family of games, and many groups add their own roles and house rules.
Players and roles
Mafia needs at least five players to work, and it is at its best with seven or more. On this site it takes 5 to 12 players on one phone. Each player receives one secret role:
- Mafia: the hidden team. Mafia members know who their teammates are. Each night they choose one player to eliminate. By day they pretend to be ordinary townspeople.
- Doctor: on the town’s side. Each night the Doctor chooses one player to protect. If the mafia target that player, nobody is eliminated.
- Detective: on the town’s side. Each night the Detective checks one player and learns whether that player is in the mafia.
- Townsperson: on the town’s side, with no special power. Townspeople win through discussion and votes.
The Doctor and the Detective are optional. Without them the game is pure discussion and voting; with them the town has a little more information and a way to save a life.
Setup
Decide how many mafia there will be. More mafia make the game shorter and harder for the town. This site’s Auto setting deals:
| Players | Mafia | Other players |
|---|---|---|
| 5–6 | 1 | 4–5 |
| 7–9 | 2 | 5–7 |
| 10–12 | 3 | 7–9 |
You can also choose 1, 2 or 3 mafia yourself, as long as the mafia are still fewer than the town after the first night: 2 mafia need at least 6 players and 3 need at least 8. With the Doctor and the Detective on, one player gets each role and everyone else is a Townsperson. Roles are dealt at random, and a rematch deals new ones.
Objective
- The town wins when every mafia member has been eliminated.
- The mafia win as soon as the number of living mafia is equal to or greater than the number of everyone else. At that point they could win every vote, so the game ends.
How a round works
A game alternates between night and day, starting with the first night.
Night
Everyone “closes their eyes”. The mafia silently agree on a target, the Doctor chooses someone to protect and the Detective chooses someone to check. In the traditional game a narrator calls each role in turn and watches what they choose.
Morning
Everyone “wakes up” and hears the news: who was eliminated in the night, or that nobody was, because the Doctor protected the mafia’s target.
Day
The living players discuss what happened. Anyone can accuse anyone, defend themselves or claim a role, and anyone can lie, especially the mafia. Many groups use a timer so the day does not drag on.
The vote
At the end of the day the living players vote to eliminate one player, or decide on no elimination. Then night falls again, and the cycle repeats until one team wins.
The rules in detail
The mafia’s target
The mafia choose one target each night from the players who are not in the mafia. In person they agree by pointing in silence. On this site each mafia member picks a name on their own night turn, and members who play later that night see what their teammates picked earlier. The most-picked player is the target. If two or more players are picked equally often, the target is the one whose pick came earliest that night.
The Doctor
The Doctor protects one player per night. If that player is the mafia’s target, nobody is eliminated that night. The Doctor may protect themselves, but may not protect the same player two nights in a row. A Doctor who protected Ben on night 2 must choose someone else on night 3, and may choose Ben again on night 4. Once the Doctor is eliminated, nobody is protected any more.
The Detective
The Detective checks one player per night and learns only “Mafia” or “Not mafia”. The Detective does not learn whether a player is the Doctor or a Townsperson. Checks happen during the night, so a Detective who is eliminated that same night still learned the answer, but can no longer share it.
Players without a night power
In the narrated game, Townspeople simply keep their eyes closed at night. On this site every living player takes a night turn, so a Townsperson answers a harmless question, “Who do you suspect?”. The answer is not used and not kept. It exists so that every turn looks the same and takes about the same time.
Voting
Every living player has one vote. A vote can be taken in two ways:
- Together: the group discusses and agrees on one choice, then taps that player’s name or No elimination on the phone at the table.
- Secret: the phone goes to each living player in turn behind the pass screen. Each player votes for another player or skips. A skip counts as a vote for no elimination. When everyone has voted, the choice with the most votes wins. If two or more choices tie for the most votes, nobody is eliminated. The totals are shown afterwards, but not who voted for whom.
You cannot vote for yourself in a secret vote.
Eliminated players
An eliminated player is out for the rest of the game: no night turns, no vote and, by the usual etiquette, no more talk about the game. With Reveal role on, their role is announced when they are eliminated; with it off, roles stay hidden until the game ends.
When the game ends
The win check happens after every elimination, whether it happened in the night or by vote. The night itself is resolved before the morning, so if a night elimination brings the mafia level with the town, the game ends with a mafia win straight away. At the end every role is shown together with a night-by-night log of who picked, protected and checked, and how each vote ended.
How this version replaces the narrator
Running Mafia on one phone has one big problem: the person holding the phone at night could give their role away by how long they take, and nobody can be left out to narrate. This site solves it in four ways:
- Everyone takes a night turn. The phone goes to every living player in seat order, and dead players are skipped.
- The same screen for everyone. Each night turn has the same two steps: pick a name from the same list, then read a short card and tap “Hide and pass”. Only the wording changes with the role.
- Pass screens. Before each private turn a screen names the next player and hides everything until they confirm. A reload in the middle of the night returns to that pass screen, never to someone’s secret.
- The phone keeps the records. It remembers the Doctor’s last protection, resolves ties, announces the morning and checks the win, so nobody needs to keep notes.
Screen reader announcements only name whose turn it is and the public news. They never mention a role or a night choice.
The Werewolf theme
Choose Werewolf in the setup to play the same rules in a village. The mafia become werewolves, the Doctor becomes the Healer, the Detective becomes the Seer and the Townspeople become Villagers. The Seer learns “A werewolf” or “Not a werewolf”. Everything else, from tie rules to win conditions, is identical.
Variants and house rules
- Day first. Some groups start with a day instead of a night, giving the town a vote before anyone is eliminated. It mostly helps the mafia, because the first vote is a guess.
- Majority vote. Some groups need more than half of the living players to agree before anyone is eliminated.
- Last words. An eliminated player may say one sentence before going quiet.
- No self-protection. The Doctor may never protect themselves.
- Extra roles. Groups add roles such as a Bodyguard or a Jester. This site keeps to the core roles so the game is easy to learn.
Common mistakes and rule disputes
- Talking after elimination. It is tempting, but an eliminated player knows too much. Keep quiet and enjoy watching.
- Showing your screen. On one phone the only real risk is someone looking over a shoulder. Hold the phone close and look away when it is not your turn.
- Rushing the vote. A quick vote with no reasons usually helps the mafia. Use the day timer.
- Forgetting the parity rule. The mafia do not need to eliminate everyone. Being equal in number is enough.
Glossary
- Town: every player who is not in the mafia (the village in the Werewolf theme).
- Night kill: the mafia’s elimination at night.
- Save: the Doctor protecting the mafia’s target.
- Check: the Detective’s night question.
- Claim: telling the group which role you have, truthfully or not.
- Parity: the moment the mafia equal the rest, which ends the game.
Play it now
Play Mafia on one phone with 5 to 12 players. For tactics for every role, read the Mafia strategy tutorial, and see our party games for more games for a group.