This is the description of the game I posted at ModCraft to get the people over there interested in it:
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For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, Mafia is a forum-based game involving (traditionally, although there are variations), two sides - the "killers", and the "innocents".
In a standard game of ~15 players, there will be two killers (who know each other), and a person on their side who knows them (but they don't know him), called a "symp". It is this players' job to help the killers, although they can't communicate with him. Everybody else is in the "innocent" faction. They do not know who the other innocents are.
Essentially, it is a game of "informed minority versus clueless majority".
The gave is divided into two phases - day, and night. (Funnily enough).
During the day phase, everybody posts in-thread, and discuss who to get rid of - who they think is a killer, basically. To remove someone from the game (called "lynching"), players must bold "Vote: Player Name".
However, there is a catch. Half (+1) of the living players must agree on who to vote for, before someone is voted off. Often, the day phase will have a time limit, so if a majority is not reached by this time, the game turns to night. It also goes to night if a player is lynched. Also, if half (not a majority) of the players vote "Night", the game goes to it's night phase early.
During the night phase, anyone can post in-thread, but players cannot vote. The killers, able to talk between themselves via PM, decide on who to kill and PM the solution to the game's "moderator". This player is then killed, and the game returns to day. At the beginning of each night, a "night scene" is posted- detailing who died, and often whether or not they were innocent. This also occurs each morning - telling players who was killed at night, and their faction, often termed a "Night Kill" or NK.
This cycle repeats until one of two scenarios is reached - either the killers are all dead, or there is an equal number of killers and innocents. (Because if there are 2 killers and 2 innocents left, a majority cannot be reached, so the killers simply go to night, and kill an inno).
For those of you wondering what happens when you die, it's quite simple. You go to heaven. "Spoiler Heaven" to be precise. This is where people who just want to watch, or have died in the current game, can go and commentate, and learn all the roles/who has what role etc. It's can actually be almost as fun as the game itself. How so, you ask? Because people playing the game often send in their own thoughts about who's who, etc. Particularly funny when there are alts - you get to see all the "alt-guess" attempts. Even death is fun in this game! (Disclaimer - death may not be as fun for some....)
Now, the game sounds ridiculously complicated - but playing is the best way to learn. It doesn't require a huge amount of time (although it can take up a lot if you want), and is really fun! Of course, there are lots of ways to make this game more complicated (which I won't go into here), and some of the ones I've played in have left me paranoid!
I'm posting this to see if anyone else is interesting in doing some games here. Post interest below!
There isn't a minimum or maximum number of players really. 10 or more is great.
It should also be noted that we often enjoy coming up with stories to play with - they are just themes. For example, on malazanempire.com (where I normally play), we often do "Malazan" themed games. Here, we could do Oblivion themed games, or just random themes. Themes make things more fun. smile.gif
Oh, and one other thing - this game is often played with "alts" - alternative accounts so that people don't know (without guessing) who you are. This makes it more interesting as well. And makes for great vendettas!
For the first couple of games here, we probably won't do alts, as they make things more complicated.
Obviously, we do use alts here already, and this game isn't standard - it's a cult game.
Cult games have multiple factions which can 'recruit' inno players to their own team. And also probably have a killer etc as well. This makes the game much more complex in some ways.
I'll explain in more detail if you need it.