Mafia: A Game of Disorganized Crime

For more than the past decade, I've traditionally gone camping with a number of other families. I bring this up, because, around the campfire, we often play the game "Mafia". The game rules are fairly simple, and we generally kept to the base rules with minimum fuss. Once diving past the base level of play, it becomes a fascinating game. The choices the players make are very rarely based on any concrete evidence provided to them from the game, but instead are based on conjecture and uninformed guesses.

With a party of about eight or so players, we would have two Mafia. Up to twelve, we would have three Mafia. We also played with a Detective and a Doctor. The game is separated into two periods- Day and Night.

During the Night, all players close their eyes, then the Mafia wake up and choose a player to eliminate. They then "go to sleep" and the Detective wakes up. That player chooses to investigate any player and are informed by a narrator if the target is innocent or guilty. They close their eyes, and the Doctor rises. That player chooses someone to rescue. If the Doctor and the Mafia chose the same person, that player is not eliminated.

After players with the special roles have taken their actions, everyone wakes up for the Day and are told by the narrator who died. Then the surviving players discuss, accuse and eventually eliminate by method of popular vote one player. After elimination, the narrator tells the players what role the departed was, and the game returns to Night.

What makes this game so interesting to me, is that the players have no solid evidence. There is no gathering of clues to piece together who committed the crime. You simply have to pick someone to remove from the group.

Some Mafia simply choose people they are related to (as they aren't as comfortable with the others, and don't want to upset them for removing them from the game) or they choose people opposite them (we play around a campfire) as it is easier to point them out. However, a player who knows these tendencies (within a playgroup) will take advantage of them and will select the strangers sitting next to them. Of course, this falls into game theory and double and triple bluffs, so unless you can read a face really well, you have no evidence. And even if you can read a face, can the other players? What reason do they have to trust you?

Of course, when you're accused, you get an opportunity to defend yourself. Which is nearly impossible, because you have no evidence to provide, you only have your word. Even if you are an agent of good (the Detective or Doctor) claiming that role does nothing. Anyone can claim that role.

As the Detective, if you discover a member of the Mafia, you can point your finger and call up the mob, but they still have to trust your word. If you've investigate multiple people you can point at them and tell the crowd that they're innocents, but a member of the Mafia, since they know who their allies are (and aren't) can also identify innocents.

A clever player would be willing to sacrifice an ally, and even go so far as to accuse them, so as the help keep blame off their shoulders. I could see a player (with three Mafia members) accuse one of their kin, declare that the Mafia will now attack them, and eliminate themselves during the night. If that player also declared the third member as innocent, or if that player had strongly supported the accusation, they would have some level of safety. If the real Detective investigates, they have nobody to back up their claim. The member of the Mafia was vouched for by a 'Detective' who died for the cause.

The game itself isn't interesting, and if played by computers, would be absolutely boring. What makes it interesting, and incredibly exciting to analyze and play is the human element. People will do crazy things to win. People will be forced into incredibly awkward situations and will have to spin a yarn for their success. People will believe that story. Others won't. Mafia (and games like it) are a fascinating exploration of how humans think, and what sort of machinations they'll attempt to try to scrounge a victory.