Mafia roles, how many Mafia, and a narrator's script
How many Mafia for 4 to 10 players, what each role does, and what the narrator says.
The two questions every Mafia night starts with are how many Mafia to deal and who is going to narrate. Get the first wrong and the game is over in two nights, one way or the other. Get the second wrong and the narrator spends the evening as the only person not playing.
The table below is the deal PartyDen's Mafia makes: one Mafia for every four players, one Doctor and one Detective, everyone else a Villager. Playing round a table with more people? The same ratio holds — twelve players, three Mafia. The script after it is the order a narrator calls the night in, with the one habit that stops a narrator giving the game away.
How many Mafia for your group
One Mafia for every four players, and always one Doctor and one Detective. This is the deal PartyDen makes; it is also a sound starting point for a game round a table.
- 4 players
- 1 Mafia · 1 Doctor · 1 Detective · 1 Villager
- 5 players
- 1 Mafia · 1 Doctor · 1 Detective · 2 Villagers
- 6 players
- 1 Mafia · 1 Doctor · 1 Detective · 3 Villagers
- 7 players
- 1 Mafia · 1 Doctor · 1 Detective · 4 Villagers
- 8 players
- 2 Mafia · 1 Doctor · 1 Detective · 4 Villagers
- 9 players
- 2 Mafia · 1 Doctor · 1 Detective · 5 Villagers
- 10 players
- 2 Mafia · 1 Doctor · 1 Detective · 6 Villagers
The roles
- Mafia
- Wins when the Mafia equal or outnumber everyone else alive. Each night the Mafia pick one person to kill — with two Mafia, only a name they both pick dies, so a split night kills nobody.
- Doctor
- Names one person to protect each night, and may name themselves. If it is the person the Mafia chose, nobody dies.
- Detective
- Points at one person each night and learns, privately, whether they are Mafia. One look a night, and it cannot be taken back.
- Villager
- No power at night. By day, a Villager's vote counts exactly as much as anyone's, and the town wins when every Mafia member is gone.
A narrator's script, for a game round a table
Read it in order every night. The pauses matter more than the words: give each role the same few seconds whether or not that player is still alive, or the room learns who died from how long you waited.
- Deal
- Shuffle one card per role face down — say a red card for each Mafia, a heart for the Doctor, a spade for the Detective — and deal one to each player. Everyone looks and keeps it hidden.
- Night falls
- "Everyone close your eyes. Heads down." Wait until every head is down.
- Mafia
- "Mafia, open your eyes and find each other. Silently agree on one person to kill — point at them." Note the name. "Mafia, close your eyes."
- Doctor
- "Doctor, open your eyes. Point at one person to save tonight — you may choose yourself." Note it. "Doctor, close your eyes."
- Detective
- "Detective, open your eyes. Point at one person you suspect." Answer with a thumbs up for Mafia, thumbs down for not. "Detective, close your eyes."
- Dawn
- "Everyone open your eyes." If the Mafia's choice was not the Doctor's save, say who died — they are out, and keep their card hidden. Otherwise: "Everyone made it through the night."
- Day
- "Talk. Who do you think it was?" Give the room a few minutes. Dead players stay silent.
- Vote
- "Point at the person you want out, on three." The name with the most votes is out. A tie sends nobody out — the town gets another night instead.
- Check for a winner
- If no Mafia are left, the town wins. If the Mafia now equal or outnumber everyone else, they win. Otherwise, night falls again.
Play Mafia instead
Or let nobody narrate: play Mafia online and the app deals the roles, runs the night and counts the vote, so everyone in the room gets to play.