Work in progress

What you need

For the game to work, you need a group of at least six players. Ideally, they should at least know each other's names. During the couse of the game, players will be "murdered" or sentenced to "hang" by their fellow players, so a sense of humour is essential*. The players should all be able to see each other.

You will also need either an ordinary pack of playing cards, or some scraps of paper and a pen.

How to play

Assigning roles

Firstly, pick your Narrator. The Narrator has to know how the game works, and has to be prepared to ad-lib a story line. Being the narrator gives you the advantage of being the only one to know exactly what's going on.

The rest of the players will either be Villagers or in the Mafia. Decide how many Mafia you want in your game - there should be at least two, but as a rule of thumb make no more than a quarter of the players Mafia members. Any more than that and it's far too easy for the Mafia to win!

If you are using bits of paper, write "Mafia" on some scraps (the same number as there will be Mafia members) and "Villager" on the rest. There should be one piece of paper for every player, except the Narrator. Fold up the bits of paper, and deal them out to the players. Everyone should look at their paper but keep what is written there a secret.

If you are using cards, look through the pack for the right number of Aces (for Mafia members) and numbered cards (for Villagers). Deal one card to each player. Players may look at their own card but nobody else's.

Variations for larger groups

If you are playing in a large enough group (say, ten or more), it can be fun to add in extra characters. This adds a bit more strategy to the game.

The Doctor