Interest Check - Mafia?

[SadisticBlessings]

Mafia, for those of you who aren't "in the know", is a relatively popular party and forum game. Wikipedia describes it as such:

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

Mafia (also known under the variant Werewolf or Vampire) is a party game modeling a battle between an informed minority and an uninformed majority. Mafia is usually played in groups with at least five players. During a basic game, players are divided into two teams: 'Mafia members', who know each other; and 'honest people', who generally know the number of Mafia amongst them. The goal of both teams is to eliminate each other; in more complicated games with multiple factions, this generally becomes "last side standing".

More information here, if you're interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mafia_(game)

Edit: It turns out this explanation is confusing more people than it helps, so here's a breakdown I posted halfway down the page:

Before the game starts, everyone who signs up gets assigned a role by me... usually either "Town" aligned or "Mafia" aligned. The mafia know who they are and who their allies are, while the townies know nothing other than their own alignment.

The idea is, once per "day" (not an actual day, just the name of the "day phase" or "voting phase") there's a majority vote to decide who will be "killed" by the town. This can be based on logic, intuition, or just guesswork. The town's objective is to kill off all of the mafia aligned players.

After each vote the person who was killed has their identity revealed, and the "night" phase begins. In this phase the mafia is allowed to decide to kill one town aligned player.

The town wins if it kills all the mafia members. The mafia wins when they outnumber the remaining townspeople.

I've never seen a game of mafia played on this board, but since I know (or at least recognize) the vast majority of you are intelligent enough to make a real battle of wits out of it, I thought I'd see if there were enough interested people to run one. That would probably be like 15-20 people... and while frequent posting definitely makes the game go quicker, it's not necessary to be constantly involved.

I was thinking that the CornellVerse would make a great theme for a game of Mafia, as there are so many possible roles it's mind-boggling - but if there are enough people interested in another theme, I'd consider doing that one as well. I think anyone who's been to EWB will attest that mafia is a very fun, very psychologically revealing game that can definitely provide for some memorable moments and also somehow builds a sense of community amongst the players.

Any thoughts? This isn't really a sign-up post or anything, I'm just gauging whether a game like this would have an audience on the board or not... but I'd certainly be happy to run a game or two for you guys if enough people want to play

If not... well, then I'll go listen to the Delfonics and cry.

[TheEdgeOfReason]

I'm willing to play

[panix04]

just because im a forum troll i'd be up for it. Although my cornellverse knowledge is kinda limited.

[SadisticBlessings]

Originally Posted by panix04

just because im a forum troll i'd be up for it. Although my cornellverse knowledge is kinda limited.

Nothing wrong with being a forum troll... in fact, mafia is one of those games that caters to them

And while I'll always love the cornellverse, if anyone has an idea for a theme that would draw more people in I'm completely open to using it instead... I just figured the CV was a theme that most players on the board would be familiar with already.

If there's enough of a reception to it, we could always run a Mafia GDS style (like the Mafia Cubed on the EWB boards), where all the roles are based on forum members

Regardles of the theme, the important thing is to make it a fun game for everyone involved... and I think that is more than possible, as we've got a community here that's generally very involved and ethusiastic.

Any suggestions on another theme, guys? Post em if you got em, as I haven't even begun to think about creating roles yet and so I'm virtually open to anything.

[Undertaker666]

I just read that Wikipedia page and it's quite safe to say that i'm well and truly confuzzled.

[SadisticBlessings]

Originally Posted by Undertaker666

I just read that Wikipedia page and it's quite safe to say that i'm well and truly confuzzled.

Hmmm... perhaps I should clarify the rules a bit, then, as the last thing I want is to scare people away with complicated rules. Here's the general breakdown:

Before the game starts, everyone who signs up gets assigned a role by me... usually either "Town" aligned or "Mafia" aligned. The mafia know who they are and who their allies are, while the townies know nothing other than their own alignment.

The idea is, once per "day" (not an actual day, just the name of the "day phase" or "voting phase") there's a majority vote to decide who will be "killed" by the town. This can be based on logic, intuition, or just guesswork. The town's objective is to kill off all of the mafia aligned players.

After each vote the person who was killed has their identity revealed, and the "night" phase begins. In this phase the mafia is allowed to decide to kill one town aligned player.

The town wins if it kills all the mafia members. The mafia wins when they outnumber the remaining townspeople.

There are also sometimes different alignments... individually aligned killers ("the serial killer") who can win when he's the last man standing, etc. In this game, there won't be any other complications, like two mafias or a 'cult' or anything, as those are for veteran games.

Is that a better explanation than the site offered?

[panix04]

so its a bit like cluedo then?

[Undertaker666]

Originally Posted by SadisticBlessings

Is that a better explanation than the site offered?

Much simpler! How are you going to incorporate the C-Verse though?