Hobbies And Interests
Rules
Players will be separated into one of two roles: Mafia members and townspeople. The goal of the townspeople is to identify who the Mafia members are, while Mafia members try to "kill" each of the townspeople before they are found out. Gameplay occurs in two stages: nighttime and daytime. During the "night," the host in the role of the narrator instructs players to close their eyes. Then, she tells the Mafia members to "wake up" a person in the circle to "kill" by silently pointing to the person. The narrator will confirm their selection once a consensus has been reached, and then tell the Mafia to "go back to sleep." She will then tell everyone to "wake" and reveal who was "killed" the night before, usually with a flavorful and often humorous story. The person who was "killed" is now out of the game, and should not reveal his identity. The surviving players (including Mafia members) then vote to "execute" someone who they believe is a member of the Mafia. Whoever receives the most votes is also "killed" and removed from the game. Again, he cannot reveal his role. The narrator then tells everyone to "sleep" and nighttime begins again. Play continues until all Mafia members have been eliminated, at which point the townspeople win, or until Mafia members outnumber townspeople, at which point the Mafia wins.
Special roles
In addition to Mafia members and townspeople, a host can also incorporate a number of special roles. For instance, a sheriff, in addition to being a standard townsperson, also conducts special activity during the night cycle. After Mafia members have gone back to sleep and before the townspeople wake up, the sheriff can also point to someone in the circle who will be silently confirmed or denied as a Mafia member by the narrator. The sheriff must then use this information to influence the other townspeople to "execute" a known Mafia member without giving away her identity and welcoming the Mafia to kill her the next night. Other roles include a nurse, who can "save" players from being killed by the Mafia each night, lawyers, who rescue people from execution by the townspeople, mediums, who can discover the secret identities of "dead" players, and any other role a host wishes to include.
Setup
Roles (townsperson, Mafia member or other special roles) are determined randomly by playing cards. The host should assign a role to each card and ensure that there are as many cards as players, and that there is an appropriate distribution of roles. In general, there should be one Mafia member for every three players (i.e. one Mafia per two townspeople), and one special role for every two Mafia members. For instance, a group of 12 should have four Mafia members, two special roles, and six standard townspeople.