Armchair Mafioso

March 6, 2007 7:46 AM

In the peaceful Sicilian village of Salem, a dark presence is about to make itself known. For years, the family based crime organization known as the Mafia has been establishing itself in the foundation of the community. Until now, the naive citizens have been unaware of the evil among them. Tonight, however, the Mafia makes its move. Tonight, someone will die, and until the Mafia has eliminated all opposition, the innocent will continue to die. Unless, of course, the Mafia is destroyed(PDF) first...
posted by robocop is bleeding (30 comments total)

Isn't this usually played with werewolves?
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:50 AM on March 6, 2007

It's a card game? We used to play basically the same thing with toy guns (though we called it "Assassin"). I guess the Internet generation gets enough of a visceral thrill just from sitting across from a human being and fondling a real physical object.
posted by DU at 7:55 AM on March 6, 2007

Faint of Butt is in the Mafia! Just look at his posting history! He must be lynched!
posted by yeoz at 7:55 AM on March 6, 2007

Thanks for posting this! I was fascinated by the game when i read about it in the Jonathan Lethem story "The Vision", but i've never had an opportunity to play.
posted by Hlewagast at 7:57 AM on March 6, 2007

Oh, man, DU, I should have worked Assassin/Killer into this somehow. I remember some truly epic games from high school and college, including when someone managed to bribe a professor into performing her hit for her on an unsuspecting student.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 7:58 AM on March 6, 2007

There's also the Detective/Murderer games, where you wander around in the dark until someone is "killed", then try to figure out who it is.
posted by DU at 8:02 AM on March 6, 2007

"the family based crime organization known as the Mafia..."

What is this 'Mafia' you speak of?
posted by owenkun at 8:08 AM on March 6, 2007

Is this like "Assassins"? I mean, "Ass Ass Ins"?
posted by redteam at 8:21 AM on March 6, 2007

We used to play basically the same thing with toy guns (though we called it "Assassin").

To my understanding, Assassin has to deal with running around and shooting people with water/BBs. Mafia is more of a talk-communication game, in which the angel/cop has to persuade other people that certain mafia members are indeed mafia while pretending to be a civilian and not getting killed by the mafia. The mafia have to pretend not to be mafia, while trying not to kill their fellow mafia, and at the same time trying to find the angel/cop. The civilians have to try to kill the mafia members by trying to assess the way they discuss certain people during the day.

It's been a while since I've played this, but I do remember the hilarity and awesomeness involved in convincing people and arguing while maintaining an internal smirk of superiority, because, hey, you're the mafia, and you can kill. I played this once with two groups of people, both who didn't really understand each other's language. That was the quickest and greatest 'bonding' experience I've ever seen.
posted by suedehead at 8:22 AM on March 6, 2007

Oh, and the major difference between Assassin and Mafia is that in the former, you know who your target is. In the latter, you don't, and the fun comes from trying to look through others' poker faces and determining whether they are or not.
posted by suedehead at 8:24 AM on March 6, 2007

Make pasta not war, people...
posted by miss lynnster at 8:25 AM on March 6, 2007

Or just cave in and make mafia pasta...
posted by miss lynnster at 8:27 AM on March 6, 2007

I have had a text tell all about how to play this (my copy is Werewolves) but I have never had enough people to play.
I need to to more parties I guess
posted by ShawnString at 8:28 AM on March 6, 2007

The variant I've played only had townspeople and mafia. The best part was having a good moderator (a.k.a. god) who would make each night's killing into a small story. Also, playing this game in the dark is more fun, since you have a harder time reading people's facial expressions (assuming you can make use of them in the first place).
posted by parudox at 8:38 AM on March 6, 2007

I just lost the game.
posted by unknowncommand at 8:58 AM on March 6, 2007

Also called werewolf.
posted by bonehead at 9:02 AM on March 6, 2007

I used to play this with a bunch of TV / theater actors. I'm an engineer. I got slaughtered.
posted by anthill at 9:31 AM on March 6, 2007

yeoz is very keen to have someone else lynched. Why?

Looks accusingly at yeoz
posted by alasdair at 9:57 AM on March 6, 2007

Hehe. "Night falls in Palermo. . . ."

I just played this two weekends ago. First round is always tough, because the villagers have little information to go on with regards to whom they'll lynch.

Which is high realism, IMO.
posted by bardic at 10:13 AM on March 6, 2007

Mafia is fun the first twenty-five times, but my friends and I kind of killed it. It's really only worth repeat playing if you've got an excellent narrator and a couple pathological liars who will form alliances with the other players and end up stabbing each other in the back.
posted by Saellys at 10:28 AM on March 6, 2007

Everyone's usually fairly- to highly- smashed when we play. I think that helps too.
posted by bardic at 10:33 AM on March 6, 2007

We play The Body Snatchers version of this. In the last round if a Body Snatcher (mafioso) is found they have to, without warning, do that Donald Sutherland hollow-mouthed, lolling-head, scream and pointing finger thing.
posted by tkchrist at 11:51 AM on March 6, 2007

I've never played the mafia version. In Werwolf I am - inexplicably - regarded often with inordinate suspicion.
posted by Wolfdog at 12:22 PM on March 6, 2007

I always get lynched because I talk too much. Except for those times that I wise up and shut my mouth, at which point I get lynched for being suddenly, suspiciously quiet.

The point is I always get lynched.
posted by redhanrahan at 12:48 PM on March 6, 2007

Among my peers (and more importantly, young children) I am regarded as a fantastic Mafia narrator. Just so you know, in case anyone wants to play at a meetup.

But it seems really... how should I say this... lame as hell to play online.
posted by kyleg at 1:56 PM on March 6, 2007

Huh. I’ve never heard of this game.
....AND NEITHER HAVE YOU.
posted by Smedleyman at 2:07 PM on March 6, 2007 [1 favorite]

I remember when I was in college a guy playing assassin snuck into my friend Sam's bedroom while he was asleep. Sam is not the kind of person you want to wake up under the best of circumstances, and apparently he picked this guy up by the neck before he realized the squirt gun was just a toy. No one was hurt, and the assassin forgave him. Needless to say, Sam didn't sign up for any more assassin games.
posted by BrotherCaine at 3:46 PM on March 6, 2007

I suggest that we ought to lynch robocop-is-bleeding on spec for posting this.

Take note: For years, the family based crime organization known as the Mafia has been establishing itself in the foundation of the community. Until now, the naive citizens have been unaware of the evil among them. Tonight, however, the Mafia makes its move.

If there is any better interpretation, I'd like to hear it.
posted by UbuRoivas at 5:45 PM on March 6, 2007

The werewolves version is fairly fun, especially if you have a narrator who will bring a CD of music and sound effects, as well as assorted props. The Assassin thing is a lot closer to T.A.G.: The Assassination Game.
posted by adipocere at 6:13 PM on March 6, 2007

I played some sweet games of this when I was teaching english in Austria. fantastic bonding game.
posted by gergtreble at 8:48 PM on March 6, 2007