Mafia-/Werewolf-type party games

[Kong Wen]

For those who don't know, Mafia is a game for a group of people where everyone is given a role, either as a member of the Mafia or an innocent civilian. The members of the Mafia know who each other are, but the civilians don't. At night, the Mafia get to choose to assassinate one member of the group. During the day, the group tries to determine who the Mafia members are (with the Mafia members obviously blending into the crowd to mislead them). All of the "gameplay" is done socially by talking, negotiating, and manipulating people.

There are tons of variations with different themes & settings, and usually different roles with different special abilities (like a detective, who can identify whether one person is a Mafia member or not each night).

I usually like these kinds of social strategy games even more than card & board games for party settings. I'm going to be planning a bachelor party later this summer and I'm strongly considering playing a variant of this kind of game, but I'm looking for some advice.

What are your favourite rule sets & variations? What style games have worked the best for you?

[Kiwi the Tortoise]

Some basic advices:

Choose a set of cards which is easy identifiable even from a distance (if the group is larger). I use this one:


All your players should sit at a table or in a circle so everyone can see each other.

As the game master, I suggest that the players give their cards back to you after they know what they play as. Arrange them in order of players in front of you so you can easily show the cards to the Seer/Oracle/Detective.

Agree on handsigns with the players. e.g. the Witch can either save a victim or poison someone during the night. Fingerpoining plus a thumbs up/down does the job.

If you use cards that require picking out certain players (e.g. Amor picks two lovers at the beginning of the game that will die together and have to work as a team) make sure to have some space around the table or in the circle and use something clear to point them out. I tend to touch the pair on the shoulder using a Flyswapper of Love.

Otherwise, make sure to balance out the cards (e.g. at 8 players don't have more than 2 wolves/mafiosi/whatever) and I suggest to step in and put players out of their misery if one side can't win anymore but isn't aware of it yet. Prevents frustration.

[VictorViper]

I'm not sure how relevant this will be (I'm not familiar with either game mentioned), but Bang! Is an excellent and simple role-play card game that gets pretty heated with larger groups (best with 7).

This will tell you what you need to know: http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3955/bang

[Kong Wen]

I'm not sure how relevant this will be (I'm not familiar with either game mentioned), but Bang! Is an excellent and simple role-play card game that gets pretty heated with larger groups (best with 7).

This will tell you what you need to know: http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3955/bang

It sounds like that game is derived from Mafia through a few intermediary steps (with additional roles & rules, which is usually what sets the different variations apart from one another). The original Mafia game isn't played with cards or anything—it's purely social strategy. You should look into it!

[Han Solo]

I've played many games of Ultimate Werewolf and Bang! and I really enjoy both. I have not played Mafia, but it does sound very similar to Ultimate Werewolf. I would recommend Werewolf over Bang!. Werewolf is easier to understand and goes much faster than Bang!. I love that Werewolf is really just like if The Ox-Bow Incident was a game.

[Kong Wen]

It's worth noting that I'm probably not going to bother playing with cards, just roles scratched down on paper, distributed, then tossed out. We probably also won't be playing around a table, since I imagine we'll be in a pool hall or bar or something (hopefully with a private room). I like to encourage moving around, though obviously not when people have their eyes closed.

I may have to look into the rules of some of these later games just to get some hints on basic mechanics (like the best way to start), since the original free-form Mafia kind of leaves that up to the moderator.

Whoever's killed first gets a free drink.

[Kiwi the Tortoise]

Then you should certainly take a notepad with you and find a way to make the life/death status absolutly clear to everyone. Otherwise it will get really messy and rather frustrating to play.
If the people are freely moving it may make the entire non-verbal/eye-contact elements at night somewhat tricky (depending on location).

[Kong Wen]

Secret Hitler (currently on Kickstarter) looks like a good one!