New Player Guide
Welcome to MafiaCentral!
We've all been here. First time jumping into an online mafia game, and it's confusing. This guide is here to point you in the right direction. If something isn't clear, or we managed to miss something entirely, feel free to ask questions in the
forums.
Basic Rules
In its simplest form, Mafia consists of two sides: the
Mafia, and the
Town. The Mafia's goal is to kill the innocents, while the Town's goal is to kill the Mafia. Normally, the town outnumbers the mafia 3:1
At the beginning of the game, the
Moderator will secretly send everyone their role. The Mafia will know each other, while (in the basic game) everyone else will only know their own role.
The game has two phases. Usually the first is
Day. During Day, the Town must choose someone to Lynch; they are trying to eliminate the Mafia, but the Mafia can lead them astray by casting suspicion elsewhere. Generally, players will vote for someone they think is Mafia (the Mafia will vote so that they seem to be doing this as well, and might even vote for each other to confuse the Town); when a player gets a majority of the votes, they are lynched. Their role is revealed by the Moderator, and
Night begins.
During Night, the Town can not communicate, but the Mafia can discuss and choose someone to murder. After the Moderator has received the name of the victim, the Moderator reveals the dead player, and it is once again Day.
The game alternates between
Day and
Night until either the Mafia are eliminated, or the Mafia have killed everyone else.
Basic Roles
The above suffices for a Vanilla game, but most games of MafiaCentral have roles other than just Mafia and Townie. These roles have additional abilities (which are usually used during the Night, though there are some Day abilities as well). The most common are listed here.
- Cop - Each night, the Cop can investigate one player (by sending their name to the Moderator), and finds out whether that player is Mafia or not. The Cop is on the Town's side.
- Doctor - Each night, the Doctor can choose one player to protect (by sending their name to the Moderator). If the Mafia (or anyone else) tries to kill that player, they will fail. The Doctor is on the Town's side.
- Vigilante - Each night, the Vigilante may kill another player (by sending their name to the Moderator). The Vigilante is on the Town's side.
- Serial Killer - The Serial Killer (often abbreviated as SK), like the Vigilante, may kill another player each Night (by sending their name to the Moderator). However, the Serial Killer is not on the Town's side or the Mafia's side. The Serial Killer wins when everyone else is dead.
There are many variations on the above roles that will often appear in more complicated games; for more information, visit the
Roles page.
Game Types
- Standard - Standard mafia games follow the basic rules of mafia. 25% of the players are normally assigned mafia roles, while the rest are towns with an optional serial killer. Many other role variants may be thrown into the mix, but the basics are always there: cop, doctor and vigilante. A majority lynch is always necessary, and night typically lasts no more than 24 hours.
- Speed - Speed mafias are built for, well, speed. A smaller group of players is required (usually 10), and Days and Nights are both limited to 24 hours. These games may not hold true to the 3:1 ratio. In fact, there may often be no mafia family at all. Many times, speed mafias will follow infection gameplay. A majority lynch is usually still needed to end the day before the 24 hour limit. At the end of the Day period, however, the player with the most votes will be lynched.
- Free Form - Free form mafias are games that only borrow a few aspects of traditional mafias. The most common thread between the different games is the need for a majority vote, although this is always up to the moderator. Free form games are usually innovative, with interesting twist and roles that have not been seen before.
Useful links
This is a collection of other pages in the wiki that might well be helpful to look over.
Updated information RSS of this wiki