Mafia, in its simplest form, is played by two teams: the mafia and the innocents. This live game requires a non-participating moderator to run the game, and identities are assigned to players by handing out cards. At the onset of the game, every mafia member is informed of their teammates' identities. Conversely, the innocents only know the quantity of mafiosi in the game and stay clueless about individual roles.
The game alternates between two phases, night and day, until all mafiosi have been eliminated or the mafia outnumbers the innocents.
Some players may be assigned special roles with unique abilities. The common special roles include:
Detective - An innocent player who can determine the team of one player every night.
Doctor - An innocent player who can shield a player from being eliminated every night. However, this ability is applicable only once in each game.
Barman - A mafia member who can secretly counteract the effect of another role's ability every night.
A good practice is to make approximately <one-third> of the players mafia.
In this phase, all players close their eyes. The moderator guides all members of the mafia to open their eyes and recognize their team members. The mafia members silently select a "victim" by signaling their target and expressing unanimity. Afterwards, they close their eyes again.
Other roles with nightly actions also follow a similar procedure. For the detective, the moderator may gesture - by nodding or shaking their head - to indicate the target's innocence or guilt.
During the night, some players may tap gently to camouflage the sounds made by gesturing.
This phase begins as the moderator prompts players to open their eyes and announces who was eliminated in the previous night. Discussion follows among remaining players. At any point in time, a player can accuse someone of being a mafia member and provoke others to vote to lynch them. If more than half the players agree, the accused person is removed, and the night phase ensues. If not, the day phase continues until a lynching transpires.
Certain rules reveal the roles of eliminated players, while others do not. Regardless, dead players cannot attempt to influence the rest of the game.
Considering players get more freedom to strategize, the day phase generally stretches longer than the night phase.
For more game variants and extra roles, please visit: Mafia Wiki.