Mafia is a game that was invented to be played in person, with playing cards, that has been adapted to be played on the internet, on a forum. (Or in a chat room, but we'll get to that later.) In the most basic of terms, there are two factions in the game of mafia. There are the innocent villagers, and there are the murdering, scumbag mafia. It is the goal of the vllage to find and eliminate the mafia, and the goal of the mafia to kill all the villagers.

The mafia usually is anywhere from 1/3 to 1/4 of the whole population of the game playing. (Example: If there are 20 people total playing a game, you can expect anywhere from 5-7 mafia, usually.) The villagers only know their own role, and nothing else. The mafia are told who their cohorts are. The game is overseen by a Host or Moderator. Here on RV we have a system where if you want to play, you post that you would like to play in the thread that says "Mafia Signup". Once the desired number of players is reached, the Host will PM everyone their roles in the game.

The village wins the game when all of the mafia are dead, and the mafia win when they are the majority left, or when there are an equal number of mafia and villagers. (5 mafia left alive, 4 villagers left alive clinches a mafia win, as they overpower the remaining villagers.)

There are two phases in Mafia: During the Day, everyone can post, and place votes to lynch. There must be a majority vote on a person in order to lynch. (IE, 11/20 votes to lynch said person.) The village wants to find the mafia members and lynch them all to win the game. Here on RV, if you'd like to vote for a person to lynch them, you type their name in boldfaced font, like so: Landerpurex. While typing your post, bold is represented by the first button at the top, the one with a capital "B" on it. You may only vote for one person at a time, so make that vote count. This vote can be changed to another player, however. If you change your mind, you can post "unvote" in bold, or if changing your vote immediately, post your new choice.

Once there is a lynch, or once 72 hours have passed, it is the Night Phase. Keep in mind that the town normally has 72 real-time hours to make a lynch, if they fail to meet the required number of votes to lynch in that time, they waste the day. There is something known as deadline lynching, in which case the person with THE MOST votes dies at the end of the day, whether or not they have the majority. During the night phase, the Mafia and other roles decide what they would like to do. (See "Roles" section for more info.) It is the mafia's job to decide which player to "kill", but it is the Godfather's job to PM the Host that name. The Host reveals that this person has been killed during the next morning phase, and also reveals their role, assuming the kill was successful (see roles). There is usually a 36 hour deadline on the night phase, if a decision is not met in the time allotted, the mafia fails to make a kill or the person with a role fails to use it that night. Once time runs out, or once the mafia and other roles have made their choices, the next day phase starts.

General Rules:
- Roles are revealed upon a player’s death.
- Discussing the game outside of the game is strictly forbidden (unless your role says you can).
- Using evidence from outside of the game is strictly forbidden. This includes quoting private messages from the host, or showing a screenshot of any message. This also includes making bets, such as, “I bet you I’m innocent, or I’ll do something embarrassing”.
- Editing posts is strictly forbidden. Double, triple, quadruple post if necessary.
- All voting must be done in bold font, and no text should be in bold font besides
votes.
- Posting on the topic after death is strictly forbidden. A single obligatory death post is permitted.
- Helping remaining players after death is strictly forbidden.
- Collaborating with other dead players after death is discouraged. Until after this game is over, treat talking about it outside as if you are still alive in the game (and not allowed to talk about it).
- Do not post on the topic during the night phase (unless you are making an obligatory death post)!

Of course, if your role tells you something that contradicts an above rule, then obviously, your role PM overrules. If you aren't sure, ask the host. They will be checking their inbox frequently, and it's their job to answer any questions particular to their game.

Those are the basic rules, they may vary from host to host, or with the nature of the type of mafia game being played. (IE, variants). If there are differences in the rules, the Host will make them known. Otherwise, the above rules are considered to be in effect. If you break the rules, it is at the Host's discretion as to what to do. Punishment may include an instant mod-kill, or may involve you being unable to participate in future games.

Townie: Sometimes known as Villager, Vanilla Villager, Vanilla Townie,or vanilla sheep. There are many names for regular villager, as we like to have themed games here at RV. Your host will make it clear that you are a normal townie. You're the everyday person, no special roles to speak of. You're weapon of choice is your vote during the day, use it wisely. Discussion with villagers outside of the thread is strictly forbidden.

Mafia Goon: You are a regular mafia lackey, with no extra ability. You know who your cohorts are and may communicate with them outside of the game.

Godfather: The Godfather is the leader of the mafia. His job is to send the PM to the Host of who the mafia would like to kill each night. In some cases, the Godfather may come up innocent upon investigation. Also, in some cases, he may be immune to night kills.

Detective: May also be known as the Cop. Here on RV, usually referred to as the Detective. He may investigate one person every night, and in turn, the Host tells them the alignment of that person. A normal (or "sane") detective will get the direct alignment of the person they investigated, unless another role has somehow interfered. The detective is usually Pro-Town.

Variations of the detective:

Naive: All of his results will be quoted as "innocent". Even if he investigates a mafia member, they will come up innocent.

Insane: His results are backwards. If he investigates a mafia member, they will come up innocent. If he investigates a villager, they will come up guilty.

Paranoid: All of his results will come up as guilty, even if he investigates a villager.

Nocturnal or Daytime: They get to investigate during the day instead of during the night. Keep in mind that here at RV there is a running joke about being Nocturnal Detective. If someone is claiming it early on Day one and is immediately accusing someone of being scum, you probably shouldn't take them seriously.

Doctor: The doctor may choose one person to "protect" every night. If the person the doctor is protecting is targeted by the mafia or by another killing role, the doctor saves that person's life and they are not killed. The doctor is usually Pro-Town. Variations are very uncommon on this site, but it may be helpful to know them.

Variations of the Doctor:

Insane: Doctor has 50-50 chance of killing his target instead of saving them.
Paranoid: The doctor roleblocks his target as well as protects him. (roleblock simply means stops them from using an ability that they may have. If a paranoid doctor protects the detective, the detective will be unable to do an investigation that night.)

Naive or Quack: The doctor isn't a very good doctor at all, his protection fails 100% of the time.

Weak: The doctor dies if he protects a non-town person. (If a weak doctor chooses to protect a mafia member, the doctor instantly dies.)

CPR: If the doctor's target isn't attacked, the doctor kills his patient.

Vigilante:This is a townie out for vengeance. The vigilante gets to kill one person every night. Is usually Pro-Town.

Variations of the Vigilante:

Daytime: Simply kills during the day rather than during the night.

Framer:The framer is usually a mafia member. He has the ability to "frame" one villager per night, thus making them look like a mafia member. Example: the framer frames Tweedy. Tweedy is investigated by the detective in the same night, and even though he's innocent, the detective gets guilty as a result of him being framed.

Miller:There is some debate over this role. The Host MAY or MAY NOT tell you that you are the Miller. The miller is essentially a townsperson who looks guilty. If he is investigated by the detective, the detective will get guilty as a result of his role. If he dies, his role as miller is revealed.

Variations of the Miller:


Death Miller: The miller is revealed as guilty even in death. If he dies, his role is revealed as "Mafia Goon" or something along those lines. The nature of the Death Miller is up to the Host, he may appear innocent under investigation.

Roleblocker:The roleblocker can be of any alignment. The roleblocker may choose one person per night to "roleblock". And of course, if the chosen person has a special ability, they may not use it that night. Also, the target may or may not be told that they have been roleblocked.

Mason: Masons are a group of villagers that may talk to eachother outside of the game. They have no function other than that, but being able to talk amongst yourselves and simply knowing the innocence of other masons is an advantage.

Variations of the Mason:


Mafia Mason: Sometimes there may be a mafia mason among the group. There are no cases of this on RV that I know of so far. This is usually the case if you aren't specifically told that your partners are also villagers.

Arsonist:Mafia-aligned role that essentially burns down the house of the person the mafia kills. Thus, the Host does not reveal their role once the Day Phase starts. It is the host's decision if the arsonist learns the role of who they killed.

Janitor:Mafia or town aligned, the janitor can "clean up" one kill PER GAME. Similar to the arsonist, the cleaned up person's role will not be revealed upon the start of the day phase. Contrary to the arsonist, the janitor learns the role of the person he cleaned up, if any.

Serial Killer:The serial killer, or SK for short, is a third party role that acts exactly like a vigilante. He gets one kill per night. The serial killer can usually get a joint-win with the mafia.

Traitor:The traitor is a mafia-aligned role. There are many ways a traitor can be played, depending on the Host. The most common here on RV is that the traitor is told they are the traitor, and may choose to jump sides to the mafia during any given night. Another variant is they aren't told that they're the traitor, and certain conditions must be met for them to join the mafia.

Jester:The jester is a third party role who WANTS to be lynched. If the jester is lynched, they automatically win the game and the game is then over.

Variation of the jester:


Fool: The fool is a jester who has the ability to visit one player every night for fun.

Bus Driver:This role is usually pro-town. The bus driver may choose two people to "drive", or switch, every night. Anything that would have happened to the target that night now happens to his replacement. Suppose that the bus driver switches Jack with Top. The mafia targets Top that night to kill, and instead they involuntarily kill Jack as a result of the switch. The same could be said for a doctor protection as well.

Survivor:The survivor is a normal person, but his stipulation is that as long as he is still alive when the game ends, he wins with the winning faction or person. Hence the name "survivor".

Tracker:The tracker is usually a village-aligned role. The tracker may target one person per night and "follow" them. By doing so, he may be told if a person leaves their house and to who's house they go to. (For example, if the Tracker tracks me and I am the Detective, and I target Bluecoat for investigation, the Tracker will be told that I left my house and visited Bluecoat that night.) This is especially useful if the tracker tracks someone to the house of someone who turns up dead the next morning.

Watcher:The watcher is usually a village aligned role. Contrary to the tracker, the watcher gets to "watch" one person's house every night. The watcher may see that person leave his house, or he may see someone else visit that person at their house.

Spy:Sometimes known as the Stalker. The spy is usually a mafia aligned role, but he may be a town role also. The spy is essentially a detective who works with the mafia, and instead of getting the alignment of a player, they are told if the player has a role. IE, Paidea is the mafia spy and he investigates me, and I'm the doctor. Paidea will be told by the Host that I am the doctor.

Bomb:This role is pro-town. The bomb kills anyone who night kills him, he also kills the person who last votes him in a successful lynch of himself.

Variation:


Suicide Bomber: The suicide bomber can choose to kill anyone, during the night or during the day, depending on the Host's choice. The suicide bomber kills his target, but the suicide bomber dies with the kill, as his name suggests. NOTE The suicide Bomber is usually the role that appears here at RV.

Friendly Neighbor:The friendly neighbor is a town-aligned role. He is allowed to send ONE PM to another player letting them know that he is a townie. The friendly neighbor won't know the alignment of the person he's sending to, sending the message is the extent of his ability.

Paranoid Gun Owner: Is usually a town-aligned role. He instantly and involuntarily kills ANYONE who targets him at night, be it the mafia coming to kill him or the doctor coming to save him.

Saint:The saint is a villager who simply kills whoever casts the final vote on his lynch.


Jailkeeper:Sometimes known as the jailer, he is usually pro town. He sort of "kidnaps" one target per night, protecting them from harm but also roleblocking them. He may or may not find out the identity and/or role of his victim.

Bodyguard:The bodyguard can be town or mafia. If he's town, he may choose to protect one person per night and if that person is attacked, the bodyguard has a 50% chance of killing the attacker. He also has a 50% chance to fail, but thus finding out the identity of the attacker. Another variation is that he simply dies in place of the protected person, which is usually the function of the mafia bodyguard. This role is really up to the discretion of the Host.

Governor:The governor can prevent a lynch during Twilight. (Twilight is when the required number of votes has been reached, but the lynch hasn't been carried out by the Host.) The governor PMs the Host before the lynch is carried out and tells them to prevent the lynch. The governor can be town or mafia aligned.

Bulletproof:Usually pro-town. Is simply a villager that can't be killed at night. MAY be susceptible to stabbings (vigilante weapon, SK weapon, depending on Host choice). Also, his "bulletproof vest" may be a one-shot use.

Commuter:The commuter is usually a town role that can leave the town during the night, thus avoiding being killed. He may also avoid being investigated, protected, etc. The Host may decide that he can't use his role twice in a row. (2 consecutive night phases)

Doublevoter:The doublevoter is exactly what his name implies: he's able to place two active votes. He is usually pro-town.

Nexus:The nexus has a one use ability, and is usually town-aligned. Once per game, he can activate the Nexus, an ability that attracts ALL actions that night to him.

Escape Artist:Has the ability to escape from being lynched ONCE. May be town or mafia aligned.

Witch:The witch has the ability to turn one person per night into a newt. That person will then be unable to post at all during the next Day Phase. The witch is usually aligned with the mafia.

Lyncher:The lyncher is a third-party role who is given the name of a target. His ultimate goal is to lynch this person. He automatically wins if his target is lynched.

Lynchee:The target of the Lyncher role. Is told that he is a vanilla townie.

Poisoner:The poisoner is usually a mafia aligned role. He has the ability to poison another player at night. His target dies a set amount of time later. (one day, three days, at the Host's discretion). The poisoner's ability may be used every night, or it may be used once per game.

Poison Doctor: Usually town aligned. Sole purpose is to dose people with antidote to cure them of poison. May dose one person per night.

Cult Leader:The cult leader is a third party member who chooses one person every night to convert to the cult. He is initially the only member of the cult. The chosen person then becomes a cultist and loses their previous role. If the cult leader tries to recruit a mafia member, or other anti-town role (SK), then the cult leader dies. If the cult leader dies, then another member of the cult may become the new leader, or the cult may simply be unable to recruit from that point on. Also, depending on the Host's taste, the entire cult may die if their leader dies. Similar to the mafia, if the number of cultists becomes the majority, then the cult wins and everyone else loses.

Neighbors: These are masons who "live next to eachother". They are unaware of the alignment of the other members of the group.

Best Friends:Two people who know the identity of eachother, therefore confirming their innocence. Pro-Town.

Siblings: The siblings can be all townies, all mafia, or a mix of both. They are usually a small group (usually 2 for the sake of simplicity), that know eachother's alignment and roles. If one dies, the other/s commit suicide. They may or may not be able to talk outside of the game.

Variation of the Sibling:

Lovers: Exact same as siblings, except they don't know eachother's roles or alignment.

Jekyll and Hyde: One player is a doctor, and the other is a serial killer, but they initially don't know who the other is. If one dies, the other dies as well. They are third party in this instance, and one may be a mafia member or mason as a cover.

Hammer: The last vote cast in a lynch on a person.

Bandwagon: AKA bandwagon vote. Voting for someone without adding anything to the discussion.

Lynch Train: A series of votes against one person.

Scum: Can also be scumbag, mafioso, pirate, wolf...any negative or evil term that simply means a member of the mafia.

Sheep: Similar to bandwagon, though more derogatory. Implies that you are following someone else mindlessly either in what they're saying, but more likely in their vote. Probably both.

Scummy: Something that someone is doing that seems mafia-like.

Scumtell: Something that is accepted as scummy. For example: "Inactivity is a scumtell."

OMGUS: Oh my god you suck. A vote placed for little or no reason on someone who has voted for you. IE, you voted for them because they voted for you.

Roleclaim: When someone claims in the thread to have a role; the act of claiming to have a role.

D1, N1, D2, N2, etc: Day one, Night one, and so on.

Town: Collectively, the group of villagers.

Scumhunt: The act of trying to find mafia members.

Grill: To repeatedly argue against someone in the hopes that they will make a mistake that reveals them as mafia, or makes them look more like mafia.

Inactivity: Someone who isn't posting in the game thread. Poses a big problem to the game. If there's no info being generated, nothing can be done.

Lurking: Purposeful inactivity. Someone who's lurking is checking the thread and keeping up-to-date, but is choosing not to post. It's hard to prove that someone is lurking, because you can't use anything outside of the thread as evidence. (IE, when someone had last logged on.)

Appeal to Emotion: Appeal to emotion is when someone uses the personal feelings of another person to get them to accept a claim rather than logic or real evidence. IE, J Assassin hates Paidea, and I know this, therefor I start a lynch train on him, knowing J Assassin will join in regardless of the quality of information presented.

IGMEOY: I got my eye on you. It simply means that you're going to be watching that person more closely.

FOS: Finger of suspicion. You're suspicious of a person, but you aren't voting for them for whatever reason. Possibly because you've already placed a more valid vote for someone else.

Power Role: A power role is a significant role that has a big impact on the game, usually used to refer to town roles. Examples of power roles include Detectives, vigilantes, etc. For example, Masons are not power roles.

The Metagame:

The metagame, in its simplest form, is "anything beyond the game itself". It is usually used in reference to an action, strategy, or method used by a player based on what they have experienced in past games or what they might experience in future games.

Past metagaming is most commonly used for cross examining a player's style in a current game with their style in a previous game. To a certain extent, everyone has a certain tendency to behave similarly when playing as mafia from game to game. Past metagaming is useful for finding contradictions in a player's game philosophy, discovering changes in reaction to a similar event, and ultimately recognizing subtle differences that can lend support to accusations and counterarguments.

How useful past metagaming can be is dependent on how many games a player has played. The more games a player plays, the more effective using past metagaming is, and the more accurate conclusions drawn from these observations can be.

Future metagaming is a controversial subject because it typically revolves around the idea of strictly performing certain actions or following an exact strategy in the current game to affect the actions and strategies that might be used in future games. As evidenced with past metagaming, the current game does bear on the actions of players in future games. However, the purpose of future metagaming is not to make past metagaming easier, make recognizing scum a simple task, or outlaw specific strategies. The general purpose is to improve the quality of future games by reacting to negative strategies and ploys which reduce the fun from playing mafia. The logical thought behind this is that although many times a villager who says "I'm just a bored townie, go ahead and lynch me see if I care" is actually telling the truth, a mafioso who took advantage of this untreated problem would have a tremendously easy path of avoiding lynches to the end of the game. Therefore, the best thing to do in that situation is to lynch the player. If they are actually a villager, it will hopefully teach them a lesson and they will try harder next game. If they are a mafioso, it reiterates the point that tactless strategies won't earn you any victories.

Future metagaming can also refer to policies, which range from player to player. Whether they will admit it or not, everyone has certain policies about lynching a player or believing a player, since everyone has their own idea of what constitutes a mafioso. A brief example of policy lynching a player would be one who claimed miller after a guilty report was brought forward on them. While not necessarily improving the quality of future games, per se, a player basing their actions on a policy game after game will help them to stay consistent and avoid accusations that spring up on players who mysteriously believe one miller over an other.

How useful future metagaming can be is dependent on how willing players are to take action. If nobody cares about "bored townies", retracting claims, or raging, then these anti-town qualities will linger on and on, until the players acting in this manner are reprimanded.

The metagame is not foolproof. An argument should not completely rely on the metagame, nor should a policy always dictate the course of action. Metagaming is a subjective science and is constantly open to discussion of contrasting viewpoints. Whether or not a player thinks highly of the metagame, it is ignorant to believe it is not important. As soon as you begin your first game of mafia, you have stepped into the metagame.

WIFOM:
Watch this first: [youtube]TUee1WvtQZU[/youtube]
Confused? This highly used, less understood acronym is commonly thrown around by both newer players and veterans. It stand for "wine in front of me" and is an allusion to the above clip. WIFOM refers to any statement which invokes this circular thought process or any predicament designed to be subject to rethinking every possible action and outcome.

The best way to understand WIFOM in mafia is to think about a sample situation:
A cop has claimed. There is probably a doctor. As mafia, who do you shoot? Obviously, you shoot someone besides the cop, as the doctor will be protecting the cop. But as the doctor, you know that the mafia may be thinking that you will protect the cop, and therefore you should protect someone else. What has to be weighed are the different outcomes and the advantages each side stands to gain. If the doctor saves the cop, he loses an opportunity to possibly prevent a kill. If the doctor doesn't save the cop, he takes the risk that the mafia will kill the cop outright (and subsequently deal with accusations that he is not a real doctor). If both sides do what is normal, neither gains a relative advantage. If either side chooses to take the opportunity to gain an advantage, they risk a lot.

A SPECIFIC example is in Mafia 2, Lander and Tweedy were arguing quite intensely throughout the end of Day one through the middle of Day two. The mafia then killed Lander during night two. Did Tweedy, as a mafioso, kill Lander because he was bringing attention onto him? Was Tweedy a villager who was framed to look like mafia? Was Tweedy really mafia, predicting the town would think that he was framed, thus killing Lander anyway?

WIFOM itself is a loose term and has its place in the game. A player who constantly uses WIFOM is doing everyone a disservice, and a player who bases an argument primarily on WIFOM should be scrutinized. Equally, continually dismissing arguments as WIFOM is cause for scrutiny.

Perhaps the best thing to remember about WIFOM is that it is, after all, just a mind game. Neither alignment consistently uses it more than another, and nearly everything, if a player is cynical enough, can be construed as WIFOM. The best course of action when dealing with WIFOM, then, is to build up an immunity to iocaine powder. Lightly speaking, don't dwell on it.

Firstly, be aware that any and all Forum Rules apply when you're playing mafia. Our forum rules can be found here. Make note that there is no flaming, excessive spamming, or personal attacks. Mafia can get frustrating at times, but be a good person and leave the personal attacks out of the game.

When playing mafia, don't hold any grudges outside of the game. IE, if Paidea is mafia and he tricks me and lies to me the entire game, don't be angry about it and/or hold it against him outside of the thread. It's a game, after all.

Listen to your Host, follow any and all rules they lay down. Do not harass them via PM about everything they're doing wrong. It's THEIR game, THEIR flavor. If you are unsure if they're going to be a good host, don't sign up for their game. On that same note, don't ever be afraid to PM them with questions or clarifications.

Here at RV we have an unofficial policy that if you died early on during the last game, that you are essentially overlooked (when I say that, I mean not voted for or nightkilled early on.) for the first day or two the next game. For example, if I died during Night one during game one, the village would be respectful enough to let me live through Day one and the mafia would let me live through Night one during Game two. It wouldn't be very fair if we killed Jackstick Night one of every game he plays, he then never gets a chance to actually play the game for an extended period of time.

Another courtesy is the "Obligatory Death Post", in which a dead player gets one final complaint about the game. This may be anything from "Mafia sucks" to "Village/vig/whoever did this to me sucks". Please, keep concerns at this. If you want to complain about the host, don't do it mid-game, do it after the game has ended, so that other hosts can know what went wrong and when without being rude to the current host.

Lastly, this should go without saying, but be kind to your team in general, and don't reveal information after your in game death. When making death posts, do not reveal any events that have occurred, or your opinions of them. This may (and has) compromise a game.

Town Strategy: First of all, your vote is your greatest weapon, or it can be your very downfall. As a new player, or as any player really, you must learn how to use your vote wisely and in the best interest of the town. Your vote has two main purposes. 1. To eventually lead to the lynch of a target. 2. To generate information. You need to know when each number is appropriate. For example, if there's little real posting or information to go on, you may want to vote for someone to get them talking. The point of that is once that person starts talking, you can then deduce whether they're scummy or not. More often than not, others will start to comment on the discussion as well, and then you get a wealth of information starting to flow. Of course, if the detective comes forward and says Landerpurex is a scumbag, at that point you're voting solely to lynch.

You have to be extra careful with your vote, and your voting patterns. If someone just doesn't strike you as scum, even though everyone else is voting for them, don't vote for them. Then, you look more innocent if that person turns up a townie.

ANALYZE EVERYTHING!!!! Anything that anyone says, come to a conclusion as to whether it's something scummy, something town, or something neutral. Also, never be too eager to try to legitimately vote for someone based on one thing. The key to finding mafia members is finding their mistakes in trying to act like townies, assembling those pieces of evidence, and then making a strong case against the person. Also, when analyzing things, you don't want to dwell on any one thing too hard. As I said, solid conclusions are drawn from the accumulation of evidence.

Be very aware that anything and everything in the game of Mafia can be construed as scummy. Again, it's all about the accumulation of evidence. If someone has claimed detective and Tweedy says "I don't know, guys, he could be lying." that could either be a mafia member trying to cast suspicion onto the detective, or a townie being cautious. However, if you look at voting patterns and Tweedy has an extensive history for voting for villagers, the comment should send up a red flag. Which brings me to my next point.

VOTING PATTERNS!!!! Analyzing voting patterns later on in the game is painstaking work, but it is key. A voting pattern is how any one person has been placing their vote throughout the game. For example, if it's Day five and four villagers have been lynched, and I've placed a vote for all four of them, that makes me look awfully scummy. At the end of the day, the mafia will ALMOST ALWAYS vote for someone who is a villager rather than hold their vote. Also, if there is someone who's been lynched who turns up mafia, you can look at that lynch train and see if there was anyone who withheld their vote. Sometimes the mafia will refuse to vote for one of their own in the hopes that there simply won't be enough votes to lynch them. Also, you can expect the mafia to vote for their brothers late in the lynch train to try and secure their innocence to people looking at patterns. For example, if Paidea has a history of voting for known villagers, and he comes in at the tail end of a lynch of a mafioso, you can still consider him scummy. And again, voting patterns are a very strong source of evidence, but still, they must usually be couple with examples of scumtells that people have committed.

There is a somewhat advanced concept that I will touch on. If you witness someone saying something scummy, you MAY not want to bring that to the attention of the public right away. If someone is carrying on about something and it just isn't sitting right, and you say something about it, they might change their stance or posting style, as they are now alert that you are onto them. Sometimes it's better to let someone carry on and incriminate themselves further before you say or do anything about it.

Remember that as a townie, you aren't all-powerful. You must formulate smart and believable arguments and get votes behind yours if you're starting a train. If someone else has started a train, it's a good idea to point out anything that the town might not know about the person in question at the time.

DON'T TRUST ANYONE. Though you ought to be analyzing most of what people say for your own purposes, don't instantly believe everything everyone else says. Always think for yourself. That's not so say that if there's a lynch going on that you support, don't vote; it simply means come to your own conclusion without getting too caught up in arguments other people are making. Don't just agree or disagree with what someone is saying, ANALYZE IT, and use it in conjunction with other factors. Remember that the mafia will be lying throughout the whole game, and their goal is to try and get the town to lynch eachother rather than the mafia members.

This goes hand-in-hand with the last point. Always keep your mind open to all possibilities. The detective claims to have caught a mafia. He could be lying altogether. He might be insane or paranoid, and you may end up lynching a townie, Etc. Again, dwelling on anything in Mafia is a bad idea, but as a smart player you ought to be aware of all possibilities of a situation in question.

Basically, as a townie, be passive about most things. Use your brain and your vote to find mafia members. Try to avoid spreading confusion amongst the town, or drawing an unnecessary amount of attention to yourself.

Mafia Strategy: You are the dastardly, filthy scum of the town and you want to kill everyone for your own gain.

Your main weapons are your nightkill, talking outside the thread, and sewing chaos during the day with the grace and secrecy of a barefoot ninja.

Nightkill theory: Your nightkill can have one of many purposes. Kill someone who is a direct threat to the mafia as a player. Kill a claimed role. Kill random people in search of a role, or kill someone exhibiting the subtle hints of a role. Kill someone in order to frame someone amongst the town, or to spread confusion among the town. The decisions you make will depend on the situation in the thread as well as who your cohorts are.

TALK TO YOUR COHORTS!!! Get advice from more experienced players, discuss who you think may have a role, discuss anything and everything. The ability to talk to eachother outside of the game is a distinct one.

As a mafioso among the town you want to accomplish two things: Look innocent yourself while getting villagers lynched. The best way to do that is to get into a villager mentality. Find the townies who you'd find suspicious if you were a villager, and make arguments or votes against them. Another great thing that comes from this is that you might oust a role, or even inadvertently lynch a role before anyone can unvote.

Another major step to being a successful mafioso is to distance yourself from your cohorts. Argue with them actively, vote for them, and if a solid train arises GET ON IT EARLY if at all possible. As much as you want to save your teammate, compromising your own "innocence" to the town isn't worth saving your floundering friend.

Devise plans. If you're a strong player, see if anyone is bored or strapped for time. Make a solid case against them, start the train yourself, see the lynch through. As someone who "found a scumbag", you'll nearly have a free pass to the end of the game as long as you don't make any mistakes. You may want to think about falsely claiming a role. If you believe that there's little chance that a certain role is not in the current game, claim it. Be very careful, though. This is dangerous for obvious reasons.

Claim a role to oust the real one. Especially if you claim doctor, ESPECIALLY if you claim doctor and the detective or other power role has already claimed. If the doctor counterclaims, BLAM, you've found the doctor. Surely you will be found out as a liar, but a mafia member for the doctor is a fair trade. If there is no counter-claim, you've got a free ride for awhile.

THE GREAT INACTIVITY PARADOX: Staying inactive can be used as a strategy. If you aren't posting, you aren't slipping at all. However, if you aren't posting, you look suspicious to some degree for not posting. Choosing to lurk is usually a bad idea because a smart detective or vigilante will systematically deal with the inactives if the townies themselves do not.

As a mafioso, watch you ass, make smart nightkill choices, and be careful of everything you say without it looking hashed out. Target townies for less-than-obvious, but still LEGITIMATE, reasons.

Variants:

Variants are Mafia games that either change the gameplay mechanics of the game or are drastically different in how they are played. For instance, in the variant Dethy, the town consists of four Detectives that each have a hidden sanity. Sane, Insane (Results come out backwards), Paranoid (All results are Guilty) and Naïve (All results are Innocent). The single mafia must try to pretend he is one of these Detectives. Normal strategies outlined above will not work in most cases. Instead, every detective should claim with a investigation report, and it should be deduced from the collective reports who each sanity is, and who’s lying.

Variant’s specific rules are usually outlined in their signup topics.

Other examples of variants played in the past on RV are:

Medical Mafia:
1 Sane Doctor
1 Weak Doctor (Dies if Protecting Mafia)
1 CPR Doctor (If target is not being attacked, kills his target)
1 Paranoid Doctor (Protects and Roleblocks target)
1 Quack Doctor (Kills target)
1 Naïve Doctor (Doesn’t actually protect)
1 Nurse (Takes the place of first doctor to die)
2 Mafia Goons

Vengeful Mafia:
3 Vengeful Villagers (Daykill one person when lynched)
1 Mafia Godfather
1 Mafia Goon

No Night Phase
Village wins if Godfather is lynched

Quantum Mafia

No predetermined roles
Every player sends in a night kill and investigation
Results of all players night actions determine roles
Results of all players night actions determine kills

Chatroom Mafia:
Chatroom Mafia games are the same as Mafia games played on the forums, except they are instead played in real-time within the RuneVillage Chat Room. The main difference between 72-hour Days on the forums and (most often) 10-minute Days in Chat is that lynching decisions are usually made on the fly and take time constraints into account, creating a different type of game entirely.

To start a game of Chatroom Mafia, you'll need enough players for an actual game (typically 7 or more) and a Host, as usual. Once everyone is gathered and in Chat, click the drop-down Room selector at the top of your screen and select the "Chatroom Mafia" room. It will ask for a password, which is simply "rv".

Once in the room, the Host will be the manager of the game, and will be able to control when you are able to talk/vote and when you cannot. (A Chat Moderator will have to set the Host of the game.) Roles will be distributed from the Host to the player via Chat Private Messages.

Things work a little bit differently inside the Chatroom Mafia room. When the Host has set the game to Nighttime, you will not be able to speak in public chat, even if you type something. However, everyone will be able to see the Host's words. There are other Host-only commands as well, and a listing of all Chatroom Mafia commands can be seen by clicking here.

The only two commands that a player has to worry about are /vote and /unvote. To vote to lynch another player, you must type "/vote [username]". For instance, casting a vote for Jackstick requires you to type "/vote Jackstick" on a new blank line. Your vote will automatically appear in italicized yellow text, which is a signal to the Host to keep track of your votes. To undo your vote, you can simply type "/unvote" and hit enter without needing to type anything else.[/quote]

Landerpurex
Topsummoner
Jackstick
Jaron

Bluecoat
Paidea
Topsummoner
Jaron
Jackstick
Tweedy
riptide
Axeslinger172
rockrocks