The whole guide
How a mafia
table works
Ten players. Three of them are lying, and nobody wears a badge. The town votes once a day; the mafia kill once a night. That is the entire game — everything else is reading people, and that part can be learned.
⚠️ This page is the map, not the territory. It says what happens and who is at the table. Two ways on from here go deep: who you actually meet, and how a club talks without talking.
The table
Ten seats. A don, two mafia, a sheriff and six civilians — the format a real club plays. The three black cards know each other from the first second. Nobody else knows anything.
The sheriff checks one player a night and learns whether they are black. It is the only hard fact the town ever gets; everything else at the table is a reading of a person.
The don checks one player a night too, and learns exactly one thing: is this the sheriff. He already knows his own two partners, so six of his seven possible answers are worth nothing at all — which is why a don who has been checking all game makes the most convincing false sheriff at the table.
A round
Day. Everybody speaks in turn, names go up, and the town votes. One player leaves. At a tournament table, their card stays hidden; in bot practice, their role stays hidden during play and all roles appear in the result after the game ends.
Night. The mafia kill one player. The sheriff checks one. The don looks for the sheriff. Nobody speaks — which is why a club uses its hands.
The town wins by voting out all three black cards. The mafia win when their numbers match the town's. Every day is one vote, and a vote spent on a civilian is a vote the mafia did not have to earn.
The chapters
Two ways on, both about the part that is not in the rules.
And then the school
Everything above is what happens. What decides games is which reads are worth acting on — and almost nobody knows, because almost nobody has counted.
Open the School for short lessons. No sign-up needed; progress is saved under a guest ID linked to this browser.