How to play Mafia (sport mafia rules)
Mafia — often called sport mafia at a club table — seats ten players: seven for the town, three against it, and one full minute each to speak. What follows is the whole game, in one page, sourced to the same lessons the course teaches.
The rules · Learn it free · After level one
How a table of ten works
The deal. Ten players sit down: seven play for the town, three play against it and already know each other. One town player is the sheriff, checking one player's side once a night; one of the three is the don, checking whether one player is the sheriff. The other six town players and two mafia have no night ability at all.
The night order. Night one is silent and removes nobody — it exists only for the three to agree how they will choose a target. From night two on: the table sleeps, the three pick one player to remove, the don checks a player, and the sheriff checks a player — one question each.
The day. Each player gets one full minute nobody may interrupt. To put a name up for a vote, a player says exactly “I put up player number ___ for a vote”; the judge answers “Accepted”, and only then does the name exist on the table. On day one, if only one name went up, there is no vote at all.
The vote and the tie ladder. Names are voted on in the order they were nominated, and whoever collects the most hands leaves. A tie gives each tied player thirty more seconds, then a re-vote between just the two; three ties running, the table votes on removing both, and only a majority sends them both out.
The last word and the best move. Whoever leaves gets a full minute to speak; under tournament rules their card is never shown, so nothing is confirmed until the game ends. The first player shot at night gets twenty seconds, mask still on, to name three suspects — only that player gets this move, and asking anyone for help forfeits the reward. Naming all three correctly is worth seven tenths of a point on a rating; naming exactly two is worth half a point.
Fouls. A foul is anything that speaks outside a player's own minute — voice, hand or body. Three fouls cost the next turn to speak; a fourth removes a player from the table, with no last word. An insult or a swear word skips the ladder entirely and removes a player on the spot — no warning, ever.
How the game ends. The town wins only by voting out all three — no shortcut, no credit for finding two. The three win simply by surviving until their numbers equal everyone else's; a night that removes nobody, or a day that wastes a vote, closes that gap for free.
That is every rule a first game needs. Read the hand-signs guide for how a real club runs it without a word.
What the free first level teaches
Level one — “Your first table” — is free in full: 37 sessions, no card, no account wall. 24 of them teach a new idea; the rest are the games that make it stick.
- Ten people, and three of them are lying — Three players at your table know who their partners are, you and six others know nothing, and every hard thing about this game grows out of that one gap.
- Nine bots, and what this table is for — This table deals nine bots and you, the same way a real club deals a table, so the habit you build here is the habit you bring there.
- Ten levels, and how one closes — The course is ten levels of short sessions, and each level closes on three things at once — most of its sessions passed, one real game played, and a mixed final check.
- Who is actually sitting there — Seven of the ten play for the town and three play against it, and exactly one player on each side gets a private question to ask at night.
- What each card can actually do — Only two players at the table are asked a question at night, and each of them learns exactly one thing.
- The evening has a rhythm, and it repeats — The evening runs in a loop — a day when everybody talks and votes, then a night when nobody speaks — and every loop hands you one new fact for free.
- The first night, before anything has happened — The game opens with one silent night where nobody is removed, and then one round of talk.
- How each side wins — The town wins only by voting out all three, while the three win simply by surviving until their numbers match everybody else.
- A name, then a hand — Anybody may put a name up during the day, the table then votes on the names in the order they arrived, and a hand that stays down counts for the last name called.
- When the votes split evenly — A tie gives each tied player another half minute and then a second vote between just the two of them, and that half minute is where the tie is won or lost.
- A tie that repeats is settled all at once, not name by name — When a re-vote ties again on the exact same names, the table stops voting on individuals and asks one yes-or-no question: does a real majority want every one of them gone at once?
- Four fouls, and your game is over — A judge can give you a foul, and four of them end your game — three ordinary ones cost you a turn, two specific ones end it on the spot with no warning.
- The four sentences a new player needs — A first-time player freezes at the table not because mafia is hard, but because the room expects four exact phrases nobody explained — nominate, end your turn, address the judge, and hold your vote.
- Three questions to ask before your first game — Every club plays a slightly different game, and three short questions remove almost all of the confusion.
- Your first game: what to actually do — Name one player and give one reason — that is a complete first game, and it is enough.
- Remember the table without a single note — A written record rarely survives a real table, but a seat already known by heart does — hang one fact on each chair, and test the hook a few seconds after every speech.
- Reading a player by their normal, not by one quiet round — The same nine kinds of player show up at almost every table, and a quiet round means something different for each one — read the kind before you read the silence.
- Leaving the table is still a move — Whoever is voted out or shot gets a full minute to speak, and under tournament rules their card is never shown.
- Three names from the first player shot — The first player removed at night gets twenty seconds to name three players they believe are against the town.
- When there are more than four cards — Many clubs add a role or two, and the extras are usually about protecting somebody or acting alone.
- Your hands can foul you before you say a word — At a real club table people talk with their hands too, and the first rule is simple: hands moving outside your own minute count as excessive gesturing, and that is a foul.
- Reading a seat number off a hand — A number held up at chest height names a seat, and because one open palm always means five, anything above five takes two hands.
- Each of the four cards has a hand sign — Each of the four cards has its own hand sign, and a sheriff who comes out often shows the sign as well as saying the word.
- An English-speaking table plays a different game — Most English mafia writing describes a version played in text over several days, so its vocabulary only half fits a live table.
After the free level
Everything past level one sits behind one subscription — the rest of the course, and the coach report on every game after your first of the day. One full report a day stays free, for ever.