Free lesson · Level 1 of 10 · Beginner
Three names from the first player shot
The first player shot at night is woken briefly, takes the mask off, and gets twenty seconds to name three seats they believe are against the town. Then that player has one last minute to speak and is gone for the evening, so the room keeps the three numbers and loses the person who chose them.
So consider what those three numbers are worth. Somebody watched a full day, formed an opinion, and now has no reason left in the world to lie about it. For instance, the numbers are seats two, five and eight: that is the cleanest read anybody at this table will get all game, and it arrives before the first speech of day two.
Now the part beginners miss about those numbers. Your turn — what do you watch for the rest of the evening? Not the list itself, but what happens around it: seat five spends the whole day explaining why the list was random, seat two ignores it completely, and somebody else agrees with every word of it.
That reaction is often worth more than the three numbers were, because the list is one player's opinion while the reaction to it is nine players' behaviour. So write the three numbers down the second you hear them, and mark next to each one the reaction: who defended it and who let it pass.
One more check before you count on all this: the move does not always happen. If the day-one vote already removed two or more players, it is gone — nobody is woken and no names are asked for. So look at the vote count first, and mark the reaction next to each of the three numbers whenever the move does come.
*This move belongs to the player killed on the second night, so a night with no shot means nobody gets it at all. Clubs differ on the rest of the fine print — ask your host before your first game.*
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Source: The rules of Mafia (Russian, 1 February 2026), §4.5.9 and §8.2.5 — the best move: twenty seconds, three numbers; no best move after two or more leave on day one · our rules page