Free lesson · Level 1 of 10 · Beginner
The evening has a rhythm, and it repeats
The evening runs in a loop. Each player gets a minute, the minutes go round the table in order, and anybody may put a name up while they are speaking. Then the table votes, whoever collects the most hands leaves, and the night begins.
That vote is the town's only weapon, so it is worth knowing the one day it does not fire. On the first day, if only one name is put up, there is no vote at all, and that player stays. Then comes the night, which belongs to the other side. The three choose one player to remove, their leader hunts for the sheriff, the sheriff checks somebody, and not a word is said through any of it.
Beginners treat the morning as bad news and let it pass. Say two players spent yesterday attacking seat six, telling the table "seat six is hiding something" — and this morning seat six is the empty chair. The three do not shoot their own, so seat six was on your side, which means those two spent a whole day pushing somebody innocent.
That is the cheapest information the game ever hands you, and it arrives before anybody has spoken. So open every day with the question that answers itself: why that person and not one of the other nine? Ask in your own minute who was pushing the player who died last night.
In the school: one idea per lesson, its questions, and a table or a puzzle to try it on.
Open this lesson in the school — free
Source: The rules of Mafia (Russian, 1 February 2026), §4.3.1, §4.4.1 and §4.4.10 — one minute each, the vote, and day one with a single name has no vote · our rules page