Free lesson · Level 1 of 10 · Beginner
Four fouls, and your game is over
A live host can give you a foul, and the count matters: reach four and you leave the table. The ordinary fouls each add one to that count: speaking out of turn, arguing with the host, or gesturing too much. Gesturing counts at any moment of the day, not only during somebody else's minute.
The third foul on your count already costs you something concrete. Your very next turn to speak passes in silence, though you keep your seat and can still nominate someone. Our own table keeps the same count. A fourth ordinary foul removes you for good — and unlike an ordinary vote-out, it takes your last word too.
Some acts skip that whole count and end your game immediately, with no warning at all. Two are easy to fall into on a first evening. Say seat six pulls out a sheriff card mid-argument to settle it. Showing your own card to prove a role is one of them — a non-game way of proving a role, treated the same as an insult. Switching languages mid-sentence to hide what you are saying from part of the room is the other, and it ends the game just as fast.
This is the short version, for your first evening. Read the full ladder — every ordinary foul, every disqualifying one, and how clubs price the third foul differently — once you reach level two.
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), §6.4–§6.7 — the foul ladder; §6.7.14 and §6.7.16: acts that remove a player at once · our rules page