The Game

This game is about crime, murders and the Mafia. People in a town will have to fight to survive continuous Mafia crimes. In every round of the game, somebody will be murdered and everybody will have to try to achieve an aim -- survive, plus: some will try to identify who the murderers are, and some will work against this!

Because it is a stationary game, you can play it indoors. It’s a great game to play in class. The more people that play, the more fun it is.

People sit forming a circle. One card is handed out to each of the players by the person conducting the game, hereafter the Judge. The card will indicate which role the player will have in the town. Nobody will know what role the others have. There are various roles: The Godmother, the Mafia or the members of the Mafia, the Citizens, the Police Officer, the Nurse, the Porkies, the Gay/Lesbian, the Witch/Wizard.
 
Next, the players will have to close their eyes while the Judge summons each of the group members to court. When these people hear their names, they should open their eyes. They will have to communicate with the Judge in silence, by gestures. For example, imagine the Police Officer is summoned. Then the Judge will make a question, “Who do you think is the murderer?” and the Officer will point in silence to his or her suspect so the Judge knows.

All of the different characters will be called out, and after that, everybody will open their eyes when the Judge says so. The Judge will announce who was murdered. That person will be out. (But that person’s spirit might be summoned later on by the Witch/Wizard, for some cross-examining!) After that, everybody will start making accusations. People will accuse other people, randomly, or because they think they have a good reason for doing so. The Judge will always ask them to explain why they suspect that person committed the crime. And the suspect will be asked to defend him or herself. The people who have the task of creating confusion, e.g. the Porkies, will also speak whenever they want.

In the end of this first round, the town will vote who is responsible for the crime, and the suspect with a higher number of votes will be out, i.e. put in jail, which is equivalent to being dead. The Judge will reveal then whether the town inhabitants were right or wrong.

A second, third, fourth… round will ensue, until there is no living being in the town, or until the Mafia people are all arrested or dead.

Vocabulary on Cards

Poker cards have 4 suits: spades, hearts, clubs and diamonds.
Then, you can get an Ace, a K (King), a Q (Queen) or a J (Jack), or any number from 2 to 10.

Equivalences

The Godmother: Ace of Gold or Ace of Heart
The Mafia Members: Aces
The Nurse: 10 or Jack
The Police Officer: The King of Gold or Heart
The Porkies: The Knights or the Queens
The Gay: 2 of Gold or 2 of Hearts
The Witch/Wizard: 5 of Gold or Hearts
Citizens: From 2 to 10
The Goody Dead: Any even card
The Baddy Dead: Any odd cards

One more thing: the Judge can pick which card to give out to each of the players!

Order for calling people to court

Mafia and Godmother: when the Judge calls them out, they’ll all have to agree on who their victim is by pointing in silence. In this way, they’ll “kill” that victim. When the court case is held, they can betray each other by lying or by trying to convince people that any other of them is to blame. The Mafia members will not know who the Godmother is.

The Nurse: when the Judge calls him or her to open her eyes, he or she will have to guess who the victim is by pointing at him or her. If it turns out that the guess was right, he or she will have saved the victim’s life. The group will know at the end of the round.

The Police Officer: when the Judge calls him or her to open her eyes, he or she will have to guess who one member of the Mafia (including the Godmother) is by pointing at him or her. The Judge will nod or shake his or her head, so that the Police Officer knows if that’s correct.

The Gay/Lesbian and the Porkies will be summoned next. This will only happen in the first round: they’ll open their eyes when summoned to see who they all are. But they won’t know which one of them is the Gay/Lesbian.

The Witch/Wizard: He /She will be able to talk with the dead. The narrator asks this character if she or he wants to ask somebody who got murdered who the mafia is. The Witch or Wizard will only be able to talk three times.

The Goodies and the Baddies among the Dead: If the person who got murdered has an even number on his or her card, this person will be a goody, so if the Witch or the Wizard asks this person about the Mafia, he or she will tell the truth, by pointing at a mafia member. Similarly, if the person has an odd number, he or she will be a baddy and will therefore lie to the Witch or the Wizard.

Next the Judge will tell everybody to open their eyes, and will announce who the victim is, supposing the Nurse did not manage to save him or her. A round of accusations follows. Then people will vote who they think the murderer is and the person with most votes will be out. The Judge will say if that person was a member of the Mafia or not. After that, a second round of closed eyes will follow, and so on.

Some more information on the characters

The Godmother: She’s the main character. She can tell the truth or (mostly!) lie. She’ll try to kill everybody and stay alive. She will be assisted by the mafia members. Together, they will decide who dies in each round. But she will be able to change her mind on that. In this case, she’ll have to signal to the Judge, once they are asked to close their eyes again after choosing their victim, and point to her true victim.

The Mafia members: They work for the Godmother, but they have never seen her. They can lie. They kill and they have to find out who the Godmother is, in case she decides to betray them!

The Citizens: all the players who get cards which are not the K, Q or J. They cannot lie, and need to find out who the members of the Mafia are, including the Godmother, so as to survive and make justice!

The Police Officer: He or she needs to catch the members of the Mafia, and cannot lie.

The Nurse: He or she will try to save people attacked by the Mafia, and cannot lie.

The Porkies: These are the less moral characters of all. They know who the Godmother and the Mafia members are, and they never tell the truth! They are supposed to help the Mafia, but their main interest is saving their own asses, so they can also betray them. Sometimes the Judge with make them face a Test and if they fail it, they will be out.

The Gay/Lesbian: This is the most moral character, who never lies. He or she will know who everyone is except the Mafia members, but cannot tell, which means, this person cannot accuse anyone ever. When summoned by the Judge, he or she will point to the person he or she loves. Thereafter, this person will do his or her best to keep that person alive. If his or her beloved dies, he or she will die too.