Hi there.

Welcome to Mafia Roles and Hosting, a tips and advice thread for people desiring to create mafia games.

Before we get started on style and types, themes, and number of players, let's take a look at balance. Each section will be followed up by a summary advantage displayed as "TA:___________" or "MA:____________" as well as a rule(s) to learn (RtL:_________) from the setup, which will be compiled at the end of the section.

Vanilla gaming:

3 townies (3T) and 1 mafia member (1M)
This will be a fairly fast game with several possible results. In mafia, the game ends when a mafia member cannot be lynched. This happens when there is 1M and 1T left. In the game above, the town has basically one chance to lynch the mafia member. If they mislynch, the game is over with the mafia winning. This seems unfair to the town, but there are plenty of opportunities to gather evidence. Talking is the most important part of the game, and because people have busy schedules, day one lasts approximately 2 weeks. Day 1 will usually end in a no lynch and mafia will kill someone that night. On day 2, town has a better chance (luck) to lynch the mafia member, and they can look at the relationships between the deceased and the other members. It's a good challenge for all members.

Balance

• RtL1: Because communication is very important for all players given timezones and schedules, give enough time for evidence to filter through. 2 weeks on day one is stardard here, but this is a vanilla game

• RtL2: Anything beyond this setup affects the balance of the game. Even if the amount of players are increased. Town benefits even when simply doubling this number through more contribution, more days with which to examine relationships, etc. At double this number, 6T2M, town can take a hit on night one, incorrectly lynch on day 2, get hit night 3 and then correctly lynch day4, get hit night 4, and correctly lynch day 5. Despite having more people to go up against, and therefore more swaying power during scumhunting, town gets a freebie lynch. In a normal game, a town is capable of correctly lynching on day 2. At which point town have a very distinct advantage on day 3 with a 4v1 game.

• RtL3: Most of your games should be developed along the lines of this setup. Think of it as a template. Any deviation should heavily weigh all the factors. For example, newbie players will not fare very well in 3T1M because they have not developed the insight required. Therefore, if the town has a disadvantage (inexperience), you should move up to the next round type below.

4T vs 1M gives the same potential problem except they can take a risk to lynch on day 1. If they do not lynch on day 1, Then a mislynch on day 2 will cost them the game the same with 3T1M. However, the problem with a game like this is that the town can potentially "guess" the mafia on a whim. Mafia should never be about luck. It's a skill based game.

AT: Free lynch on day 1

• RtL4: Mafia is about skill. Luck should never play a part in it except in rare circumstances. There is no easy balance here because limiting the town's ability (length of day 1 time for conversation) will simply prompt the town to act even more rashly, and therby encouraging a luck based game.

5T1M
Simply out of the question. All balance is thrown out the window. No fun to be had.

AT: Free lynch on day 2, more contributors/POVs

Role based gaming:

Role-based gaming revolves around different roles that townies or mafia have. This includes roles such as cop or doctor. If you are unfamiliar with roles please skip ahead to the next section before reading this.

Theme-based gaming:

Theme-based games revolve around particular themes. These are often the most imbalanced games of the lot for several reasons that we will get into shortly. Theme-based games should NOT be taken lightly, especially if the theme introduces new roles.

Roles:

Basic Mafia Roles:

Compiled Rules and Balance Points.

This could be useful in the future and therefore stickied! 

This will be very helpful If I ever decide to host a game

Basically, what I want to have by the end of this is a point value system that can be reliably used to determine balance.

For example, every role or role section will be worth a certain amount of points, and each player in the game adds to a point level cap.

I have heard the Werewolf version of this game already has a point system made for it.  It has different roles (like, instead of a doctor there might be a person with a "stop mafia kill" one use ability) but it should be somewhat transferable.  Unfortunately I do not know this system or where to find it. 

Also, did you make this stuff up or did you get it somewhere?  If the latter, credit is due.