How to Play Mafia (the Party Game): Rules, Roles and a No-Cards Version

Here is how to play Mafia, the party game of secret killers and loud accusations, for a group of 4 to 20 in one room. A few players are secretly the mafia. Every night they choose one player to kill. Every day the whole town argues, then votes one suspect out. The town wins when every member of the mafia is dead. The mafia win once they equal or outnumber everyone else.

Mafia is the same game as Werewolf, with a different story. This page gives the rules, a table of the matching roles, and three ways to play without cards. The rules here are the ones the Wolf Village app runs, where the mafia are werewolves.

Play Mafia on your phones tonight: Wolf Village runs it with werewolves

Mafia in one minute

1. Choose a moderator. One person doesn't play. They run the night and keep every secret. On phones, the host's phone does this job, so everyone can play.
2. Deal the roles in secret. Each player looks at their own role and hides it.
3. Night falls. Everyone closes their eyes. The moderator wakes the mafia, who open their eyes together, see each other and silently agree on a victim. Then the detective learns whether one player is in the mafia, and the doctor protects one player.
4. Morning comes. Everyone opens their eyes, and the moderator tells who died. The dead are out, and they stay silent from now on.
5. The town talks, then votes. Accuse, defend yourselves and bluff: lying is allowed. On the count of three, everyone points at a suspect. The player with the most votes is out.
6. Night falls again. Repeat until one side wins.

Mafia and Werewolf are the same game

Werewolf is Mafia with a different story: werewolves instead of the mob, a village instead of a town, and a seer instead of the detective. The rules underneath are the same. A hidden team kills at night, and everyone votes by day. So a group that knows one game can play the other at once.

Groups name these roles in many ways. English Wikipedia lists the police among the detective's other names, and the guardian angel and the bodyguard among the doctor's. (Wikipedia, read 10 November 2026.)

Werewolf versions add more roles, such as the witch, the hunter and Cupid. They work the same in either story, and each one is explained in the complete rules.

Where Mafia comes from

Mafia was devised by Dimitry Davidoff, a psychology student at Moscow State University, as a classroom activity for the high-school pupils he taught. Sources give 1986 or 1987. In Davidoff's own account, it spread to dormitory parties, other departments and summer camps. International students he taught in 1989–90 probably took it abroad. In the US it is documented in 1997. (Andrew Plotkin's page, with Davidoff's account; Wired, 2010.)

Andrew Plotkin learned Mafia at the 1997 National Puzzlers' League convention. His page sums up the game he learned: "Two Mafia gangsters, one Knight Commandant, and everyone else innocent citizens." That version already had its investigator, the Knight Commandant. Plotkin gave the game the werewolf theme, and the seer took the investigator's place. (Plotkin's page, the primary source; Wired.)

So the Mafia Plotkin learned had three kinds of player: the mafia, one investigator and the citizens. There is no doctor in that list. Wolf Village's Basic setup adds one. To play the 1997 way in Wolf Village, with 5 players or more, pick Basic and tap Customize. Set two werewolves, keep the seer and switch the doctor off (Basic deals the doctor from 7 players). The full story, and the versions played today, are in where Werewolf comes from.

How many mafia for your group

Deal about one member of the mafia for every five players: 1 for 4 to 6 players, 2 for 7 to 10, 3 for 11 to 16 and 4 for 17 to 20. That is the number of werewolves Wolf Village recommends for this mix. Its Basic setup deals exactly the mix below, and the game rates it Balanced at every count from 4 to 20.

The setup tables in the rules give the count for every size, and bigger mixes with more roles.

A night, step by step

With a moderator, the night goes in this order. The words in quotes are Wolf Village's narrator lines, with the werewolves turned back into the mafia.

1. Everyone sleeps. "Night falls on the town. Everyone, close your eyes."
2. The mafia open their eyes together and silently agree on a victim: "Mafia, open your eyes. Silently agree on a victim." They point at that player, then close their eyes. They can't choose one of their own. If they disagree, the player most of them chose is the victim, and chance breaks a tie.
3. The detective points at one other player and learns whether they are in the mafia: "Detective, open your eyes. Choose a player, and learn whether they are in the mafia." Answer with a thumb up for yes and a thumb down for no. The detective can't check themselves.
4. The doctor points at one player to protect tonight. In Wolf Village's Basic setup the doctor may protect themselves, but not the same player two nights in a row, unless the host changes the doctor's switches under Customize.
5. Morning. "Everyone, open your eyes." If the doctor protected the victim, nobody dies: "The mafia attacked in the night, but the doctor saved their victim. Nobody died." If not, the victim is out.

The kill and the doctor's protection take effect only at dawn, so a detective the mafia chose tonight still gets their answer. If the roles of the dead stay secret, keep calling a role whose player has died, so the silence gives nothing away. For every word of a longer night, with more roles, see the narrator script.

A day: the talk and the vote

1. The news. The moderator tells who died. With the house rule Reveal the roles of the dead on, as Wolf Village has it by default, the moderator also says what they were. With it off, a dead player's role stays secret until the game ends.
2. The talk. Share your suspicions, defend yourselves and bluff if you must. Wolf Village's discussion timer gives 3 minutes by default, or 2 or 5 minutes, or Off for no limit. "Time is up. It is time to vote."
3. The vote. On the count of three, everyone points at a suspect. The player with the most votes is out. On a tie, talk some more and vote again, or let everyone live: "The town could not agree. Nobody leaves today."
4. The dead stay silent. Once you're out, give no hints of any kind. You can stay and watch.

How to win. The town wins when every member of the mafia is dead. The mafia win once they equal or outnumber everyone else, so two mafia and two townspeople left is a win for the mafia.

How to play Mafia without cards

Cards only deal the secret roles, and three other things do the same job. Each is explained in full in how to play Werewolf without cards.

• A deck of playing cards. Use the same cards as for Werewolf: a king for each member of the mafia, the Queen of Diamonds for the detective, the Ace of Hearts for the doctor and number cards for the townspeople. Take out one card per player, shuffle and deal face down.
• Paper slips. Tear one slip per player, all the same size. With the same pen, write a big M for each member of the mafia, D for the detective, a cross for the doctor and T for each townsperson. Fold every slip the same way, and draw them from a hat.
• Phones. Each phone shows its player's role in secret, and the host's phone is the moderator. See the next section.

With cards or slips, keep yours hidden until you die. Then show it, if your group reveals the roles of the dead.

How to play Mafia on your phones

Wolf Village runs Mafia with werewolves. Only the words differ: the werewolves are your mafia, the seer is your detective, and the doctor is the doctor.

1. The host creates a game on their phone, in the browser. Nothing to install.
2. Everyone joins with the four-letter code or the QR code on the host's screen. Joining is free, and players need no account. On Shared phones, one phone or a few are enough: add each player who has no phone by name, with Add a player without a phone, and everyone takes their secret turn on the nearest phone.
3. The host picks Basic, the mix from the table above. A new host's game starts with it. Once at least 4 players are in, the host taps Deal the roles.
4. Everyone checks their role in secret. The werewolves also see who the rest of the pack are.
5. The host's phone is the moderator. It speaks every line in a recorded voice. With Voice narrator, everyone closes their eyes and the phone calls the roles one by one, as a moderator would. With Everyone at once (called Pass the phones on Shared phones), nobody closes their eyes. Every living player takes a secret turn, townspeople too, so nobody can tell who has a power.
6. By day, the town talks and votes by pointing, in the same room. The phone records the result and announces the winner.
7. The host plays too. With I'm playing too on, the host gets a role like everyone else, so nobody has to sit out as the moderator.

Play Mafia on your phones tonight: Wolf Village runs it with werewolves

Rules groups argue about

Mafia has many house rules. Here is how Wolf Village settles the usual questions, so your table has one answer.

• Can the doctor save themselves? Yes, in Basic. The host can switch off Doctor can protect themselves under Customize.
• Can the doctor protect the same player two nights running? Not by default. The host can switch on Doctor can repeat under Customize.
• What does the detective learn? Only whether the player is in the mafia, nothing else about them.
• The mafia can't agree. The player most of them chose is the victim, and chance breaks a tie.
• Can the mafia kill one of their own? No. Their victim is always someone outside the mafia.
• The vote is a tie. Talk some more and vote again, or nobody leaves today.
• Do the dead talk? No. They stay silent, with no hints of any kind.
• Is two mafia against two townspeople a win? Yes. Equal numbers are enough for the mafia.

Play Mafia on your phones tonight: Wolf Village runs it with werewolves