The idea in one paragraph

Every player is secretly dealt a role. Most are ordinary citizens; a few are Mafia who know each other. The game alternates between night, when the Mafia secretly pick a victim and special roles act, and day, when everyone talks it out and votes one suspect off the table. The town wins when every Mafia member is gone. The Mafia win when they equal or outnumber the remaining town.

Setup: players, roles and the deal

You need at least 5 players; Mafiagg supports up to 25 in one room. Roughly 28% of the table is Mafia, so a 7-player game has 2 Mafia and a 12-player game has 3. Roles are dealt automatically and secretly: you see your own card, and Mafia members see each other.

The bigger the lobby, the more special roles enter the deck. On Mafiagg the Detective and the Doctor are in every game (5+ players), the Bodyguard joins at 11 players, the Vigilante at 14, a second Detective at 20 and the Jester at 25. The Mafia side grows from a lone Killer to a full crew with a Godfather, Framer, Consigliere and Silencer.

• Town: Citizen, Detective, Doctor, Bodyguard, Vigilante, Second Detective
• Mafia: Killer, Godfather, Framer, Consigliere, Silencer
• Neutral: Jester — wins alone if the town votes them out

Night phase

The room goes dark for 35 seconds. The Mafia wake, talk in their own private voice channel, and agree on one victim. At the same time the Doctor chooses someone to protect, the Detective investigates one player and learns "Mafia" or "Not Mafia", the Bodyguard guards someone, and the Mafia specialists do their work: the Framer makes a townsperson read as Mafia that night, the Consigliere learns a player's exact role, the Silencer gags someone for the next day.

Actions resolve in a fixed order, so a Doctor's protection always beats the kill, and a Framer's frame is in place before the Detective looks. If everyone who can act has acted, the night ends early.

Dawn and the day phase

At dawn the narrator announces who died, or that nobody did. Dead players keep their role secret and move to a listen-only lounge where they can chat among themselves. Then the day begins: an open voice discussion whose length scales with the number of living players, from 60 seconds in a small game to 3 minutes in a large one.

Anyone can accuse, defend, bluff or stay quiet. Good town play is about asking who benefits from each claim; good Mafia play is about sounding like town while steering suspicion elsewhere.

Voting: nominate, defend, decide

When discussion ends the town votes. Each living player picks a name or chooses SKIP. A majority sends the accused to a short last defense, after which the vote is confirmed and the player is out. If the vote ties, the top candidates go to a quick runoff.

Skipping is a real choice, not a free pass: each town has a small budget of skips per game. Once it is spent, a plurality is enough to eliminate someone, so hesitant towns run out of room to stall.

How each side wins

The town wins the moment the last Mafia member is eliminated. The Mafia win when they equal or outnumber the living town, because from then on they can never be outvoted. The Jester wins alone, instantly, if the town votes them out, so treat a player who seems to want to be lynched with suspicion of a different kind.

Play your first game in two minutes

Create a free account, create a room, and share the 6-character room code, or use Find a game to join an open lobby. Every lobby on Mafiagg is seeded with four table bots that play by the real rules and step aside as friends arrive, so you can learn the flow without waiting for a full table. A narrator voice runs every phase in English or Arabic, and the whole game is playable by keyboard and screen reader.