How to play mafia
Mafia game setups
A setup is the exact mix of cards you shuffle for your player count — how many killers, which specialists, and Citizens to fill the rest. These are the twenty published deals for The Final Witness, from The Lamp and the Lancet at eight players to The Box Stands Empty at twenty-four, then pad with Citizens up to twenty-seven. Every one of them is still City versus Mafia; what changes is how much is happening in the dark. Deals marked Final Witness seat expansion cards — in those games the dead close their eyes at night too, and rise for one last vote at the end. Open a setup for the full card list, the night order, and tips for both teams.
The House Is Small Tonight
When only six friends could make it, you still light the lamp and put the lancet on the table. One knife is plenty in a room this close.
A Chair Brought In
Someone found a seventh chair in the hall and the evening grew a little kinder. Same one knife, one more neighbour to talk to.
The Lamp and the Lancet
The teaching deal. Eight chairs, one lamp, one lancet — and two knives that already know each other.
A Visiting Card Returned
Still one lamp — but now one door hits back. Call on the wrong house at night and you will wish you had sent a note.
The Ninth Chair
The classic table of nine. Two killers, a cop, a doctor — and the vote does the rest.
Sherlock’s Demise
For tables that like clues. Read the dead, check a team, and mind the Duelist’s duel.
The Yard Was Certain
One lamp, and it can be lied to. The Yard filed him under City, and the Yard is never wrong.
A Prior Engagement
She points first, and somebody’s night simply does not happen. And the man at the door duels his callers.
A Death Off the Books
The Bishop taxes the Assassins’ knife. The Terrorist’s exit does not go through the parish.
Struck from the Roll
One seat raises the recently dead. One seat burns them off the roll. And the lamp may be lying.
Rise of the Underdog
The City gets tools, the Mafia gets tricks. You win this one as a table, not as four solo stars.
Two Lamps, One Slab
Gunn and Henry both in chairs, and a slab for everyone else. Two checks a night — while they live.
Protected Until Breakfast
The client cannot be summoned. The job never happened. And the house still hits back.
Debate Club
Built for rooms that love to argue. Words win this deal — and careless words lose it.
Two Cartridges
A soldier with two shots, and a room daring him to spend both. The Lawyer would rather nobody stood trial at all.
Apologies for Absence
Minutes are read at the end of the evening — and some names have been made unavailable.
The Last Point He Made
The Oracle dies pointing. The Vigilante has two arguments of his own. The Terrorist needs only one.
Both Lamps Lit
Two checks a night. One of them may still be a kindness from Sabini.
All-out Warzone
The veterans’ deal. Twenty players, three Assassins, and a day that has to keep moving.
Limehouse Overtime
Warzone-sized, different firm. Two Assassins, a man the Yard already cleared, and a Bishop taxing the wrong knife.
Foolscap in the Dark
Write every wake. Call them in the same order. The quiet ones in the dark are not all done with the evening.
The Box Stands Empty
Every useful face in a chair. Two more chairs take the last Citizens. After that the box really is empty.
Which mafia game setup should you deal?
The honest answer for a new table is The Lamp and the Lancet — eight players, three night wakes, and nothing for the host to trip over. Pull up a ninth chair and it becomes, naturally, The Ninth Chair; the deal is the same. When a night and a day run smoothly without anyone asking what to do, you have outgrown it.
From nine to twelve, pick your poison: clues in Sherlock's Demise, a lying cop check in The Yard Was Certain, a first expansion card in A Visiting Card Returned or A Prior Engagement. From thirteen the deals seat both Policemen and the deck starts playing at full width — Two Lamps One Slab, Debate Club, Two Cartridges, and the rest of the ladder.
Twenty and up is veteran country: All-out Warzone, Limehouse Overtime, and at twenty-four The Box Stands Empty, which deals every named card the box prints. After that, pad with Citizens up to twenty-seven.
Mafia card game
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