The City This is the big team — the innocent majority trying to find the killers. Most City players are Citizens with no night ability at all, and that is by design: their weapon is the day, where they talk, watch, and vote. Around them sit the specialists. The Policeman checks one player's team each night. The Doctor saves a life, if she guesses right. The Coroner reads the cards of the dead, the Oracle leaves the table one last clue when he dies, and the Vigilante carries two bullets and a dangerous amount of confidence.
Mafia roles
Mafia roles
In the Mafia card game, a player's assigned role dictates their team alignment—either the informed minority (Mafia) or the uninformed majority (Town/City)—and their specific night action. Roles fall into four core mechanical archetypes: Killers (Assassins, Mastermind/Godfather), Protectors (Doctor, Bodyguard), Investigators (Policeman, Detective, Sheriff), and Chaos/Neutral characters (Oracle, Priest, Jester, Serial Killer). While power roles wake up during the Night Phase to perform actions like night kills, investigations, or saves, basic Villagers rely entirely on the Day Phase using voting patterns, behavioral cues, and social deduction to identify and eliminate hidden threats.
Playing with plain cards or index paper? Upgrade your table with The Final Witness Mafia Card Deck—featuring 28 custom illustrated cards, balanced setups, host scripts, and a zero-elimination mechanic that keeps every player alive and active until the end.
Citizen mafia role
No ability during the night phase.
Citizen
City
Oracle mafia role
Pick a player each night. If you die, the moderator reveals the role of your last pick.
Oracle
City
Policeman mafia role
Pick a player each night; the moderator reveals their faction.
Policeman
City
Coroner mafia role
Pick a dead player each night and view their card.
Coroner
City
Doctor mafia role
Pick a player each night and heal them. Can't pick yourself two nights in a row.
Doctor
City
Priest mafia role
If killed by the assassins, their next turn is canceled.
Priest
City
Vigilante mafia role
Twice per game, pick a player and kill them.
Vigilante
City
Duelist mafia role
Duel any enemy who visits you at night. If lynched, night falls and you duel one of your voters.
Duelist
City · Expansion
Ritualist mafia role
Each night, pick a player who died within the last 2 nights and revive them.
Ritualist
City · Expansion
Narrator mafia role
Whoever draws this card is the moderator for the game.
Narrator
Host
Assassin mafia role
Pick a player each night and kill them.
Assassin
Mafia
Mastermind mafia role
Acts as an assassin. If picked by the Policeman, the moderator lies about your faction.
Mastermind
Mafia
Lawyer mafia role
Pick a player each night; they are immune to trial the next day.
Lawyer
Mafia
Enforcer mafia role
Pick a player each night and remove their ability to speak or vote the next day.
Enforcer
Mafia
Terrorist mafia role
Once per game, pick a player; you both die.
Terrorist
Mafia
Mistress mafia role
Pick a player each night and cancel their ability for the night.
Mistress
Mafia · Expansion
Arsonist mafia role
Each night, pick a dead player and burn them; they cannot vote at the Final Witness.
Arsonist
Mafia · ExpansionMafia Roles Explained: Factions and the Host
Every mafia roles list comes down to two competing teams and one neutral narrator. Once you see how the City, the Mafia, and the Host interact, the whole deck makes complete sense.
The Mafia They are the small team that already knows each other. The Assassins do the killing, one victim a night. The rest of the dark side exists to protect them: the Mastermind kills too and makes the cop's check lie, the Lawyer makes a client untouchable at trial, the Enforcer takes away someone's speech or vote, and the Terrorist can end two lives with one point of a finger.
The Narrator Whoever draws the Narrator runs the game — they are not affiliated with any team — not City, not Mafia, just the one person allowed to see everything and coordinate the game.
A few roles do not wake at night at all. The Duelist duels anyone who dares visit him and takes a voter with him if the table votes him out. The Priest punishes the Assassins from beyond the grave — kill him, and they lose their next night. These passive cards need no calls from the host; their abilities fire on their own. The expansion adds stranger jobs on both sides: the Ritualist can bring the recently dead back, the Mistress cancels a night ability before it happens, and the Arsonist burns the dead so they cannot vote at the Final Witness.
Classic mafia roles and their names in this deck
If you learned mafia roles from a party game, Werewolf, or an online version like Town of Salem, you already know most of these cards — they just wear different names here. This is how the classic mafia roles map onto the deck.
| Classic name people know | In this deck | What the role does |
|---|---|---|
| Villager, Townsperson | Citizen | No night ability. Talks, watches, and votes — the backbone of the City. |
| Detective, Cop, Sheriff, Seer | Policeman | Checks one player each night and learns their team — City or Mafia, never a role name. |
| Doctor, Medic | Doctor | Heals one player each night. Cannot pick herself two nights in a row. |
| Mafia, Killer, Werewolf | Assassin | Wakes each night with the other Assassins and kills one player. |
| Godfather | Mastermind | Kills with the Assassins, and the cop's check on him comes back a lie. |
| Roleblocker, Escort | Mistress | Cancels one player's night ability. Always the first wake of the night. |
| Vigilante | Vigilante | Same name everywhere: a City player who can kill, twice per game. |
| Moderator, Narrator, God | Narrator | The host. Whoever draws this card runs the night and the day. |
The rest of the deck has no classic twin. The Lawyer, the Enforcer, the Terrorist, the Coroner, the Oracle, the Duelist, the Priest, the Ritualist, and the Arsonist are this deck's special characters, and each card's page explains exactly how it plays. Not every role appears in every game — which mafia roles you actually deal depends on your player count, and the published mixes are on game setups.
How to play mafia
Mafia is easier to play than it looks. Everyone gets a hidden card — most of the table is City, a hidden few are Mafia. At night the killers quietly pick a victim while a doctor tries to guess who needs saving and a cop digs for the truth. By day the survivors argue about what happened, put someone on trial, and vote. The City wins by finding every killer; the Mafia wins by surviving until they can win a vote. The walkthrough takes you through the whole game, from the deal to the last trial.
How to play mafiaStandard game setups
Your first game should be The Lamp and the Lancet — eight players and only three night wakes, so nobody gets lost. With a ninth chair the same deal becomes, naturally, The Ninth Chair. All twenty published deals, up to twenty-seven players, are on the setups page.
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The Lamp and the Lancet
8+ playersThe teaching deal. Eight chairs, one lamp, one lancet — and two knives that already know each other.
City: 1 Policeman, 1 Doctor, Citizens to fill Mafia: 2 Assassins
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The Ninth Chair
9+ playersThe classic table of nine. Two killers, a cop, a doctor — and the vote does the rest.
City: 1 Policeman, 1 Doctor, Citizens to fill Mafia: 2 Assassins