Pilkipedia Mafia

"Pilkipedia Mafia" is a message board based game popular amongst the regulars here for its intricacy, its ability to accommodate any number of players in any time zone, and for the adrenaline rush brought about by the onset of paranoia. This page was created to create a consistent location for the Rules and Roles.

Game Description

Mafia is a game of glorious, glorious deceit. In its most basic form, it features a group of ‘town-aligned’ players attempting to determine the mafia amongst them. The town players have no information as to the identities of the other players, but the mafia know who their colleagues are. A vital precept of mafia is that all conversation must take place within the game thread, excepting the mafia.

The game progresses in two phases. During the ‘Day’ phase, town players have the aim of working out who the mafia are and can each vote for a lynch (or for a No Lynch that will move the game to the next phase.) When one player receives a majority of votes they are removed from the game and the moderator reveals what their character name is. However, the mafia players may be covertly working to manipulate this lynch.

During the ‘Night’ phase, the mafia will select one player that they wish to kill. They will be removed from the game and their role revealed. Usually, there will be other night abilities that can be used during this period – see the section below.

The game progresses this way until one side achieves its victory condition. The town players have to remove every remaining mafioso and other anti-town player. The mafia have to arrive at a day period with at least equal numbers to the remaining town players. There may be other, independent characters with specific win conditions.

Possible Town-Aligned Roles

The Jezoc: has the power to investigate the alignment and role of another player. They also have the power to kill, but if they kill a townsperson, their badge and gun will be stripped from them. If the Son of Jezoc is night killed, they will become immune to all mafia kills until a mafia member dies, at which point their immunity wears off.

Son of Jezoc: if Jezoc dies, the Son of Jezoc inherits their remaining power and any information they gleaned.

The Mayor: the only confirmed town-aligned player; in most games, they have two votes.

The Doctor: has the power to protect another player from night kills.

The Lie Detector: this player can quote from a post and send it to the moderator. They will then be informed whether it is a "Truth Bomb" or "Grenade of Falsehood".

The Sensor: this player can monitor the daily lynch and discover how many mafia members took part in the vote that day.

The Crypt Keeper: this player is able to resurrect another player from the dead. The resurrected player retains any remaining abilities they had before dying.

The Tracker: this player can track a player each night and see if they were "out" during the night phase. ("Out" implying that they were active, e.g. using an ability on another player during the night phase, etc.)

The Bomb: this player will also kill the player that kills him. In the case of a night kill, a randomly picked mafia member will die too. In the case of a lynch, the last player to cast a vote against them will also die.

Siblings: the siblings consist of two or more players, who may communicate outside the thread. In addition, there is usually a proviso that if either of the siblings die, the other may also die, or alternatively, may take on a new ability. Siblings may also be of differing alignment.

Saul Goodman: this player is able to prevent another player being lynched. Sometimes, this is a one-time ability and requires Saul to post something in the thread (e.g. "Save: Player X") and sometimes it requires Saul to target a single player each night and protect them from lynching the following day.

Judas: Judas is originally a pro-town role, but upon being lynched, instead of dying, converts to the mafia's side. He doesn't, however, learn who is in the mafia. The town is not told of the change in alignment, just that the lynch has failed.

Beloved Princess: the Beloved Princess is a normal Townie, but when she dies, the next day phase is skipped (because everyone is at her funeral). Despite being a pro-Town role, the possibility of two consecutive night phases works in Mafia's favor.

The Coward: this player may trade in their right to vote in exchange of immunity from the night kill.

The Priest: this player cannot cast the final vote in a lynch.

Jack-of-all-trades: the Jack-of-all-trades is a role with several one-shot night abilities – typically investigating, protecting and killing.

Universal Backup: this player starts the game as a vanilla townie, but whenever the first pro-town power role dies (i.e. Jezoc, Doctor, Lie Detector, etc.), the Universal Backup inherits that power role.

Vanilla: this Townsperson can't do anything except vote and speculate.

Possible Mafia-Aligned Roles:

The Godfather: The Godfather cannot be killed until all other Mafia players are dead.

Thief/Rogue: this player can steal the power of another player, typically for one use only. Certain roles, such as Mayor, Bomb, Jack-of-all-trades and Universal Backup cannot be stolen.

The Hitman: has the power of one day kill.

The Conman: this player has the ability to disguise any player, using the alignment and ability with that of any other player. In other words, if the Conman switched with the Doctor, they would appear under investigation as the town-aligned Doctor and vice versa.

The Janitor: the Janitor is able to "clean up" a body after it's been killed, so that Town will be unable to determine the dead person's alignment and role.

The Roleblocker: this player prevents their target from using powers they may have.

The Recruiter: this player is able to recruit a member for their side. Often restricted to single use. The recruited player may or may not retain powers when allegiance is switched.

The Kidnapper: this player can prevent another from talking or voting for an entire day phase. It may be a one off, or multiple use.

The Terrorist: the Terrorist can choose to bomb anybody during the day, killing both the victim and themselves. They are the Mafia equivalent of the Suicide Bomber.

Standard Rules

Day and night phases are generally at the discretion of the moderator. For right now (using the 2400 time designation), they are:

DAY PHASE: 1100 GMT - 0200 GMT

NIGHT PHASE: 0200 GMT - 1100 GMT

Once a player is dead, they may only say something in the game thread to the effect of "arggh, I'm dead."

Posting screenshots of anything the mod sends a player is prohibited.

Players must not discuss the game outside the game thread, unless they are mafia or their role permits it.

Players may not edit posts ex post facto. They may double-post to retract earlier statements.

In some games, players may let others vote on their behalf. This is not currently allowed.

When voting during a lynch, players should mark their votes in BOLD and UNDERLINE. If they are changing a vote, it is requested that they state that they are changing their vote FROM (person x) TO (person y).