Culture
The world-famous Mafia game is a psychological team turn-based role-playing game.
It features a detective story, and players are trying to find out which of them is an organized minority, i.e. a “mafia”, and who is an unorganized majority, i.e. civilians.
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The plot of the board game “Mafia”
The mafia is rampant in the city, and its residents decide to put all mobsters behind bars.
In response, the mafia decides to get rid of all civilians.
Interesting facts about the game “Mafia”
1. The game “Mafia” was invented by Dmitry Davydov in 1986. At that time, Dmitry was a student at the Faculty of Psychology at Moscow State University. At first, this game was played only in dormitories, classrooms, and university corridors.
2. The Mafia began to gain popularity in some European countries after some Moscow State University students went abroad. Later, it became known all over the world. In the US, for example, the game “Mafia” appeared in the late 80s of the last century. It is documented that she first appeared in 1989 at a summer camp in Pennsylvania.
3. The author of the game, who moved to the United States in 1991, said that his brainchild is based on the cultural and historical theory of Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky, a former Moscow State University student and famous Soviet psychologist of the 1920s years.
4. According to researchers, there are only 2 types of games in the world: a competition (where wrestling takes place) and a performance (a show). Mafia is a rare case when a game combines features of both types – it features both a masquerade and a struggle for survival.
5. The prototype of this game is considered to be the European game “Killer” (Wink murder), which became popular in the middle of the 20th century. It differs from the game “Mafia” in that it tries to find only one maniac, while “The Mafia” is trying to identify a group of murderers.
6. The game “Mafia” also became popular thanks to the very popular Italian series “Octopus”. In this serial film, the main character (Commissioner Cattani) is trying to put an end to the Sicilian mafia.
7. In China, I use this game to treat people with gambling addiction. It is also used in US summer camps as a tool for the re-education of “difficult” teenagers. Japanese schools use the Mafia game to train future jurors.
8. The Mafia game was included in the list of the 50 most historically and culturally significant games that appeared after 1800.
The rules of the game “Mafia”
There is no single rule for playing Mafia. However, its general principle remains the same: the host deals cards face down to all players. All players are divided into two groups: civilians (who do not know who is who, but they are the majority), and the “mafia” (they know each other, but they are a minority).
Each team has its own statuses: a team of civilians has a commissioner – every night he can check the status of one player out of all participants (according to some rules, he can “kill” one of the Mafia members), and among the “mafia” there is a don (its meaning may vary depending on the version of the game).
How to play mafia
* The game is divided into 2 phases: “day” and “night”.
* If the host announces that night has fallen in town, all players close their eyes and “fall asleep”. On the very first “night”, the host gives the “mafia” an opportunity to open its eyes so that all members of this team can “get to know each other”.
* When the mafia “falls asleep”, the host “wakes up” other players who have special statuses one at a time, thereby the host finds out who is who in the game.
* When the host announces that the day has come, all players open their eyes and the discussion begins. They are trying to find out which of them is dishonest (and therefore a “mafia”) and who is a civilian. Players can speak at the same time or take turns (a certain amount of time is allocated to the discussion).
* After the discussion, the moderator begins an open vote, as a result of which one resident is out of the game. This can be either a civilian or a representative of the “mafia”. In each version of the game, voting takes place in different ways.
* At night, the “mafia” tries to silently “kill” civilians. They gestures show the presenter who they want to “remove”. There are versions of the game where only don can decide who to “kill”.
* When the “murder” takes place, the Commissioner “wakes up”. He points the presenter to one of the players he suspects of dishonesty, thereby testing his assumptions. The presenter silently shows the commissioner whether he is right or wrong.
* If there are players with other “special roles” in the game, they take turns opening their eyes and silently showing the host their actions.
* When it's morning again, the host names the player who was “killed” by the mafia and reports on the rest of the events that took place during the night. A player who leaves the game has the right to say the last word and has 1 minute to do so.
* Players must use all the information they learn to identify the mafia and civilians.
* The winner is the team that either completely destroyed the opponents or made it mathematically impossible for the opponents to win.
An example of the game “Mafia”