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Mafia or Werewolf rules

In its simplest form, Mafia or Werewolf is played by two teams: mafia/werewolves and innocents/villagers. Games require a moderator who doesn't play. Identities are assigned by handing out cards (black for mafia/wolf, red for innocents). At the start of the game, every werewolf learns identities of their teammates. Innocents do not know which players are werewolves and which are villagers.

There are two phases: night and day. At night, certain players secretly perform actions; during day, players discuss and vote to eliminate one player. These phases alternate with each other until all werewolves are eliminated or they reach numerical parity with the innocents.

Some players may be given roles with special abilities. Common special roles include:

• seer (red ace) — a villager who may learn the team of one player every night;
• protector (red face card) — a villager who may protect a player from being killed at night;

Andrew Plotkin recommends having exactly two mafiosi, whereas the original Davidoff rules suggest a third of the players (rounding to the nearest whole number) be mafiosi. Davidoff's original game does not include roles with special abilities. In his rules for "Werewolf", Plotkin recommends that the first phase be night and that there be an odd number of players (including the moderator). These specifications avoid a tie votes for eliminations and ensure that the game will end dramatically on an elimination rather than anticlimactically with murder as a foregone conclusion.

Night

All players close their eyes. The moderator instructs all werewolves to open their eyes and acknowledge their accomplices. The werewolves pick a "victim" by silently gesturing to indicate their target and show unanimity then close their eyes again.

A similar process occurs for other roles with nightly actions. In the case of the seer, the moderator may indicate the target's innocence or guilt by using gestures such as nodding or head shaking. Night may be accompanied by players tapping gently to mask sounds made by gesturing.

Day

The moderator instructs players to open their eyes and announces who "died" the previous night. Discussion ensues among the living players. At any point, a player may accuse someone of being a werewolf and prompt others to vote to eliminate them. If over half of the players do so, the accused person is eliminated and night begins. Otherwise, the phase continues until an elimination occurs.

According to some rules, the role of dead players should not be revealed; according to others, for example, if the protector dies, nobody should know that. In both cases, dead players are not permitted to attempt to influence the remainder of the game.

Because players have more freedom to deliberate, days tend to be longer than nights.

Roles

Investigative role (Detective or Seer): Allied with the Innocents, the Detective can detect whether a player is a mafioso. They wake up and point at one person; the Narrator will silently indicate to the Detective whether that player is Mafia or Innocent. Which player is the detective is not known, leaving anyone the option of pretending to be the Detective.

Protective role (Guardian Angel, Doctor, or Bodyguard): Allied with the Innocents; defends others at night. They awaken at night after the Mafia have gone back to sleep and point at one person to protect; that person will survive any night-time attack. They are typically allowed to protect themselves, and are barred from protecting the same target on successive nights. A Guardian Angel can only protect others.

Source

Rules adapted from wikipedia.