Since a few of us Ravenclaws stuck around after class today to discuss Mafia, I figured I’d post the adapted rules for the game I typed up for Death Eaters. If any of you have any suggestions for changes to the gameplay/roles, please let me know! (It’s a long write-up, so I have it after the read more.)
Death Eaters: An Adaptation of Mafia
Gameplay
The game consists of two major factions: the Death Eaters and the Ministry of Magic. There are always more Ministry members than Death Eaters (they should outnumber the Death Eaters two to one), and it is the Death Eaters’ goal eliminate Ministry members until they have the majority number of players. Conversely, the Ministry of Magic will win if it can determine and eliminate all the Death Eaters. The elimination of players is determined in two phases: the day phase and the night phase.
Because this game is about deception on both sides, it is not always beneficial for players to reveal their roles during the day phase, particularly in the case of a Seer, so as not to draw the Death Eaters’ attention to them during the night phase.
Day Phase
During the day, every player is awake, and votes on a player to eliminate, or in this case, send to Azkaban. Players can vote for more than one person to send to Azkaban, but only the player who received the majority of votes will be sent. Once sent to Azkaban, a player is out of the game and can no longer act or influence gameplay until either the Ministry of Magic or Death Eaters win.
Night Phase
During the night phase, everyone closes their eyes, and the game moderator calls for the Death Eaters to open their eyes; the group then votes to kill a player by pointing at them (the night phase must remain nonverbal so their identities are kept secret by the players with their eyes shut). Like the day phase, the Death Eaters can vote for more than one person to be killed, but only the person with the majority of votes will die.
Additional roles can be implemented that also act during the night, and for these roles, the game moderator will call for the Death Eaters to close their eyes, and ask the new role to open their eyes and indicate their action through pointing. (Further explanation for roles and their functions is explained on page 2).
Roles
While the two major factions are Death Eaters and the Ministry of Magic, there can be additional abilities given to both sides through the addition of new roles that alter the gameplay for both sides.
| Ministry of Magic Roles | Death Eater Roles | ||
| Ministry Employee | Has no special function | Death Eater | Has no special function |
| Seer | Is able to ask the game moderator what team a player is on once per night | Traitor | Does not wake up at night, and does not vote to kill a player, and will appear as an innocent to the Seer, but wins if the Death Eaters win |
| Auror | Is able to protect one player each night, the protected player cannot be killed by the Death Eaters, even if they vote to kill them | Voldemort | In addition to voting on who to kill, they have the ability to point to a player and place them under the Imperio curse, which prevents them from speaking during the day phase. The silenced player can still vote, but cannot raise their opinion |
| Squib | Has the option to peek and watch the Death Eaters during the night phase, but if the Death Eaters catch them watching, they will be killed in addition to the Death Eaters’ intended target | Minister of Magic
The Minister of Magic is a special role that is elected at the beginning of each day phase. They have the ability to determine who is sent to Azkaban in the case of the vote being a tie. |
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| Order of the Phoenix Member | When eliminated, whether by being killed by the Death Eaters, or sent to Azkaban, this player has the ability to automatically take any other player of their choice out of the game with them | ||
Game Moderator Script
The game moderator has the important role of keeping the game running smoothly, and are the only player who knows everybody’s role. This section features the script for the beginning of the game as well as the start and end of each round.
Beginning of Game – special roles such as the Squib should not act yet, this round is utilized just so the Death Eaters can know who each other are, and thus is also the only night when the traitor will open their eyes. As the roles are randomized, the game moderator has to ask each role to open their eyes so they know who plays what character.
“Everybody, close your eyes.”
“Death Eaters and Voldemort, open your eyes and look around to identify each other.”
“Traitor, open your eyes.”
“Voldemort, raise your hand.”
“Everybody, close your eyes.”
“Seer, open your eyes.”
“Seer, close your eyes.”
“Squib, open your eyes.”
“Squib, close your eyes.”
“Auror, open your eyes.”
“Auror, close your eyes.”
“Order of the Phoenix member, open your eyes.”
“Order of the Phoenix member, close your eyes.”
Now that everybody’s roles are determined, the first day phase can begin.
Day Phase One – The day phase traditionally act as a way to announce what happened during the night, but as the game starts on a day phase, the main role for the first day is to elect a Minister and vote on somebody to send to Azkaban. The game moderator ought to enact some manner of time limit as to keep the game moving during the day.
“Everybody, elect your Minister of Magic.”
“Everybody, vote on who to send to Azkaban.”
If player who is sent to Azkaban was an Order of the Phoenix Member: “Order member, who will you take to Azkaban with you?”
Night Phase – The night phase is the phase in which most characters take their actions.
“Voldemort and Death Eaters, open your eyes. Squib, you may open your eyes now if you would like, but if you do try to remain hidden.”
“Voldemort and Death Eaters, point to the player you’d like to kill.”
“Death Eaters, close your eyes.”
“Voldemort, point to the player you’d like to place under the Imperius Curse.”
“I will now touch the shoulder of the player under the Imperius Curse; you will not be able to speak during the day.”
“Voldemort, close your eyes. Squib, if your eyes were open, keep them closed now.” (Should any of the Death Eaters or Voldemort notice the Squib, they can point to that player in addition to the player they voted to kill, and the Squib will die as well).
“Seer, open your eyes.”
“Seer, point to the player you would like to know the alignment of.”
“I will nod if the player is in the Ministry of Magic, and shake my head if they are a Death Eater.” (Keep in mind: the traitor is a role that appears to be a member of the Ministry of Magic, even though they win if the Death Eaters do!)
“Seer, close your eyes.”
“Auror, open your eyes.”
“Auror, point to the player you would like to protect.”
“Auror, close your eyes.”
Day Phase – Now that the first nigh phase has happened, the role of the day phase is to announce what happened in the night.
If the character the Death Eaters tried to kill was protected by an Auror: “The Death Eaters tried to kill a Ministry employee [any special role is kept secret] tonight, but the employee was protected by an Auror.”
Otherwise: “During the night, a [character role here, such as “Seer” or “Ministry Employee”] was killed by Death Eaters.”
If the character killed was an Order of the Phoenix member: “Order member, who did you take down with you?”
If the Squib was spotted during the night: “The Death Eaters also eliminated an eyewitness to the murder, who was unable to defend themselves, because they were a Squib.”
“Everybody, elect your Minister of Magic.”
“Everybody, vote on who to send to Azkaban.”
If player who is sent to Azkaban was an Order of the Phoenix Member: “Order member, who will you take to Azkaban with you?”
At this point, the day and night phases repeat until one team wins.