Your Beginner Guide to Playing the Game by Wangalang

Hi, I’m wangalang! Welcome to my guide.

You’ve made the right decision today to stumble on my guide on playing this deceptive, social party game we know as Mafia. In this guide-but-not-really-a-guide I’m going to explain, especially if you are a relatively new player, some handy tips on playing this game that you can learn from.

Please note that this is how I play, and everyone has different playstyles that work for them. A lot of Mafia is building experience, playing games and working out how to play each alignment.

There are two alignments in a typical game – Town and Mafia. There are more Town roles than Mafia roles, but town don’t know the other town. You may ask how are you able to tell who is also Town?

## How I look for scum

**Reading content:** I do this by reading the CONTENT of their logs:

* Are they analysing other players to try and figure out who is scum?
* Do the words seem genuine, or are they faking sincerity?
* Do their reactions seem fake? Are they forcing what they’re saying?

Mafia have all the information, given that they know each other, so they know who is town and who is Mafia. You should watch out for players that slip in extra information that town normally wouldn’t have, though experienced players won’t do this.

**Are they being helpful?** The objective for Town is to help find the Mafia, so I’m also looking for people that aren’t being HELPFUL. How do I do this?

* If there is a player that doesn’t have their own susses, or not going around trying to solve the game, there is a good chance they are scum
* If someone is actively pursuing the condemn of only ONE player – without even considering the possibility that said player is town, or having any other susses, then that person may be Mafia trying to push a “miscondemn.” A miscondemn is condemning a player that is not sided with the Mafia
* If someone has less logs and isn’t contributing, this is a sign that they are Mafia that has nothing to say. This is DIFFERENT from someone that has less logs, but still providing content, as each person plays differently and some people read/type faster than others

**Are they being disingenuous?** On the other hand, when someone is appearing to be helpful, but in fact, they are not being genuine. This is obviously harder to spot, since they appear to be helpful. This is something that takes practice – because sometimes, you just “know.” I play with a lot of gut in Mafia, which isn’t always the best strategy. I simply call it “vibes” and it’s not something I can put down on paper.

Naturally, when I am Town, I am extremely genuine. I have nothing to hide, especially as a Villager, so my logs will be natural. You can judge people’s content based off how natural they sound – at least, that’s what I do. Mafia will be trying to sound genuine and you can sometimes tell if someone’s being disingenuous. This is why often with inexperienced players you realise that they aren’t lying about being villager, because of the way they are acting in the game.

**Having different reads to you:** I don’t really like to encourage meta-reading, but sometimes you can’t help it, and you can catch out a more experienced player out for being scum for the obvious miscondemn they are pushing on a weaker, but obvious Villager. Especially when they blatantly ignore obvious town signs on the other person. Remember, Town tend to think alike to other Townsman.

Everyone is different though!

**Pocketing:** As Town, I am also wary of being POCKETED – what does this mean?

Pocket (verb) means to butter up someone so that they subconsciously begin to trust you. This is a common technique Mafia use to hoodwink you into trusting and believing them when they say they are Town.

I will admit that I am easy to pocket, but now that I’m aware of this, I am looking out for people that POCKET ME WITHOUT MUCH REASON – remember this is different from someone trying to solve the game by town-reading you. You have to question the motives and intentions behind each person’s actions.

Town can and SHOULD town read other town. It’s part of the next point I will talk about - town circles. Not everyone that calls you Town is going to be Mafia.

**POE - Point of Execution/Process of Elimination/Path of Evidence**

I play this game using P.O.E which can stand for any of what I've listed above. I will formulate townreads, and my condemn pool will be outside of that. I find this extremely useful heading into MYLO/LYLO situations where I am still alive as Town. By then, you should have a few days of logs and be able to have town-reads. I will build up my own town circle along the way.

I use this strategy when the lobby is relatively experienced and it’s harder for me to formulate set scum reads. Condemning in my POE gives me - and town - a lot of information to work with.

## How my typical day one in the game goes

I always say that day one has all the information. I can usually hard-read a Mafia within the first few minutes. How?

1. They slip in the conversation late on Day One Frame One (the first 20 seconds of the game) with something super lame and filler-y like “oh hi” “hey there” “hi guys”
2. They make some off-hand, irrelevant comment about their character in the deck
3. They are sitting around, not making much of an effort to solve the game

Note that these are scumtales generally for weaker/inexperienced players. Like I said before, if no one is standing out as scummy to you, it's good to accrue town-reads and make a POE.

Of course, a town player can do all of these things (try and avoid doing so!). I will then vote for them, comment that they are Mafia and push them. Their response, and any other subsequent votes on them, tells me a lot of information. If I think the person I’ve selected is town, I will pivot (change votes) to someone else.

## Try not to no condemn!!

I will try VERY hard to condemn on day one and other subsequent days. It's explained mathematically in detail in gamer Auryxx's guide. Do not go into the game with the mindset that we should No Condemn to save our Villagers and Power Roles. This does not advance you in the game, gives you no information to proceed in figuring out the Mafia, and gives Mafia a free kill.

**You condemned a Villager day one, ALL GOOD!**

Look at the voting patterns:

1. Who voted fourth/fifth? Did they give reason? They may have bandwagoned
2. Who hammered, did they give reason?
3. Was the vote on the miscondemn fast?
4. Was anyone suspiciously defending them to look good on Day Two when they could say “I told you so?”
5. Did anyone mindlessly bandwagon the vote? Ask them why on day two
6. Did the person that originally pushed them have sufficient reason

**Bad reads =/= Mafia**

**Bad reasoning MAY be Mafia**

Which brings me to my next point...

## Give reasons

You can’t always assume someone is going to understand you for doing something in the game. Your actions have meaning in the game and you should be giving reasons as to why you are doing something, such as voting someone.

If you don’t provide any reasons, and you just bandwagon by voting someone, you look sus.

It can be as vague as “they give me off vibes, something just feels off about Player X” and then quoting a couple of their logs you didn’t like (though, I encourage you guys to be as specific as possible). This at least shows that you are actively trying to sus who the scum are. Also, explaining why you are doing stuff means you can quote yourself when someone tries to accuse you of something.

In social deduction games your words may get twisted. But this is text based mafia, and you can always bring up your own logs if you are being manipulated or gaslighted.

Mafia have to come up with reasons as to why someone is scum, whereas town are doing it genuinely because they are problem solving. Look out for bad reasoning - often scum may exclaim that someone is really scummy, but not provide reasoning.

“They were really scummy, we gas this today.”

“X person is Mafia, VOTE THEM.”

Mafia knows they have to sus others, but you can catch some out if they provide little to no reasoning. Hence, that’s why I always say to give reasons. Even if your read is wrong, if you’ve provided Claim Evidence Reasoning, you may still have “town credit” (towncred).

## How do I push someone?

I get asked this question quite a lot. It can be hard to get town to follow your reads.

Firstly, vote them. They’ve likely seen that you’ve voted them - if they don’t respond, that’s fine. I usually ignore one measly vote on me and just continue playing the game. In fact, I would consider it suspicious if they had a panic over one vote early day one.

Secondly, if you continue to sus them, you should be spelling out in the chat that you think they are Mafia. I try to appeal to people by asking questions such as “wait, is no one seriously not seeing what I’m seeing?” I’m not a psychologist, but if you phrase the question to make them doubt themselves into thinking they are missing an obvious mafia, they may give you more attention.

If you come across as confident and passionate, people will be drawn to that. Be careful to draw the line between confidence and cockiness. If you’re too confident, and you miscondemn, town may assume you are scum going for an easy miscondemn.

An important part of pushing people is to appeal to specific people in the game to help you push. This way, you bring your sus to the attention of someone else in the game, and see what they have to say about them. They may help you push or distract you with someone else and you can gather a lot of information.

The easiest time to push someone is when there are around 30 seconds left to go and people are scrambling. It’s easier to get the pivot that you want when people are uncertain. People are sheeps - and even more so when scrambling for a condemn. Be careful of the way you push your agenda!

## Defend, defend, defend!!

You know what I really do not like seeing, and PLEASE try not to do this - is when people give up defending when being voted. You are a villager and you may not have a “claim” but instead of giving up and saying “fine, vote me I don’t care,” you should care, because you’re a Town number.

**Alternatives to “just vote me, whatever”:**

* “Guys, I’m seriously not Mafia. I think you should look at (X suspicious person) and (Y suspicious person) for the shitpush on me.”
* “My last reads are (X) and (Y), don’t condemn me over them”
* “(Town member) I’m town, tell these guys to vote (X)”
* “Don’t vote me I’m town omg holy crap why would you ever vote me here, I sussed (Dead Mafia’s Name)”

Villagers are important! Villagers make up over half of Town. That is over 50% and it’s enough to overthrow the mafia. PR say what?

NEVER have the mindset that villy = killy. We are trying to condemn Mafia, not Town! And every time a villager is condemned, it opens up a tonne of information.

## Playing as scum

I’m well known in the community for being a much stronger town-aligned player than mafia-aligned. IlluminatiLizard and MeteorNate have written a guide on playing Mafia. I do my best to avoid doing any of the suspicious stuff I’ve listed above, but it can be difficult to fake genuine logs as scum.

It’s definitely important to know what kind of a Mafia player you are and scope out your team. For me, I know I am NOT an endgame Mafia. I know I likely cannot carry myself until the end so I play for the mid-game. I lead a couple of miscondemns before letting myself get condemned. Fake-claiming is usually a go for me, to bait a CC for my Mafia teammates to nightkill after I die (or get my CC miscondemned).

Bussing is definitely a strategy and I encourage everyone to try it out, as it can give you a lot of towncred. Remember to only bus when it is needed! It’s not your win-con to condemn your own Mafia, but don’t shy away from the vote and don’t defend your Mafia too hard! Remember, you are trying to appear like you are a helpful Town civilian. There is a time and a place for bussing and it is probably polite to pre-plan it and give a heaps up in mafia chat. But if you need to do it in the game to fulfil your wincon then by all means go for it, and if you're being bussed, make sure you set your mafia up well by omgussing/looking scummier. Don't be a bad sport about bussing, it's not personal.

When putting a list of suspects together, you should try and include putting one or two mafia on your list. Once you die, people will be confused by your logs.

I try and replicate my Town game when I am Mafia, by going around and collecting town reads, sussing people and I try not to be the third/fourth/fifth vote. Drawing attention to myself, especially on day one, is not a good idea. If you don’t write any filler logs day one and actively engage in conversation and game discussion, you will likely survive day one as Mafia.

Do NOT coast as mafia. Try not to coast playing any alignment.

Playing scum should be varied. You can’t use the same trick every time, otherwise you will be easily found out. Keep things spicy every time you roll scum.

## Some more advice and end notes

* Be kind. Mafia is a social game after all
* Familiarise yourself with the set up being played and roles within the set up so you understand the gaming interactions. Popular setups tend to have wiki pages that explain the optimal play
* Learn from every game. Note down your weaknesses and think about how you can improve next game
* Ask questions! No question is stupid and everyone is happy to answer them either in spec chat or in the Mafia.gg Discord, so feel free to join and find fellow mafia.gg players including myself!

There is no “best” way of playing, but following someone's guide especially if you're new and basically mimicking how they play is a nice way to find your own playstyle.

## Further reading

* You can find the rest of the guides here, including my other two guides: Mafia.gg Do's and Don't's by Wangalang and Wangalang Explains MYLO and CYLO Play
* In the game, people will often abbreviate words, you can find a helpful list of abbreviations here