How to Moderate Mafia: A Narrator's Guide for Game Night

To moderate Mafia, you pick a balanced set of roles, deal them secretly, then run each night by waking roles one at a time in a fixed order and recording their choices. In the morning you announce the results, and you referee the day’s discussion and vote until one side wins. You don’t play for either team, and your job is to keep every secret while making the game feel fair.

The rest of this guide covers each of those jobs, the mistakes that ruin games, and how to handle problems at the table.

What does a Mafia moderator actually do? #

The moderator (also called the narrator, host, game master or storyteller) has six jobs:

1. Choose the setup. How many Mafia, which power roles, and which house rules.
2. Deal roles so that each player sees only their own.
3. Run the night. Wake each role in order, take their choices, and give the Detective an answer.
4. Resolve the night. Work out who died, who was saved and who the Bodyguard died for.
5. Run the day. Announce deaths, keep time, take nominations and count votes.
6. Call the end. Spot the moment one side has won, and announce it.

Jobs 3 and 4 are where most games go wrong. Everything else is crowd management.

Before the game: a setup checklist #

1. Count your players and pick a setup. For most groups that’s one Mafia member per three or four players, plus a Doctor and a Detective. How many Mafia for 10 players has a table for 5 to 20.
2. Decide your house rules and announce them now. The four that cause the most arguments:
   • Are roles revealed when someone dies?
   • Are Doctor saves announced in the morning?
   • Can the Doctor protect themselves? (See the Doctor self-save rules.)
   • What happens on a tied vote?
3. Deal the roles. Shuffle cards face down, or pass a phone around. Watch the deal, since players sometimes flash their card by accident.
4. Note who has which role before the first night. You’ll need this list every night, and you can’t ask anyone to check.
5. Seat everyone in a circle where you can see all hands at night.

How to run the night #

Start every night the same way: “Everyone, close your eyes and put your heads down.” Then wake the roles in a fixed order. A good default:

1. Masons (first night only)
2. Mafia
3. Serial Killer
4. Doctor
5. Bodyguard
6. Witch
7. Detective
8. Vigilante

Killers go first so that by the time protectors act, you already know every target. The reasoning behind each slot is in the Mafia night phase order, and word-for-word lines for each role are in our Mafia narrator script.

For each role:

• Read the wake line.
• Wait until they point clearly at one player. For the Mafia, wait until they agree.
• Nod once to confirm you saw it.
• Write it down.
• Read the sleep line.

For the Detective, answer with a silent thumbs up or down. Whispering carries further than you think.

Resolve the night before you open your mouth #

Once everyone has acted, compare your notes before anyone wakes up:

• If a kill target was protected by the Doctor, nobody dies.
• If a kill target was guarded by the Bodyguard, the target lives and the Bodyguard dies.
• If two killers chose different targets, both can die.
• Count single-use powers: Witch potions, Vigilante bullets.

Take your time. Players will wait five seconds while you think. They won’t forgive a wrong announcement.

Running the morning and the day #

Announce deaths in a neutral voice with the same wording every time. If you tell a story for one death, tell a story of the same length for every death.

Then set the day in motion:

1. Start a timer for discussion. Five minutes is plenty on day one. Give more later, when fewer players are left and each vote matters more.
2. When it ends, take nominations. A nomination needs a second.
3. Give the accused a short defense, around 30 seconds.
4. Call the vote, count out loud, and announce the result.
5. Apply your tie rule without hesitation. Our guide to Mafia voting rules lists the common options.

After every elimination, check the win condition. Town wins when every evil player is gone. Mafia win when they equal or outnumber the rest.

How to keep a poker face #

• Use the same tone for everything. “Doctor, wake up” should sound identical whether the Doctor is alive or died yesterday.
• Keep calling dead roles. Skipping a role tells the table it’s gone.
• Pause for the same time on every role. Silently count to five.
• Look at the middle of the circle, not at the player you’re waking.
• Don’t react to day talk. When someone guesses right, you did not hear it.

Common moderator mistakes and how to fix them #

Handling problems at the table #

• Someone peeked. Reveal nothing and restart the night if it happened on night one. Later on, ask the group whether to continue.
• A dead player keeps talking. Remind them once, kindly. Give dead players something to do, like watching the Mafia wake up.
• A player forgot their role. Let them look at their card again during the night, while everyone else’s eyes are closed.
• Two Mafia point at different people. Wait. If they can’t agree, the rule most groups use is that the moderator picks one of the two, or that the Godfather’s choice wins.

Moderating from your phone #

The hardest part of the job is holding the whole night in your head without a flicker on your face. Mafia Helper is built to be the moderator’s notebook. It deals roles by passing the phone around, then each night shows every living role in wake order with the line to read aloud. You record each choice with one tap, investigations show GOOD or EVIL the moment you confirm, and Resolve Night works out kills against saves, including the Bodyguard’s sacrifice. During the day it has a discussion timer, vote counters that flag ties, private notes on each player (“claims Doctor”), and a win check after every death.

If you like to invent your own roles, the app’s custom role creator adds them to the night order. The broader craft of running a table, beyond Mafia, is covered in what a storyteller does.

Frequently asked questions #

Can the moderator also play in Mafia? #

Not in a normal game, because the moderator knows every role. If your group is small, rotate the job each game so everyone gets turns playing. Apps help someone run the game more easily, but whoever holds the phone still sees the secrets.

How do you pick a good Mafia moderator? #

Choose someone who’s played several times, speaks clearly and doesn’t mind missing out. Good moderators are organised and calm under pressure. Fast talkers and people with an obvious poker face tell make weaker moderators.

What should the moderator do if they make a mistake? #

If you announce a wrong death, correct it at once and say it was your error. If the mistake gave away information that can’t be taken back, the fairest option is usually to restart. Most mistakes come from memory, so write things down as they happen or use an app.

How long should the day phase be in Mafia? #

Around five minutes of discussion before nominations works for most groups, with a minute or two more in the late game. Set a timer and stick to it. Long days wear groups out faster than anything else.