The automatic deck uses only Mafia, Detective, Doctor, and Villagers. The host must deliberately add the Serial Killer, Jester, or Vigilante through Customize roles. That distinction matters: the basic deck teaches one shared conflict, while optional roles create private goals and additional explanations.
🧑🌾 Villager
The Villager has no private power and no extra information. Their ability is collective: Villagers form most of the votes, can compare stories publicly, and can afford to ask questions that a special role may avoid asking to protect their identity.
- Goal
- Help eliminate every Mafia member and any Serial Killer.
- What the phone shows at night
- A waiting screen. The Villager never selects a target.
- Best information source
- Changes in claims, vote patterns, who creates or relieves pressure, and confirmed role reveals.
Strong play
Make a falsifiable read: name a suspect, explain the evidence, and say what would change your mind. This gives other Town players something to compare after the role reveal. Ask quiet players for an opinion before a vote; hidden Mafia benefit when too few people create a record.
Common mistake
Treating “I have no information” as a reason to stay silent. The Town begins with incomplete information by design. Discussion creates the evidence that night roles alone cannot provide.
🕵️ Mafia
Living Mafia members know one another. At night, each chooses one living non-Mafia target. Teammate picks appear privately, allowing coordination without speech. When choices differ, the target with the most Mafia support is attacked; an exact tie between targets is resolved randomly.
- Goal
- Reach parity: living Mafia must equal or outnumber all other living players, after any Serial Killer is gone.
- Target restrictions
- Cannot target themselves or another Mafia member.
- Protection interaction
- A Doctor protection prevents the chosen target from dying to the Mafia attack that night.
Strong play
Participate in Town's reasoning rather than merely surviving it. A useful Mafia member asks questions, develops reads, and sometimes disagrees with a teammate. Select night targets based on the information or influence they are likely to create tomorrow.
Common mistake
Defending a partner automatically. When one Mafia is revealed, every unnatural rescue attempt becomes evidence against the other. Sometimes the credible move is to question—or even vote for—a teammate.
🔎 Detective
The Detective chooses one other living player each night and immediately receives a private result. Results remain in a personal dossier for later days.
- Possible results
- “Mafia” only for the Mafia role; “clear” for Villager, Doctor, Vigilante, Jester, and Serial Killer.
- Target restrictions
- Cannot investigate themselves; may investigate any other living player.
- What a clear means
- The target is not Mafia. It is not a universal innocence result when solo roles are enabled.
Strong play
Plan how you will make information believable before revealing. A confirmed Mafia result is powerful, but a bare accusation can be ignored and a public Detective claim invites a night attack. With several results, the Detective can narrow the suspect pool even when every investigation was clear.
Common mistake
Calling a clear player “Town” in a deck containing the Serial Killer or Jester. The result answers one precise question—whether the target is Mafia—and nothing more.
🩺 Doctor
The Doctor protects one living player each night and may select themselves. A protection stops all supported night-death sources aimed at that target for the night: Mafia, Serial Killer, and Vigilante.
- Goal
- Keep enough Town-aligned players alive to eliminate every threat.
- Self-protection
- Allowed. There is no built-in consecutive-night restriction.
- Dawn feedback
- A successful save produces a quiet night, but the protected player's identity and attack source are not announced.
Strong play
Think about the Mafia's incentives, not only the loudest Town claim. The obvious Detective claimant may be protected, which can push Mafia toward the person coordinating votes or quietly tracking contradictions. Mixing protection choices makes the night less predictable.
Common mistake
Reading every quiet night as proof of a successful save. Optional attackers can hold, multiple attacks can collide, or nobody may have selected the person you protected.
🔪 Serial Killer
The Serial Killer is neither Town nor Mafia. They choose one other living player to attack every night and appear “clear” to the Detective.
- Goal
- Survive into the final two living players. The Serial Killer then wins alone.
- Target restrictions
- Cannot target themselves; may target Town or Mafia.
- Protection interaction
- The Doctor can prevent the Serial Killer's attack.
Strong play
Keep both major teams viable long enough to weaken each other. Removing Mafia too quickly can unite Town; removing only Town can hand Mafia parity. Because the Detective sees a clear result, a cautious relationship with an investigator can be valuable.
Common mistake
Adding this role to a small or inexperienced group. It adds a second night kill and changes both main teams' endgame math. Use it when players already understand the default game.
🃏 Jester
The Jester wins immediately and alone if the day vote eliminates them. They do not win by being killed at night, removed after disconnecting, or merely receiving the most accusations.
- Goal
- Become the valid day-vote elimination.
- Detective result
- Clear—not Mafia.
- After a Jester elimination
- The game ends immediately; Town and Mafia do not continue their conflict.
Strong play
Create suspicion that looks accidental. Contradicting yourself too obviously can make experienced players refuse to vote for you. A believable Jester often acts like a nervous Mafia member who wants to survive, not someone openly asking to be eliminated.
Common mistake
Forgetting that abstentions can save you. You need a unique leading total that beats abstentions, just like any other valid elimination.
🔫 Vigilante
The Vigilante owns one bullet for the entire game. On any night before using it, they can shoot one other living player or explicitly hold fire. Once fired, the night action does not return.
- Goal
- Use the one shot, or the threat of it, to help Town remove all threats.
- Target restrictions
- Cannot target themselves; may target any other living player.
- Protection interaction
- The Doctor prevents the shot from killing a protected target, but the bullet is still considered used.
Strong play
Wait for evidence that is meaningfully stronger than an ordinary day suspicion. A correct shot changes parity before the next discussion; a wrong shot removes a Town vote and can end the game. Holding the bullet is an active decision, not a failure to use the role.
Common mistake
Firing on the first night because the action is available. The first night contains the least public evidence and offers the highest chance of helping Mafia.
How the automatic deck balances roles
| Players | Automatic roles | Why it changes |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | 1 Mafia, 1 Detective, 2 Villagers | No Doctor keeps the tiny game from stalling on repeated saves. |
| 5 | 1 Mafia, 1 Detective, 1 Doctor, 2 Villagers | Adds protection without adding a second informed minority player. |
| 6–9 | 2 Mafia, 1 Detective, 1 Doctor, remaining Villagers | Introduces Mafia teamwork and creates richer relationship evidence. |
| 10–13 | 3 Mafia, 1 Detective, 1 Doctor, remaining Villagers | Maintains pressure as Town's raw vote count grows. |
| 14–16 | 4 Mafia, 1 Detective, 1 Doctor, remaining Villagers | Prevents a large Town from overwhelming a tiny Mafia team. |
Customization rule: Mafia Night always keeps at least one Mafia and automatically fills unused seats with Villagers. If a custom deck becomes extremely evil-heavy or unusually weak for Mafia, the lobby shows a warning rather than silently pretending the setup is balanced.