Basic gameplay One person is the game's Narrator they moderate the game, rather than participating. Everyone else is dealt a card that gives them their secret role as a player. Roles

Basic gameplay
One person is the game's Narrator - they moderate the game, rather than participating. Everyone else is dealt a card that gives them their secret role as a player.
Roles

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  Townspeople (the innocents)
  
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  Mafia (who win by killing off the innocents)
  
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  Sheriff (an innocent who can detect mafia members)
  
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  Nurse/doctor (an innocent who can protect other innocents from attack)
  

Night
The Narrator tells everyone to close their eyes ("It is now nighttime and all the villagers are asleep..."). Each night, the Narrator tells the Mafia to open their eyes and acknowledge their fellow members. They kill off one of the other players by silently gesturing to indicate their target and to show unanimity . Then the Narrator instructs the mafia members to "sleep" (close their eyes again).
Now the Sheriff will open his or her eyes and point at a suspect; if that player is in the mafia, the narrator nods. Then the Narrator instructs the Sheriff to "sleep" and the Nurse to open his or her eyes; he or she points at someone to protect, then goes back to sleep.
Day
The Narrator tells everyone to wake up. Unless the nurse and the mafia selected the same target a murder is announced, sometimes with a little narrative detail. For example, "The police chief said, 'Bob was shot seven times, stabbed three times, and drowned in the river. This is the worst case of suicide I've ever seen.'" This player is "dead". He or she may no longer participate in voting but his or her spirit may take part in the discussion.
During the daytime phase, the players deliberate over which suspected Mafia member they wish to nominate for execution. Once nominations are made, the narrator administrates an election between the nominees, in which all players vote - whoever receives the most votes is lynched they are "dead," and flip their card up (revealing their true alignment).
Because players have less information and more freedom to deliberate, during the day, the day phase tends to be longer than the night phase. The day phase either has a set time limit, or continues until a lynch has been performed.


Win condition
The game ends either when the last Mafia member is killed (Innocent victory) or the Innocents no longer outnumber Mafia members during the day (Mafia victory).
Lives
This variant requires the Narrator to keep track of the players' lives on a piece of paper, because every player has two or more lives. This extends the game when there are too few players for the standard rules. Kills (in the night & day phases) reduce these lives, until a player reaches zero lives and is eliminated. Mafia 'kills' which reduce lives are usually not announced to the innocents.