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Combination of Mafia (Werewolves) and Killer (Wink Murder)

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Toa Lewa
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Joined: 10/31/2013

I often play the party game Mafia when I am with a large group of people. Recently, I was introduced to the game Killer (Wink Murder). I really like this game; however, it lacks some of the decision making and player interaction/evaluation found in Mafia. Yet, Killer can be played very quickly, and Mafia tends to go on for a long time. Both of the games have their pros and cons. Because of this, I am thinking of mixing some of the elements together to make (what I believe would be) a superior game. However, I am not sure how I can combine the rules together.

You can click on the links below if you are unfamiliar with one of the games.

Killer Description and Rules

Mafia Description and Rules

So what am I trying to do? I am primarily wanting to keep many of the rules of Killer, and keep the game fast and intense. However, I am wanting Killer to feel more like Mafia where players have different roles and there is more player interaction.

I like the roles from Mafia (Doctor, Sheriff, etc.). Killer doesn't have any real roles (besides Killer and non-killer), and I would like to add some. The issue I am having is that I would like to add a doctor like role. For example, a doctor could heal a "killed" player. However, this would present a problem, because a killed player knows who killed them according to Killer rules. If a dead player is brought back to life and makes an accusation, it is much more likely for the killer to be eliminated. I am not sure how to prevent this from happening. I have toyed with the idea that information is communicated by passing cards back and forth. However, I am not sure if this will solve anything. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Zag24
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Joined: 03/02/2014
Include a Moderator?

Mafia generally has a moderator. (I've never actually played it live, but I've played it a lot online. Maybe live is different.) I think you could solve the problem that way.

BTW, I've never played Killer, but I looked at the rules. How does the killer survive once it's down to him and only two others? At that point, one of the two others should immediately accuse, and the other should agree. Now they know who the killer is. The killer can't bluff an accusation, because he still dies when it fails.

JewellGames
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Joined: 06/03/2012
Take a look at this:

Take a look at this: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3sMD0gvc5FCT1pJS0gwN3BzY3c/preview

It doesn't have roles but it plays fast, requires no moderator, and has a lot of player interaction.

ruy343
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Joined: 07/03/2013
I've tried this too!

A few friends of mine and I had an addiction to "Assassin" (wink murder) for a few months, and we really enjoyed it. However, the honesty associated with being sure that you were being the one winked at was a struggle for other groups that I played with later, and prohibited me from forming a new group later down the road. That was one of the glaring flaws in the mechanics of the game.

Anyways, on to answering your question.

I think that assigning roles in a game like wink murder involves a fatal problem: the moment that someone does something involving their role, everyone else knows that they're not the murderer. This is why mafia has those pauses (night phases) so that everyone can have the chance to perform their role without having everyone know who has what role.

However, I do like the idea that the linked google doc had. Allow me to make a new take on it. Ahem.

The Black Spot (or whatever that ink spot is called in Treasure Island) (Or ANTHRAX if I wanted to give it a more modern feel)

Materials needed:
-Stack of index cards
-Pen and pencil
-Wits

Each player is handed a card that tells them their role. There are a variety of roles:
- Assassin (perhaps a team): - take out their three targets in order to win the game (target count is varied to increase difficulty or to adjust to larger group sizes).
- Target: trying to avoid detection by the assassin team.
- Detective: trying to detect the assassin team.

Others as ideas come to me later on.

The game takes place in "rounds". You write three notes to other players on your index cards each round, representing letters sent by the players to one another. The notes can say anything. It's really not important. After all three are sent from each player (players may receive heaps of mail, while others may not: recipient count is unimportant), the players who received mail may choose to keep or re-send mail to whomever they would like, but they may only re-send up to half of the mail they received.

Assassins can draw a simple black circle on their note to indicate a killing letter. If a player receives a note that is lethal, they must put their head down on the table or otherwise feign death. Players can vote after a round to knock out a person, who must also feign gruesome death.

Dunno if it would work, but I bet it could be improved upon first. thoughts?

Actually, I could commercialize this if there was a set of cards that everyone drew from the center, and players could discard at any time after drawing, meaning that a good player could just get rid of their "spot" cards and send only good cards, and the assassin could discard them to garner others' trust.

Toa Lewa
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Good Ideas

Those are some good ideas. My initial idea was to distribute some cards to each player. The cards would determine the role (e.g. Ace = Killer, King = Detective, etc.). Players would also get a number of cards that allow them to perform actions by passing them to another player. For example, passing a club to another player could wound the player, passing a diamond could heal the player, and passing a spade could be a request for information (hearts would be health). The problem I ran into was that players could easily deduce who hurt another player so I decided that a player could choose to postpone an attack. A postponed attack would occur later after the player receives a card from another player. For example, the killer could make it where the attack happens two turns later. However, this system doesn't fix the problem where the player knows who hurt him (I don't want instantaneous death, I like health).

I think your suggestions will help me get around some of my difficulties.

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