Exactly. I assume this does not occur. I’ve never heard of it, anyway.
How else would you do it?
By the way, I’ve got a few spare ear-trumpets to sell, if anyone’s buying…
In my first game of online mafia (on Idle’s board) I did this, without knowing it was against the rules. The person I sent a message to duly reported me, and I withdrew from the game. Dopers are far too upright for their own good. 
I just figured the moderator would privately (like when everyone’s heads were down) ask the cop who they wanted to investigate. The cop could submit a name and the mod could tell them (in writing maybe) if they were town or whatnot.
Wouldn’t the scum notice the cop with their ear trumpet?
Sure. That’s where I’ve played it the most, really. If it’s a small group, you have just the Doctor, the Detective, and the Mafiosos. In larger groups, you can go a whole night without having a role beyond “villager”, so we add any of a half-dozen more roles (the Witch, the Lovers, the Hunter, etc.)
I play mafia on a couple of Magic: The Gathering boards a lot. Last year, a bunch of us got together IRL for the first time and played werewolf face-o-face. It was incredible to try and adjust to the wildly different strategy with people I know very well online, but not at all IRL. I hope to do it again soon.
One guy, Stan, is smooth as silk online. Game one face-to-face, as soon as the day starts, I ask him if he’s scum. He pauses, stutters out “Y-no. No!” and breaks into a huge nervous grin. Bam! Easy lynch. But nope, he was town. Turns out he’s just a whole lot more nervous IRL than he is online. That showed me just how different the game is.
I learned about mafia as a theatre game in high school. It was always played as an ice breaker/bonding game early on in the rehearsal process of any show that was getting put up. It’s lots of fun in real life, and as others have said, very different.
That would be entertaining. I wonder how different we would all be in an offline game.
Curious. In the theatre group I was in, in college, we often played ‘sex in the prop room’. A much more effective bonding game, but perhaps less conducive for the whole cast.
I’ve often wondered if the real life game can use some of the complex rules and roles we’ve* created. I could see having a lot of fun with a themed mafia. Heck, a [del]gastard[/del]bastard real life mafia would be hilarious.
*Well, you’ve. I don’t play because I’m going through crap where my brain doesn’t work reliably, and I can’t guarantee I’d be around and capable though a whole game. That’s why I think I’d prefer quick games.
Well, how conducive it’d be to the whole cast would depend on how many tentacles you have, now wouldn’t it?
High school theatre vs college theatre my friend. I participated in your type of bonding when I was going to theatre school for college. I am here to tell you it is highly conducive to whole cast bonding. Large ensemble shows are particularly fun. 