# Shakespeare Mafia-- Act I **URL:** \ **Category:** Thread Games\ **Created:** [July 12, 2025, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeare-mafia-act-i/1020789 "2025-07-12T15:19:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2025, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeare-mafia-act-i/1020789/81 "2025-07-13T21:16:10Z")
I am not sure whether revealing my idea does harm or not at this stage, but I will try anyway and you can judge yourself. As **Chronos** wrote in the [**Signup thread**](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeare-mafia-signup/1020456/40) he distributes roles among us players like this: > [@Shakespeare Mafia-- Signup](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeare-mafia-signup/1020456/40): > > > [@](#): > > > > You are Rosencrantz, a minor character. > > > > HORATIO > > So Guildenstern and Rosencrantz go to ’t. > > HAMLET > > Why, man, they did make love to this employment. > > They are not near my conscience. Their defeat > > Does by their own insinuation grow. > > ’Tis dangerous when the baser nature comes > > Between the pass and fell incensèd points > > Of mighty opposites. > > > > - Hamlet, Act V, scene 2, lines 63-69 > > Major Characters all have some sort of special ability. The role PM for a Major Character is similar to one for a minor character, but the quote might be followed by additional information needed for your role, such as “Every night, you may target one player.”. The last sentence means that the information provided so far is incomplete and thus ambiguous. The quote is a hint, but it is not enough to find out what a character can or is supposed to do - yet. I think the ambiguity does not apply to Villains: they know their role perfectly well. But it applies to the other characters: we are still in the dark. And it shows. Could a Villain please be so friendly and confirm whether I am on the right track or not? ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2025, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeare-mafia-act-i/1020789/82 "2025-07-13T21:26:40Z")
Perhaps the vagueness simply is in that we do not know what power roles are in play, but once those roles are revealed in the course of the game, we will. For instance if there are multiple deaths overnight (or none) we can infer certain information from that. ---
**Author:** ![DemonTree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demontree/32/8646_2.png) [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2025, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeare-mafia-act-i/1020789/83 "2025-07-13T21:29:50Z")
Hi all. I haven’t played Mafia before, but I have played an IRL game called Werewolf, which I think is similar. So I may or may not have any idea what I’m doing. My favourite Shakespeare play is Twelfth Night (TBH I’m not familiar with that many of them, but it’s a fun one). ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2025, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeare-mafia-act-i/1020789/84 "2025-07-13T21:43:04Z")
Yep, Werewolf is a tabletop version. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2025, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeare-mafia-act-i/1020789/85 "2025-07-13T21:46:12Z")
On the voting and unvoting procedure: Can I only unvote my own votes? Or can I also cancel somebody else’s vote by unvoting it? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2025, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeare-mafia-act-i/1020789/86 "2025-07-13T21:50:22Z")
You control your own vote. Other people control their votes. If someone is voting for someone and you don’t think they should be, all you can do is to vote for someone else to try to put them ahead. Or try to convince them to change, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2025, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeare-mafia-act-i/1020789/87 "2025-07-13T21:55:17Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > On the voting and unvoting procedure: Can I only unvote my own votes? Or can I also cancel somebody else’s vote by unvoting it? Wow. THAT would be an interesting game mechanic sometime. ---
**Author:** ![DemonTree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demontree/32/8646_2.png) [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2025, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeare-mafia-act-i/1020789/88 "2025-07-13T22:31:20Z")
> [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](#): > > Yep, Werewolf is a tabletop version. It’s going to be a lot harder to work out who’s guilty without being able to see anyone’s face. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeare-mafia-act-i/1020789/89 "2025-07-14T01:00:30Z")
> [@DemonTree](#): > > It’s going to be a lot harder to work out who’s guilty without being able to see anyone’s face. Been playing since 2009. It’s, well, almost impossible most of the time. You have to go on motivations and honestly, just feel out the vibes people give off. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeare-mafia-act-i/1020789/90 "2025-07-14T01:07:41Z")
> [@DemonTree](#): > > It’s going to be a lot harder to work out who’s guilty without being able to see anyone’s face. Which is why it takes us weeks rather than an hour of game play. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeare-mafia-act-i/1020789/91 "2025-07-14T02:06:36Z")
Well, the flip side of that is that playing on a message board, we do have an exact log of everything everyone has said. So it’s possible to do things like “On Day 2, you said this, but now, you’re saying this other thing, why the change?”. ---
**Author:** ![AngeloftheNorth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/angelofthenorth/32/19559_2.png) [@AngeloftheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AngeloftheNorth)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeare-mafia-act-i/1020789/92 "2025-07-14T02:32:59Z")
I couldn’t agree more. Recruitment games are no fun to play. ---
**Author:** ![AngeloftheNorth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/angelofthenorth/32/19559_2.png) [@AngeloftheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AngeloftheNorth)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeare-mafia-act-i/1020789/93 "2025-07-14T02:44:11Z")
Who is @colinfred ? He’s not playing, is he? ---
**Author:** ![AngeloftheNorth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/angelofthenorth/32/19559_2.png) [@AngeloftheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AngeloftheNorth)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeare-mafia-act-i/1020789/94 "2025-07-14T02:56:33Z")
For the record, every player has posted at least once in Day One except Thing.Fish. (That doesn’t bother me, as it is Sunday and the game started early.) It does mean someone is fooling me, though. (I say this because I have it in my head that everyone who posted seems Towny, but we can’t all be Town.) ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeare-mafia-act-i/1020789/95 "2025-07-14T10:24:39Z")
> [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](#): > > So, with 13 players, I’d guess 3-4 Major Characters, 3-4 Villains, and the rest Minor Characters. I looked on the Internet and found three suggestions for the number of Villains: - precisely **2** (seems unlikely when the number of players can vary) - one-third … so here **4** - the square root of the number of players … so that would be **3** I don’t have a favourite Shakespeare play, but I have been to the marvellous recreation of the Globe Theatre in London [Welcome to Shakespeare’s Globe | London](https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/) ---
**Author:** ![LH75](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lh75/32/4438_2.png) [@LH75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LH75)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeare-mafia-act-i/1020789/96 "2025-07-14T10:39:45Z")
I can’t narrow Shakespeare down to one favorite ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeare-mafia-act-i/1020789/97 "2025-07-14T14:37:58Z")
Hi everyone! Just noticed this had started! So happy to be playing Mafia again, and especially with you wonderful people. I think this is my first game since the Championships two years ago, which kind of melted my brain. SunUp asked about the kinds of roles we might expect to see. Literally anything is possible (except recruitment, which means players can’t switch from Town to Scum teams). But the most common roles we see are some variation of the following (obviously the names may also vary): Cop: Investigates target and learns their alignment. The most powerful role. Doc: Protects target and prevents them from being killed. May or may not be able to protect self. Vig: Kills target. Roleblocker: Prevents other players from using their powers. Variation is Jailkeeper, which also prevents the target from being affected by the powers of others. Watcher: Learns who else, if anyone, targeted their target with a power. Tracker: Learns who, if anyone, their target targeted with a power. ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeare-mafia-act-i/1020789/98 "2025-07-14T14:38:18Z")
Gotta run now, talk later. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeare-mafia-act-i/1020789/99 "2025-07-14T15:03:49Z")
And with that, I believe that everyone in the game has now posted. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeare-mafia-act-i/1020789/100 "2025-07-14T15:08:41Z")
And to be clear, for the new players, by Town we mean Major or Minor Characters, and by Scum we mean Villains. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeare-mafia-act-i/1020789.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeare-mafia-act-i/1020789.md?page=6)