Learning The Roles of Mafia

By Aelita and Animalityy. Art by justinjiaxinghu.

Hello and welcome to Cacturne's Mafia Learning Center. Today, Cacturne will present how to play two main themes played in the Mafia room on Pokémon Showdown!. Mafia is a hard game to get into, but really easy to master, as the differences between games can be understood with just knowledge of the basic roles.

Without further ado, let's jump into our themes: Classic and Dethy!

Classic

The Classic theme is possibly the most common theme played in the room, and a basic overview of the roles will help you weed out those Mafia pests quicker! Unless, of course, you are the Mafia, in which case it will help you get sharper knives to kill those Town scum.

Mafia: The role this game is named after. His goal is to get everyone killed or lynched except him and his partners if he has any. He can kill one person in the night phase. If he has partners, they have to collectively choose only ONE target per night. He is Mafia sided.
- Optimal Strategy: As Mafia, your goal is to kill the Town. Sounds easy enough. However, both the Town and Werewolf are usually out to get you. Act like you're a Villager (see below). Divert as much suspicion as you can by talking enough so that you won't be suspected as being "too quiet". A much more risky strategy, but with better payoffs, is to counterclaim (or just claim) Cop and out your partner as a Mafia the next day. While it is risky, as you will be playing with one less person, the Town will have little option but to trust and protect you unless you kill the real Cop and get voted off.
Werewolf: This is another common role. He is just like a Mafia and can kill a one person at night. However, he cannot be distracted by the Pretty Lady (see below) and will kill her instead. He acts before the Mafia, so if he targets a Mafia, the Mafia dies before the Mafia's target dies. He is sided with himself. Commonly abbreviated as WW.
- Optimal Strategy: Just act like a Villager and you're good to go. The strategy is really similar to the Mafia's, except Werewolf plays alone. Just remember that killing confirmed Mafia players only helps the Town, and you kill before the Mafia, so unless you are in danger of being killed it's not a feasible idea.
Cop: He chooses a person at night to "inspect." He will then be informed of the person's role. He is one of the most useful roles sided on the Town side.
- Optimal Strategy: If there is a role that can protect (i.e. Doctor, look below), CLAIM THAT YOU ARE THE COP. Pay attention Day 1 to see possible investigation targets, which are usually people talking a lot or throwing accusations at each other that you suspect are Mafia. Make sure at least the majority of people playing believe you are a Cop. If someone counterclaims you as Cop, do NOT waste an investigation on them—they are 95% likely Mafia and 5% trolling, which is bad and will probably result in a gameban unless there are other reasons.
Doctor: He chooses a person at night to "protect." If anyone tries to kill the person he chose, the kill command will fail. The Doctor CANNOT protect himself, unless specified in the role description, but in Classic, he can't. Doctor is also a very important role and sided with Town. Commonly called Doc.
- Optimal Strategy: You really want to see if anyone claimed to be a Cop if you start in the Day. A lot of times you will see a claim and someone CC'ing (counter claiming) Cop. In this case just pick who you think is most likely Cop. Your main goal is to protect possible targets of the Mafia, which usually means "Protect the Cop or else your effectiveness just dropped by a lot."
Pretty Lady: She chooses a person, and if that person has an action at night—such as Inspecting, protecting, or killing—they will not work that night. Her command has no effect on Villagers, and if she distracts the Werewolf she gets ravishingly devoured and dies. Sided with the Town. In bigger games there CAN be a Mafia-sided Hooker. Commonly abbreviated as PL.
- Optimal Strategy: Your goal is to not hit the Cop, Doc, or Werewolf (the latter because you will die if you distract the Werewolf), and instead aim for the Mafia. This is important because the Mafia cannot kill if you distract either one of the Mafia. This is why, if you distract someone, keep an eye out on whether there's only one kill the next day (the Werewolf's), because the person you distracted could be Mafia.
Villager: A role that is the most populous in any Mafia game. A Villager has no commands in the night phase but can vote someone out during the day. Because there are so many of them, numbers CAN be power. Usually sided with Town, but there are Mafia-sided Villagers in bigger games only. Commonly abbreviated as Villy.
Mayor: Like a Villager, but his vote counts as 2. That’s pretty much the only difference. Sided with Town.
- Optimal Strategy: The two roles play pretty similarly, with the only difference being Mayor's vote of 2. Each other player has a vote of 1. As the game goes on, Mayor, if he survives, becomes more and more effective, as he has the power to break ties and change the game towards Town. Villagers should keep an eye out for any inconsistencies in stories or false claims and demand justification. Villagers are a vital role in the theme.
Jailkeeper: Like a bodyguard, except if he protects someone, the person also cannot use his night action. For example, if he protects a PL, the PL cannot distract, or if he protects the Cop, the Cop cannot investigate, and so on. Sided with Town.
- Optimal Strategy: This role is a mashup of the PL and the Doc, and it is only present in very big setups. You play similarly to both the Doc and PL, except you don't die when you hit the Werewolf. You should not be hitting the Doc, Cop, or PL at all, and you should be keeping an eye out for one less nightkill at the beginning of the next Day phase.

Dethy

Dethy is a theme that is played with 5 people, and 5 people only, and it is one of the main themes played when there aren't enough people to play Classic. The aim of Dethy is to figure out who is the Mafia and lynch them before they take out all of the Cops. Oh right, we forgot to mention roles—it's one Mafia member against 4 Cops. Sound easy right? Nope! Each cop has a disability that prevents them from finding the Mafia easily.

Remember that in Dethy, only the Mafia knows his role. The cops know that they are Cops, but not which type of cop!

Naive Cop: The Naive cop is the same in principle as the cop seen in the "Classic" theme but with one glaring weakness: they only receive "Cop" results when they inspect someone. Their inability to get a Mafia result can be useful when used with the other results to determine who is and isn't clear.
Paranoid Cop: The Paranoid cop is the polar opposite of the Naive Cop, in the sense that they can only receive "Mafia" results when inspecting someone. Also, much like that of the Naive Cop, the Paranoid Cop's results are best used in tandem with the rest of the group's rather than as standalone evidence.
Insane Cop: The Insane Cop operates with an interesting and highly useful mechanic: he gets the opposite inspection result of whoever he inspects (eg: inspects cop, gets mafia result). While not too effective before roles have been established, if the Insane Cop is confirmed insane, they can just lynch whoever they get a "Cop" result for and proceed to win the game.
Sane Cop: The Sane Cop is the regular guy, no different from the role found in the Classic theme. The one weakness it has in Dethy, however, is proving that they are the Sane Cop and not the Insane Cop. As only 2 roles can get different results on inspections, Sane and Insane Cop can be hard to differentiate between during the early stages of the game, until one of their inspection targets dies.
Mafia: His goal is to get everyone killed or lynched except him. Mafia can kill one person in the night phase. In Dethy, the Mafia must deceive the cops into believing that he is a Cop himself, using their trust to forge inspections and kill off Cops during the night phase. An effective Mafia will be able to force the group into a wrong decision by using his "inspections" to help him whittle down the cops.
- Optimal Strategy for Cops In General: Make sure everyone who claims cop says their result in the first day (no one dies on the night before). After this, based on who dies the next day (A Cop will obviously die), you can start to see what type of Cop you are and then go from there.
- Optimal Strategy for Mafia: Claim a Cop and make sure you STAY CONSISTENT with your Cop type. If you keep switching, you will get found out pretty easily. Pay attention Day 1 to see if anyone has NOT been inspected and kill them in the resulting night. This will make it a lot harder for Cops.

We hope this will help you get better acquainted with the Mafia room! There are many, many more roles that can be created. Roles can even be combined to make bigger, better roles and create a more strategic game. We hope to see you in the Mafia room soon!

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