A guide for beginners

As in most intellectual games, how fast you improve depends on how engaged you are. The better you understand the mechanics, rules, and nuances, the faster your level rises. Start by studying the rules thoroughly and understanding the goals of each role: townsperson, sheriff, don, and mafia.

Find an experienced player (or several) you can bring questions to — most veterans are happy to share their experience. Choose your mentor carefully: look for players with plenty of experience and strong results in games, tournaments, and championships.

Practice, practice, and more practice: it's the only way to learn — make mistakes, learn from them, and avoid repeating them. The best players think their game (and everyone else's) through in advance, simulate how events might unfold, and aim for the maximum of positive moves and the minimum of negative ones. There is always something to think about — train that habit of planning ahead.

If you don't have much table practice yet, watch the games clubs publish on YouTube (see the recommended channels below). Pay attention to the mechanics and to how players argue their actions and suspicions. Many videos have the night phases open, revealing the roles: periodically hide the roles from yourself, work out who is red and who is black, then check how right you were — and when you're wrong, figure out which argument misled you. Another good exercise: watch with the roles open and track exactly which move by which player decided the game. After you know the rules and have watched or played at least 20 games, move on to the masterclasses, articles, and books below. Mafia takes practice — don't be discouraged if it doesn't all click at once. It's worth it. Good luck!