Mafia Role Assigner

What this generator does

Deals four distinct roles rather than a simple majority and minority, which is what separates Mafia from the simpler games beside it: the Detective and the Doctor give the village real powers to use at night, and that turns the game from pure discussion into something with information to gather and protect. The page also carries the rules, because a role dealer with no rules is useless to the person who has been asked to run the game.

How to use this tool

1. Enter every player, in the order you are sitting.
2. Set how many Mafia there should be — roughly one for every three or four players.
3. Deal, then pass the phone round so each player learns their role privately.
4. The narrator calls night one and the game begins.

Understanding the controls

Players

One per line in seating order. Mafia needs at least seven to be any good — below that the village runs out of people before it has gathered any information — and it scales comfortably to twenty or more.

Mafia

How many players are Mafia. Roughly a quarter of the group is the usual balance: two for seven to ten players, three for eleven to fifteen, four beyond that. Too few and the village wins by luck; too many and the game ends on night two.

Worked examples

Nine players

Two Mafia, one Detective, one Doctor and five Villagers — a good first game.

Thirteen players

Three Mafia, one Detective, one Doctor and eight Villagers.

Seven players

Two Mafia, one Detective, one Doctor and three Villagers — about the smallest game worth playing.

Common use cases

• Running Mafia at a party with no cards to hand
• A youth group, scout troop or student society game night
• A large group where dealing physical cards would take longer than the first round
• Teaching the game to people who have never played it
• A camp or retreat evening activity for a dozen or more people

How this generator works

One Detective, one Doctor and your chosen number of Mafia are dealt, and everyone else becomes a Villager. The whole allocation is fixed in a single draw before the first player looks, so nothing can be deduced from the order in which people check. Each player sees only their own role and the screen blanks before the phone moves on. The narrator is not dealt a role — whoever runs the game should not be listed as a player.

Randomness and fairness

Roles are dealt with the browser's cryptographic randomness and the draw cannot be seeded, which is deliberate — a reproducible Mafia deal would be a cheat rather than a convenience. Every player is equally likely to hold any role regardless of where they sit or when they look.

For how randomness is produced across the whole site, see how Generate Random works.

Limitations and good to know

• Only the four classic roles are dealt. The many published variants add roles this tool does not know about, so if you want a Vigilante or a Jester you will have to assign it yourself afterwards.
• Mafia are not told who the other Mafia are. The narrator handles that on night one by asking them to open their eyes together, which is how the game has always worked.
• There is no night-phase tracking, no elimination list and no win detection — the narrator runs all of that, and the rules below explain how.
• Refreshing or leaving the page destroys the deal, so anyone who has not yet looked at their role will be stuck and the game will need redealing.

Common mistakes

The narrator including themselves in the player list

The narrator does not hold a role and must not be dealt one, because they need to know everything. List only the players sitting in the circle.

Running one Mafia in a group of fifteen

Use about a quarter of the group. A single Mafia among fifteen will almost always be caught before they have eliminated anyone significant.

Letting eliminated players keep talking

Once eliminated, a player is out of the conversation entirely. Their reactions are the biggest source of accidental information in the game.

Announcing what role an eliminated player held

Agree this before you start. Revealing roles on elimination makes the game much easier for the village, and most groups choose not to.

Practical tips

• Have the narrator write down who holds what as the phone goes round, or they will not be able to run the night phases.
• Seat people so everyone can see everyone — Mafia is largely a game of watching faces.
• For a first game, tell everyone the role counts openly. Knowing there are two Mafia and one Detective makes the deduction possible rather than hopeless.
• Keep the day discussion to a fixed few minutes, or the first round will swallow the evening.

Privacy and your data

Names and roles are handled entirely on the device, never uploaded, never saved and never written into the page address. The screen shows one player's role at a time and clears before the phone is handed on, so there is no way for a later player to scroll back and see who came before. Analytics records only how many roles were dealt.

Frequently asked questions

How do the night phases work?

The narrator asks everyone to close their eyes, then wakes the Mafia to choose someone to eliminate, the Doctor to choose someone to save, and the Detective to investigate one player. Then everyone wakes and the day discussion begins.

How does the game end?

The village wins when every Mafia has been voted out. The Mafia win when they equal or outnumber the remaining villagers.

How many Mafia should there be?

About a quarter of the group. Two for seven to ten players, three for eleven to fifteen, four for larger games.

Is Mafia the same game as Werewolf?

Essentially yes — Werewolf is a retheme of the same game, with villagers and werewolves in place of villagers and Mafia. The roles dealt here work for either.