A tense 2-player duel: one player hides, the other hunts.
Players2 players
Duration~15-25 min
DifficultyEasy
One player secretly becomes the Mafia, hidden among 25 suspects on a 5x5 board. The other is the Inspector, armed with evidence cards, hunting for the one suspect who's lying. Shift the board, gather clues, and strike at exactly the right moment - a wrong guess doesn't end the game, but a right one ends it instantly.
Objective
The Mafia is one of the 25 suspects on the board and wins by staying hidden long enough to kill the Inspector's secret identity, or by racking up 14 kills in total.
The Inspector doesn't know who the Mafia is, but wins by correctly accusing them - through a confident Arrest or a card-fuelled Citizen arrest.
Board & Suspects
The board is a fixed 5x5 grid, filled with 25 random suspects at the start of every game - board size never depends on player count in this mode.
One of those 25 suspects is secretly the Mafia's true identity, chosen before either player sees the board laid out.
Kill, Arrest, and Interrogate all reach the 8 cells around your identity - fewer near an edge.
Mafia
Your identity
Valid target (adjacent)
Step 1 of 2
The Inspector's Hand & Identity
After the Mafia's opening kill, the Inspector draws a hand of 3 evidence cards and picks one of them, face down, as their own secret identity.
The other 2 cards stay in the Inspector's hand as evidence, ready to be spent later on Interrogate or Citizen arrest.
Evidence Deck & Discards
Cards not drawn into the Inspector's hand form the evidence deck, used for Masquerade draws and for refilling the hand.
Spent or discarded cards go to a discard pile and are out of play for the rest of the game.
How the Game Starts
There's no dice roll or coin flip to decide who goes first. The Mafia's forced opening kill is what starts the game - they must kill an adjacent suspect on their very first turn, before any other action is available.
Only after that opening kill does the Inspector draw a hand and pick a secret identity.
Turn Order
After the opening kill and the Inspector's identity pick, play strictly alternates: Mafia, then Inspector, then Mafia again, and so on.
Each turn is exactly one action - pick it, resolve it, and pass the turn.
Actions
Shift
Mafia · Inspector
Slide a whole row or column by one cell, wrapping around the board.
Choose any full row or column and slide it by exactly one cell. The card that falls off one edge wraps around and reappears on the opposite edge.
You don't need to be in or near the row or column you shift - any line on the board is fair game.
You may not immediately undo your opponent's most recent shift: the same row or column, in the opposite direction, is blocked on your very next shift.
Valid targets: Any row or column on the board, whether or not your identity or your opponent's sits in it.
Not a legal target: Reversing the exact row/column and direction your opponent just shifted, on your immediate next turn.
After this action: Always ends your turn.
⚠
Anti-reverse rule: you can't immediately undo the opponent's last shift on the same row or column.
Before: pick any row or column - you don’t need to be near it.
Row being shifted
Step 1 of 2
Kill
Mafia
Kill a living suspect adjacent to your own identity card.
Choose a living suspect in the 8 cells surrounding your own identity card and flip it face-up dead.
If the suspect you kill happens to be the Inspector's secret identity, you win instantly.
Reaching 14 total kills also wins the game automatically, even without hitting the Inspector.
Valid targets: A living suspect within the 8 cells around your own identity card.
Not a legal target: Suspects that are already dead, or suspects outside the 8-cell area around your identity.
After this action: Always ends your turn.
⚠
Your very first turn as Mafia is a forced Kill - you must kill an adjacent suspect before Shift or Masquerade become available. Every later turn, Kill is optional.
Kill, Arrest, and Interrogate all reach the 8 cells around your identity - fewer near an edge.
Mafia
Your identity
Valid target (adjacent)
Step 1 of 2
Masquerade
Mafia
Draw the top evidence card and secretly swap your identity onto it if it's still alive.
Draw the top card of the evidence deck and look at it secretly.
If that suspect is still alive, discard your old identity card (flipping it dead) and adopt the drawn suspect as your new secret identity.
If the drawn suspect is already dead, you simply discard that card face-up and keep your current identity - the action still counts as used.
After this action: Always ends your turn, either way.
⚠
Masquerade can only be used 3 times per game in total, and only while the evidence deck still has cards left in it.
The Mafia draws the top evidence card and secretly checks it.
Current identity
Mafia identity
Discarded (marked dead)
Step 1 of 2
Interrogate
Inspector
Spend a hand card to mark a living suspect innocent and check the area around them.
Spend one card from your hand on a living suspect still on the board.
That suspect is permanently marked innocent, shown with a visible check-mark.
You privately learn whether the Mafia is somewhere in the 8 cells around that suspect - a yes/no answer only, never who.
Valid targets: Any living suspect still on the board.
Not a legal target: Suspects that are already dead.
After this action: Always ends your turn.
Spend a hand card on a living suspect: it’s marked innocent, and the 8-cell area around it lights up to show what was checked.
Marked innocent
Marked innocent
Checked area
Replace card
Inspector
Discard a hand card and draw a fresh one from the evidence deck.
Discard one card from your hand and draw a new one from the evidence deck.
This gives no information at all - it's purely a way to cycle a card you don't want.
After this action: Always ends your turn.
Citizen arrest
Inspector
Discard a living hand card and accuse a suspect adjacent to that card's board position.
Discard a LIVING suspect card from your hand.
Accuse one of the suspects adjacent (8 cells) to that discarded card's own board position of being the Mafia - not adjacent to your own identity.
Guess correctly and you win instantly. Guess wrong and the discarded card is simply lost - no hint is given either way.
Valid targets: A suspect in the 8 cells around the board position of the card you just discarded.
Not a legal target: Suspects outside that 8-cell area, and your own secret identity.
Targeting yourself: Never allowed - your own secret identity can never be the target of a Citizen arrest.
After this action: Always ends your turn - no redraw afterward.
⚠
You can never accuse your own secret identity this way, even if it happens to sit adjacent to the discarded card.
Arrest
Inspector
Accuse a suspect adjacent to your own identity - or accuse yourself - at no card cost.
Accuse a suspect in the 8 cells around your own identity card, or accuse yourself, of being the Mafia.
This costs no card - it's a free action.
Guess correctly and you win instantly. Guess wrong and the game simply continues; there's no other penalty.
Valid targets: A suspect in the 8 cells around your own identity card, or your own identity card itself.
Not a legal target: Suspects outside the 8-cell area around your identity.
Targeting yourself: Allowed and legal - self-arrest is often used as a safe bluff, since it can never accidentally win but also costs nothing extra.
After this action: Always ends your turn.
Kill, Arrest, and Interrogate all reach the 8 cells around your identity - fewer near an edge.
Mafia
Your identity
Valid target (adjacent)
Step 1 of 2
Win Conditions
The Mafia wins by killing the suspect that is the Inspector's secret identity, or by reaching 14 total kills.
The Inspector wins with a correct Arrest or a correct Citizen arrest - either one ends the game immediately.
Either player can surrender at any time from a shared Surrender button; doing so ends the game immediately and hands the win to the other player.
Board Compression
A row or column that becomes fully dead is removed immediately, and the board shrinks around it.
This can happen right on the Kill or Masquerade action that empties the last living suspect in that line, or on any Shift that newly lines up an already-fully-dead row or column - it is never delayed until later.
Kill-Area Info Leak
If the Mafia kills a suspect the Inspector had already marked innocent via Interrogate, the Inspector privately learns whether the Mafia was in the 8 cells around that kill too - the same yes/no reveal as Interrogate, just triggered by a kill instead.
ℹ
A nice-to-know side effect, not a core action you choose to take.
Spend a hand card on a living suspect: it’s marked innocent, and the 8-cell area around it lights up to show what was checked.
Marked innocent
Marked innocent
Checked area
No Undo
Every move is final the moment you submit it. There is no way to take back a Shift, Kill, Masquerade, Interrogate, Replace card, Citizen arrest, or Arrest once played.
Examples
Self-arrest is a safe bluff
As Inspector, you can Arrest your own identity. It will never accidentally win (you already know you're not the Mafia), but it costs nothing extra either - a common way to bait information or burn a turn safely.
Masquerade onto a dead suspect
If the card you draw for Masquerade turns out to already be dead, you don't get another try. You discard it face-up, keep your current identity, and still lose one of your 3 Masquerade uses for the game.
