History of Mafia
A game called Murder, which is the prototype of Mafia, has been played for many years. In Murder, one murderer is selected by the moderator, and can kill one person per night. There is a detective who can inquire about one player per night. Dmitry Davidoff believes this game to have originated in England in the 1970's. It quite probably goes back much further, though.
We have received correspondence from Mr. Brian G. McCue, who states that he played the game "Murder" on 31st December 1969 with a group of people who had definitely played "Murder" in the December of '67, and possibly earlier. These games were played in Vermont.
Mr. Davidoff also recalls a Russian game called Ubiitca, which he translates as "Muderer." In Ubiitca, there is not night, and the lone murderer kills by "winking" at his victim during the day. The victim, seeing the wink, must say "ouch" and die. This version is played with and without a detective, although it is not absolutely clear what the role of the detective is in this game. Played with a night, this game is identical to Murder, except in small logistical details.
Mr. Davidoff claims to have invented the modern game of Mafia in 1986. He describes the main thrust of the game as "informed minority versus uninformed majority." In his Mafia, members of the Mafia see each other in a preliminary "night." Following this, accusations begin. Mafia members know who each other are, but civilians, in the majority, do not. Multiple convictions are allowed, and night falls whenever a majority vote for it to end. During night, everyone writes something on a piece of paper; civilians write "Honest" and Mafia members write the name of the person they want to kill. The papers are collected by a moderator or a democratically-elected leader. All Mafia must choose the same person in order for the murder to be accomplished. Effective Mafia must therefore signal during the day, secretly. Note that the number of papers not marked "Honest" is the sole indication of how many Mafia are left.
The difference between Murder and Davidoff's game is therefore that there are multiple murderers who work together. Kai Chan reports, however, that his mother played "Murder" with multiple murderers and inspectors in 1956-57, in England. Therefore, this innovation predates Mr. Davidoff's game. Mr. Davidoff may have invented the game independently, but he is not the originator.
The next definite reference to the game is found in Hungary, where a group of players founded an organization in 1996. However, this page mentions that many players recognised the game played as a variant of other games. In the Hungarian rules, there is only one execution per day, but the Mafia still need blind unanimity during the night, although this is achieved in a different way. The game also caught on in Norway, where the inspector is given the name of a Mafia member every night. This game, according to Vegard Engstrom, was dervied from the game Kommisar Katania which was the name of a character in "La Piovra", an Italian television series.
Mafia was introduced in Princeton by Steve Phelps on September 15, 1998, and was first played as a regular event on
September 24, 1998. After a brief one-year hiatus in activities, Daniel Raburn
reintroduced the game to the Coffee House on September 2, 2004.
The Graduate Mafia Brotherhood of Princeton University