Variants of Mafia Rules

Governor

The Governor is an ordinary Civilian who may issue a "stay of execution" to save anyone who is being convicted during the day.

This may be implemented one of many ways:

  • In the original form, the Governor calls out to preevnt a lynching. Alternatively, the moderator may ask directly after a vote has been taken if the governor wishes to come forward and issue a stay. Note that after this has been done, the identity of the Governor is now public.
  • In a variant, persons who are executed do not flip thier cards over immediately; this is because executions occur at midnight. The governor is awakened during the night and asked whether he wishes to grant a stay of execution. This method keeps the identity of the governor secret.
  • Phil Lim of Vancouver suggests that the Moderator should see if the Governor is voting for the person on trial. If so, then that person dies if a majority is reached. Otherwise, he does not die, even if a majority IS reached.

    Unless otherwise determined by the moderator, the following rules apply:

  • The one lynching per day rule includes persons who are saved by a stay.
  • The governor may issue only one stay on any individual. If the individual is placed on trial again, the governor is helpless to act.
  • The governor may not issue a stay on his own execution.

    Note-- This variant was recommended to us by Charles Stokes of Samford University. We introduced the role on 6/24/99 and it was a great success.

    Note 2 -- We tried Phil Lim's suggestion on 2/20/03, and it worked great. Unfortunately, we forgot the last two points listed above, but they never actually happened. Also, we ruled that in Turbo, the Governor has to be one of the person voting for the one with the greater number of votes for a lynching to occur.

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