3 player mafia rules
Updated


In three player mafia, players compete to figure out who's lying and who's telling the truth as quickly as possible.

There are five cards.
2 townsperson, 2 mafia, 1 cop. You can make your own cards or use a regular deck. Or for $500.00 I'll make you an official limited edition set.
The cards are shuffled and placed face down in front of the three players. Each player picks one card, alternating who picks first each hand.
You'll need a timer to time the 2 minute rounds. Preferably the timer has audio so you know it's stopped. Here's an egg timer widget that will do the trick if you're stuck but have a mac.

There are maximum two rounds to a hand. the rounds take 2 minutes at the most. Each person gets a card, and the countdown timer is started. Players do not reaveal their cards to each other. The two remaining cards are placed into the center of the game space.
There are three areas in front of each player. The left and right slots represent each opponent, the middle is reserved for No Kill. If you vote to kill a player you place your card, (face down) in the corresponding area. If you vote to not kill anyone you place your card in the No Kill slot. If a card is in a slot that vote is being cast, however, players may remove thier card from a slot at any time.

Round 1
Players discuss and interogate one another to try determine what cards they have. Players may vote by placing thier card at any time.
If two people vote to kill a third person by placing their cards in the corresponding areas that person is imedeately dead.  The dead person can no longer speak until the end of the hand and their card remains face down. It takes two people reaching a consesus to kill in round 1.
If all three people vote to not kill or time expires, the hand ends and the players reveal their cards.

Round 2
The first person to vote to kill the other gets the kill. The dead player from round 1 will judge if it is close, (there cannot be a tie). In this round the dying person gets a short sloiloqy in which they may try to appeal to the killer's senses. This must be brief.  The killing player may chose at this point to retract the hit or continue. If they retract the game goes on, if they continue the hand ends and all the players reveal their cards. If time expires during the soliloquy they still die (you cannot filibuster until time expires).
if both players choose not to kill, or if time expires, the clock is stopped, the hand ends and all players reveal thier cards.

The cop
To declare yourself the cop you must say "I am the cop" and put the cop token in your cop area. When a player declares that they are the cop they may look at one of the two remaining unused cards. 
Any living player may declare themselves as the cop at any time (even if someone else has already declared), but only the first player to do so per hand gets to look at a card. You do not need to be the cop to decalre that you are the cop, however only the player with the cop card will score as a cop at the end of the hand. The player who looked at the card may not show the card to anyone else.
 NOTE: For the real cop to score as a cop, they must reveal that they are a cop before the hand ends otherwise they score as a townsperson.




scoring

Mafia
if you are living at the end of the hand and ...
there is a cop AND a tp alive  + 1
you are alone + 3
there is another mafia alive + 5
exception - if you kill a mafia in the 2nd round you get 0 points

Townsperson
if you are living at the end of the hand and ...
you are alone + 1
there is a cop or TP alive  + 2
there is a cop AND a tp alive  + 3

exceptions
- if you were killed in the 1st round by the cop AND the Townsperson,  you get 4 points.
- if there is a mafia alive you get 0 points

Cop (must declaire otherwise the cop scores as a T.P.)
if you are living at the end of the hand and ...
you are alone + 2
there is TP alive  + 3
there is a 2 TP alive  + 5

exceptions
- if you were killed in the 1st round by 2 TP you get 4 points.
- If you killed a TP in either round you get 0 points.
- if there is a mafia alive you get 0 points

Bonus
After you score the main points you tally the bonus.  (for the bonus rule, concider the cop as one of the townspeople)
If you survived the round your bonus goes up 1
If you died but one of the people who killed you (or both) were from the same group as you, your bonus stays the same.
If you were killed by the opposite clan your bonus goes back to 0.

You cannot have more than 3 bonus points. Your bonus is added to your score at the end of each hand. This rule means that it is possible to die and still make points.


example hand
The players start the timer and they look at thier cards. Player 3 instantly declares that she is the cop, places a cop token on her board and looks at one of the two remaining cards. Players two and one both claims to be townspeople, player two goes so far as to put his token in the no kill zone of his board. Player 3 votes to kill player 1 and player 2 soon follows. Player one is dead and round 1 ends.


Round 2. Both players pick up their cards from the board. Player 2 asks player 3 what they found out as the cop. "I saw Mafia", says player 3. After more dicussion about validity and truth, player 2 votes for no kill, and player 3 does the same.

scoring the hand
All three players reveal thier hands. Player 1 was mafia, player 2 was a townsperson, player 3 was the cop.
player 1 gets no points and no bonus.
Player 2 gets 2 points, thier bonus goes up to 1 so they score 3 total for the round.
Player 3 gets 3 points,  thier bonus goes up to 1 so they score 4 total for the round.

by Joe Mckay, 2008