Mafia (
Russian: Ма́фия, also known as
Werewolf,
Assassin or
Witch Hunt) is a
party game created in
USSR by
Dimitry Davidoff in 1986,
[1] modeling a battle between an informed minority and an
uninformed majority. Players are secretly assigned roles: either "mafia", who know each other; or "townspeople", who know only the number of mafia amongst them. In the game's "night" phase the mafia covertly 'murder' a townsperson. During the day phase, all of the surviving players debate the identities of the mafia and vote to eliminate a suspect. Play continues until all of the mafia have been eliminated, or until the mafia outnumber the townspeople. A typical game starts with seven townspeople and two mafiosi.