Can I be invited as well? this sounds fun

ok!

The game will be under way shortly... if anyone wants in, there is still one spot remaining.

And the game has begun!

It looks like the procedure worked well. We will see how the game progresses: it is not yet obvious to anyone what strategy they should pursue.

Regarding your message 3: If you send someone a "message 3", they will immediately know that you are part of the mafia, and since they will be the person to publicly announce that the mafia has been decided, everyone will know that said person knows about 1 mafia member. This could easily be a problem, since the Mafia then ends up with one player less than they started with, simply because of the procedure with the messages.

Not necessarily as message three could already have been forwarded before.

Ah, damn, I must have missed that while reading through the setup process. Never mind then, you never know whether you received message 3 from a mafia member or a civilian, in which case it doesn't pose a problem.

Correct!

Here's an interesting dilemma:

Should people be allowed to post screenshots of their received and/or sent messages?

I'm leaning towards "no", since it effectively makes it a game of Photoshop instead of a game of Mafia, and may be asking too much of, say, people who play on their phones (or don't have photo editing software).

This is analogous, in my mind, to how players in a regular Mafia game are not allowed to simply show their role assignment card to "prove" that they are civilians.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this matter? I'm open to arguments for or against.

Although a game of photoshop would be fun, i would agree that posting screenshots is a bit analogous to showing "assignment card to "prove" that they are civilians".
:)
Edit: can i be part of the next mafia game?

Edited 7/15/2016 16:19:15

Sure!

No, this should not be allowed.

People are supposed to pretend they are a certain role, if they use "proof" then they shouldn't even bother playing.

It worries me that this even comes up with this sort of thing. When I do real life Mafia sometimes people want to show their card to prove what they say is true. Its like they don't understand the concept of the game. I worry for these people.

I never played this game with any cards. But we always had a gamemaster. I fear that this is the easiest and most satisfying way to deal with this.

downside: yeah... one guy obviously can't play.
upside: you can have more roles than just "mafia member" and you can play it like the real mafia game. without dealing with it as something close to a FFA.
I would sign up as the first master if noone else wants. (ofc we will go on with the current game first)

When I play Mafia in real life, I tell people that there are precisely two rules:

1. Never show anyone your card. (Naturally, this means you can't look at others', either.)

2. Follow the instructions for when to open and close your eyes *strictly*.

Everything else is just details about how you choose to narrate the game, and how voting decisions are made. (These are details which can be adjusted.)

I'm glad to see that, so far, the consensus is clear. Does anyone wish to make the contrary argument?

Ah, I'm too late

Edited 7/16/2016 11:15:40

If the game goes well, there will be others, don't worry!

I wonder if even talking about the messages after the fact should be forbidden.

In the current game, there is a move to try to trace down the "flow" of messages in reverse order. While we can't prove anything, and therefore it's not getting us any certain results, some might argue that it's not a good practice. On one hand, I agree - the purpose of the messages is to establish a secret team, and discussing them too openly could expose the Mafia earlier than desirable, given gullible players. On the other hand, people like asking each other, "You are a Mafia member?", as well, forcing their fellow players to lie.

I'm torn on this one.