Paranormal: a Mafia Game
“Now it is the time of night, That the graves, all gaping wide, Every one lets forth his sprite In the church-way paths to glide.” -Puck (A Midsummer Night’s Dream 5.1.2228)
Paranormal is a Mafia (also known as Werewolf) game inspired by the Western Culture’s rich spiritual and occult belief and lore and a desire to involve eliminated players back in to the game. The game can be played in-person or on-line, this ruleset assumes the game is being played on-line. The following general rules apply:
1. Post at least once per day.
2. No sharing role PMs, images of quicktopic chats, or anything else outside the thread.
3. Don’t tag threads.
4. Don’t post in the main Mafia: the Forum game thread.
5. No communicating outside of the thread about the game.
6. No gimmicks (acrostics, html coding, cryptography, etc.)
Players
Each player is a member of one of two teams: Spiritualists or Diabolists
Spiritualists, excluding a few, have no special powers. They must post in the thread during the day and may vote to shuffle someone off this mortal coil. The player voted off becomes a Spirit. Spirits go to Purgatory where they may interact with players in limited ways.
Diabolists are the Mafia of this game, they can do everything Spiritualists can do. In addition they talk in secret during the night. Once per night they choose one Spiritualist to kill by vote, this player shuffles off this mortal coil and becomes a Spirit.
Shuffling off the Mortal Coil
Each player may vote to remove another player from active play into Purgatory, the vote must be in bold and on its own line. Votes may be retracted at any point during the day, voting for another player automatically retracts your vote for an earlier player.
In the case of a tie, vengeful spirits will eliminate a random player from the game. Note: this is any random player in the game not simply those tied.
Eliminated players are removed from the active game and go to Purgatory. In Purgatory they may have limited interactions with living players. Players removed from Purgatory are out of the game. Player roles and affiliations are not made public at time of removal.
Purgatory
Players removed from active play are moved to Purgatory where they sit in silence contemplating their life or just getting really pissed off. Some Spiritualists and Diabolist have the ability to interact with the Spirits in Purgatory and some Spirits may have the ability to interact with living players. Each night a random player will be seized by spirits and taken up into Purgatory where they may commune with the Spirits.
Day and Night
The day is 72 hours long. The night is 48 hours long. Time does not exist in Purgatory.
Victory
All Spiritualists (alive and dead) win when no Diabolists remain alive after a vote. All Diabolists lose.
All Diabolists (alive and dead) win when their number is equal to or greater than the number of Spiritualists at the end of any night phase.
Dramatis Personae
Town – Spiritualists
Channeler (Vigilante) – Allows a dead player, once per game, to kill another player
Excorcist (Investigator) – May examine a dead player each night to determine their alignment.
Medium – Allows a Spirit to talk and vote each day. Spirits do not count for win conditions for town or mafia
Poltergeist – If this player is shuffled off the mortal coil they become a Poltergeist. Poltergeists may leave a message for living players at the beginning of each day to be delivered to the GM during the night.
Spiritualist – Just your regular old good occultist. No powers.
Mafia – Diabolists
Hexer (Blocker) – Stops all powers being used on and/or performed by target
Demonologist – Every three days can remove a Spirit from Purgatory. The removal is announced by the GM. This removes the targeted player entirely from the game
Diabolist – Just your regular old evil occultist. No powers.
PS – This is the first draft of these rules. They have not been reviewed or tested.
