10 Best Board Games Like Mafia (Games Better Than Mafia In Their Own Way)

Who doesn’t love lying to your loved ones and burning bridges forged through decades of friendship? Below, find a list of the top ten best board games that mirror the classic “Mafia” game format:

10. Bang!

Image

Pull out your trusty revolver and get ready to loot in Bang!

Bang! stands as a classic social deception game. It has the necessities of any good Mafia game: deception and murder. 

In Bang! you get to live out your best Old Western fantasies. Players are divided between the Sheriff, Deputies, Outlaws, and Renegade. With the exception of the Sheriff, the roles are hidden. It is the goal of the Outlaws to kill the Sheriff, the goal of the Sheriff and the deputies to kill the Outlaws and the Renegade, and the goal of the Renegade to kill everyone, but they must leave the Sheriff for last. 

While normally in a Mafia game the so-called “bad guys” are aware of who each other are (think in a typical Mafia game, the Mafia members would “wake up” at night and see each other), in Bang! every role goes in blind as to who their allies are. 

Choose This Game If You Like... 

• Old Western Themes; The roles and player cards come straight from an Old Western film. You are given “bullets” for lives, and will be able to gain different items to help you beef up your character. If you enjoy Westerns, you’re sure to get a kick out of vicariously living those fantasies through this game. 
• Playing with Fewer Players; The base game play of Bang! can be effectively played with four players, and if you get the expansion pack you can play with as few as three. If you want a low-key game night with only a few people, Bang! is a great option. 
• Extra Challenges; Each role comes with its own specific range of challenges. For example, even though you know who the Sheriff is, as an Outlaw you can’t be too hasty in your attempts to kill them or their deputies, lest you give away your own position. As the Renegade, you need to balance keeping the Sheriff alive until the end of the game, since if the Sheriff dies before everyone else, you will lose the game. 

9. A Fake Artist Goes to New York

Image

Put those drawing skills to the test in this pictionary themed Mafia game. 

A Fake Artist Goes to New York is a Mafia game in Prada disguise. While it may not at first appear like the others on the list for some reason (I’ll give you a hint: there’s a distinct lack of murder), it still incorporates the intrinsic values of lies and deceit that we love about a good mafia game. 

In A Fake Artist, a rotating Question Master sets a category and word to be drawn. The word is given to each of the players except for one, who will receive an “X” instead. This Fake Artist needs to convince the other players that they know what the word given was, even when they have no idea. 

Players collaborate on drawing the word, passing around a piece of paper that they each add a line to in order to eventually create the word given by the Question Master. If the Fake Artist isn’t found, they and the Question Master win a point. If the Fake Artist is accurately named, they have a chance to guess what the word was. If they guess incorrectly, the Artists win. 

The Fake Artist should be using their wits and their best poker face to fool the other players into believing that they are just another Artist. This is what makes it a Mafia game. 

Choose This Game If You Like…

• Drawing; This should perhaps go without question, but if you enjoy drawing then you’re sure to get a kick out of this game, and perhaps have an extra leg up against your fellow players as well. 
• Being Creative; As the Question Master you will have to create words for the players to draw, and should try to make the topics complex to make sure there’s enough for each player to contribute. 
• Paying Attention to Detail; While most Mafia games require a keen eye to details such as body language and holes made in reasoning, A Fake Artist in New York is different in that players need to pay special attention to the lines made in the drawing, while keeping in mind the artistic abilities of the players, and what the final result should look like. Are they the Fake Artist, or simply a bad one?

8. Werewords

Image

From the creators of One Night Werewolf (don’t worry, we’ll get to that later), Werewords acts as a “Secret Words” type game with a Mafia twist. Like Mafia, Werewords features secret roles, lying and deception, and the ultimate struggle of bad versus good. 

In Werewords, players are secretly assigned three different roles: Werewolf, Villager, or Seer. One player will also function as the Mayor. The Mayor picks a word (if you’re dreadfully uncreative like I am, there is a Werewords app that can select a word for you) and it is the goal of the Villagers to guess what the word is, by asking “yes” or “no” questions. 

The Werewolf character knows what the word is, and is trying to distract and mislead the Villagers from finding the correct word, without giving away their own role. The Seer character acts as a direct foil to the Werewolf - they also know the word, and attempt to help the Villagers without giving themselves away. If the Villagers do not guess the word, they can still win if they identify the Werewolf. Likewise, if the Villagers do identify the word correctly, the Werewolf can win if they correctly guess who the Seer is. 

Choose This Game If You Like... 

• Word Games; If you have a breadth of vocabulary rivaling that of Mr. Webster himself and enjoy flexing it, this will be a great game for you to show off those linguistic skills. 
• Deduction; Werewords takes the normal level of deduction in a Mafia game to another level, wherein not only are you trying to deduce the roles of those around you, but also the keyword of the round, all within a time constraint. 
• Quick Thinking; Being the Werewolf or the Seer requires exceptional levels of multitasking and thinking on your feet, as you want to ask questions directly related to your goal without giving away who you are. 

7. Sheriff of Nottingham

Image

Sheriff of Nottingham, while a classic bluffing board game, differs more from the standard Mafia-type games we’ve seen so far. There are no secret roles, no good versus evil, and no murders in the building (boo). What makes Sheriff of Nottingham still worthy of this list is the bluffing aspect of the game. As well established at this point, lying and bluffing is a key part of any Mafia game, and Sheriff of Nottingham exemplifies this well. 

In Sheriff of Nottingham, players rotate being the Sheriff, while remaining players act as traders and merchants in a local market. Players can use their cards (items) and money to purchase different goods. Before they are allowed to leave the city, however, they must pass the Sheriff’s inspection. If they are found carrying contraband goods, all of their possessions are confiscated. 

Players can bluff about the contents of their bags or attempt to bribe the Sheriff into letting them pass without inspection. After each player has had a chance at playing Sheriff, points based on good remaining are counted, with the highest score winning. 

Choose This Game If You Like... 

• Old-timey Crime; Similar to Bang!, in Sheriff of Nottingham players get to roleplay merchants in a time gone by, where Sheriff’s can be bought by heavy purses and empty promises. 
• Economics; Yes, really. If you enjoy games that focus more on accumulation of wealth and buying or trading goods then you’ll enjoy the Sheriff of Nottingham. 
• Not Having to Remember Roles; As mentioned above, Sheriff of Nottingham is different from all other games on here, as there are no assigned secret roles, and no attempting to figure out what the players around you are trying to accomplish. Everyone has the same goal: make money. If complex roles and keeping track of different motivations makes your brain hurt, this may be the game for you. 

6. Love Letter

Image

Love Letter also functions differently than a typical Mafia Game. Like Sheriff of Nottingham above, all players have the same goal, and there is no assignment of secret “roles”. However, there are numerous different cards that you can be dealt in Love Letter, each with a different perk to help you win the round. I would still classify this as a Mafia Game in a loose sense, as players will need to be sneaky about the cards they gain and utilize them to their advantage to knock other players out of the game. 

In Love Letter, players roleplay the most eligible bachelors of all the land who seek the hand of the fair Princess Annette. The Princess, however, has locked herself in her tower, and the only way to reach her is by letter. The bachelors’ goal is to use others to help their letter reach the Princess first, while stopping the others’ letters in transit. Each player begins with only one card, and each round a card is discarded, making it harder to deduce which cards are in play. Players, during their turn, can draw and play cards to try and expose others and knock them out of the running. Players attempt to either be the last one standing in a round, or have the strongest hand, earning them a Token. A player wins once a set number of Tokens have been earned (number depends on the number of players). 

Choose This Game If You Like... 

• Elimination-type Games; In each round, players are at risk of getting “knocked out”, putting them out of the running for a Token. If you like this extra risk of not being able to take action or succeed in a round due to the sly wits of your fellow players, Love Letter would be a good fit for you. 
• More Complex Gameplay; Being successful in Love Letter requires not only understanding the card in your hand, but also being able to deduce what cards other players may be holding. This means a lot more memory and concentration must be used on your part in order to succeed in a round. 
• Strategy; While playing strong cards at the beginning will give you an edge, it will simultaneously put a target on your back. In contrast, relying on weak cards too long will end with your elimination from the round. Love Letter requires a delicate strategy to make it to the end. 

5. Deception: Murder in Hong Kong

Image

Put on your best Sherlock Holmes thinking cap to solve a murder - or perhaps, to commit one. 

Deception: Murder in Hong Kong is a classic Mafia-esque murder mystery game. In typical Mafia fashion, this game features secret roles, a “Godfather”, good versus evil, and deception. 

To play, everyone is randomly assigned a role: Forensic Scientist, Murderer, Accomplice, Investigator, and (depending on number of players) a Witness. The game follows an act of murder, and the investigators who were sent to discover the culprit. There’s only one problem: one of the investigators is the murderer. 

The Forensic Scientist acts as the “Godfather” character. They know who the murderer is, and leave clues using special scene tiles. The Investigators attempt to solve the clues to find the murderer while the Murderer and Accomplice do their best to knock them off the scent. If you’re playing with a Witness, the Witness sees the Murderer and Accomplice leaving the scene of the crime, but does not know which is which. The Witness needs to be careful about being too obvious with their clues - if the Murderer and Accomplice can name them as the Witness at the end of the game, the Witness dies and the Murderer and Accomplice go free. 

Choose This Game If You Like... 

• Murder Mysteries; And who doesn’t? Deception: Murder in Hong Kong has all the hallmarks of a good murder mystery - deception, betrayal, and vague clues to help you piece it all together. 
• Last Chance Redemption; The Witness character functions like a Last Chance character we see mirrored in some of the other games here. This character gives the Murderer and Accomplice one last ditch effort to get away scott-free at the end of the game. 
• Having a “Godfather” Role; Some of these Mafia games take out the Godfather, narrator type role for simplicity. However, if you enjoy being the one to pull the strings behind the scenes and watch the players scramble around for clues, you will enjoy Deception: Murder in Hong Kong. 

4. Clue

Image

Revisit the original scene of the crime for a nostalgic murder mystery night. 

Okay, so, hear me out - Clue, in its most basic form, is a social deception game. This inherently makes it a Mafia game. While missing elements of betrayal and deception, Clue still operates with set roles, who are trying to figure out who committed a crime. Sound familiar? 

In Clue, characters are brought together in a mansion for a dinner party, only to discover one of the guests has been murdered! By moving around the board and questioning their fellow party-goers, players begin to use social reasoning and process of elimination to determine who the killer is, where the crime occurred, and what the murder weapon is. 

Clue is great because even if you are the murderer, you don’t know it, and can still win by being the first to correctly reveal whodunit. 

Choose This Game If You Like... 

• Simple Games; Clue was designed for all ages, and has very comprehensible and easy to understand rules. It’s fun no matter how old you are, and gives the brain a bit of a break from the more complex games on this list. 
• Process of Elimination; Rather than deducing based on body language or social cues, Clue operates on a process of elimination type of reasoning. If that’s your cup of tea, Clue is probably your game. 
• Reliving Childhood Classics; I think it’s safe to assume many of you reading have played Clue before and are currently scoffing at its inclusion on this list. Relax, take a break from constantly questioning everything around you, and indulge in a little murder mystery nostalgia. 

3. Coup

Image

If you think your family dynamics are complex, you haven't seen anything yet. 

Coup mirrors the complex politics of a family in an Italian city-state. This alone makes it Mafia worthy. Add in a host of secret characters, assassination, lies and betrayal, and Coup is a hallmark of a classic Mafia game. 

In Coup, players are given two character cards and two coins. The goal is to have the most “influence” i.e. cards at the end. The character cards also act as a “life” counter. Other players will be trying to “coup” you and remove your influence. When you lose both character cards, you are out of the game. 

Each of the character cards gives a player a different perk - for example, the Assassin can pay three coins to assassinate someone else, and the Contessa can block an assassination attempt. What makes Coup interesting is that you can lie and do the actions of the character you claim to be, even if that’s not the character that you have. If someone challenges you, however, you will have to reveal your character card. If you were lying, you lose an influence. If you weren’t then the person who challenges you loses an influence. In the case of the latter, you shuffle your character card back into the deck and redraw. 

Choose This Game If You Like... 

• B.S; If you like the popular card game B.S then you’re sure to enjoy calling out your fellow players when you find their poker faces slipping, and exposing them for their lies. 
• Bluffing; A successful Coup player confidently bluffs about their role and lies and steals from other players as they wish. There’s a fine line to the bluffing in Coup - go too far, and someone is likely to try and call you out on it. 
• Complex Roles; Coup’s character cards have more complex perks and playing rules, and as you play you have the opportunity to switch out or gain different perks as well. This makes the gameplay more dynamic and keeps players on their toes. 

2. One Night Werewolf

Image

Get ready to howl at the moon in this supernatural twist on a Mafia classic. 

A crowd favorite, One Night Werewolf is perhaps the most well-known of the modern day Mafia board games. It has all the hallmarks, including a “night-time” sleep sequence, an omniscient narrator, secret roles, and deceit. 

In this iteration, Werewolves take the place of Mafia members in committing foul acts in the midst of night, and it’s up to a crew of Villager characters to bring the Werewolves to justice. The game comes equipped with an app that serves as the Narrator character so that each player can take a role in the game. 

At the beginning of the game, each player is given a role that is known only to them. During the night, the different characters complete different actions. For example, the Troublemaker will switch two players’ cards around, or the Seer may take a peek at someone else’s card. This gives a special twist to One Night, as the role that you went to sleep as may not be the role that you wake up as. It’s your goal to figure out what character you are and then try to help the Werewolves or the Villagers succeed accordingly. 

Choose This Game If You Like... 

• A Twist to a Classic; One Night serves, in a basic form, as the most direct Mafia comparable game on the list. The slew of different character roles refreshes the classic game into something new and exciting. 
• Fast-Paced Rounds; You can set each round to have a timer of five or less minutes, giving you the incentive to wrap up voting for the Werewolf in a timely manner. This keeps the game flowing well, and several rounds can pass in the blink of an eye. 
• Customizable Games; One Night comes with sixteen different cards, of which a maximum of ten will ever be used at a time. This means you can swap out what roles are being included in order to customize and change-up your rounds. 

1. The Resistance: Avalon

Image

Play as a crew of Arthurian legends in this fairy tale adaptation on Mafia. 

The Resistance is a classic social deduction game involving spies within an empire. The Resistance: Avalon is the medieval King Arthur variant. Both are exceptional Mafia type games, but I have to admit my favor falls further with Avalon than the original base set. This is due to a personal bias for Arthurian legend, and both games are certainly worth the time. 

Avalon features secret roles, betrayal, and a key hallmark of a Mafia game - the “bad” characters know who each other are. While Avalon is more quest-based than the original Mafia game, the roles and features of each character follow the original Mafia characters closely. 

Avalon follows Arthur’s knights as they face off against the agents of Evil. Each player is dealt a secret card, which they cannot share with the other players. During the “Night”, Evil characters will wake up and see each other. There are some other characters with special roles as well, such as Merlin, who knows who the Evil are. However, if the Evil are able to name who Merlin is, they win at the end of the game. 

Each round, a King token rotates amidst the players. The King chooses a certain number of players (dependent on the amount partaking in the game) to go on a Quest. The table can vote whether or not they want those players to go on the Quest. After the vote, the players on the Quest will vote to have the Quest succeed or fail. At the end of the game, if more Quests fail than succeed, Evil wins and vice versa. 

Choose This Game If You Like…

• Arthurian Legend; In Avalon, you can play as classic Arthurian characters such as Merlin, Mordred, and Morgana. If you’re a massive nerd like I am, this is a major draw of the game. 
• Strategic Voting; as a Good player, you may want to vote against a party going on a Quest if you believe there to be agents of Evil in the company. However, you have to keep in mind that if a party vote fails too many times, it will be counted as an automatic Quest failure (a win for the Evil players). So, you have to strategize when to hold your ground against a party, and when it might be better to let it go. 
• Deception; As an Evil character, you can choose to pass or fail any Quest to throw other players off your scent. Additionally, you can try and coordinate with your fellow agents of Evil to pass or fail a Quest together.