Types of players in Mafia

No matter how varied the world is, we constantly meet the same types of people. Even though all players in Mafia have their own strategies and personalities, we can divide them into certain categories, each of which has weak and strong sides. This classification will help you to understand archetypes between Mafia players and to see your own behavioral patterns.

You can meet these behaviors in their pure form, but often players represent two or even three of these types. A person can change the strategy and show different sides of the character, depending on the particular game and personal life experience.

Strategist

One of the most powerful players. Strategists are better than others in strategic thinking and in ability to get a consistent picture of the game. They can figure out roles of others quite accurately and then prove it with logical arguments.

Strengths:

• Can see the whole picture.

• Are able to prove their opinion.

• Do no tend to make illogical decisions and to have paranoia.

• Respected by others, especially by a Logician and a Psychologist.

Weaknesses:

• Have no developed intuition.

• It can be difficult for them to read emotions of others.

• Can make a "mistake of professional chess players": they think three steps ahead and forget about the current moment in the game.

• Such strategy can be ruined by unpredictable actions of Intuits and Paranoids.

Logician

They are similar to Strategists in the ability to see logical connections, however, they cannot think big and predict the outcome of the game. Logicians concentrate on one particular situation and apply their conclusions during the next voting process, whereas Strategists see the whole picture.

Strengths:

• Are able to perceive arguments, which help to unite with Strategists and others Logicians in the team.

• Able to recognize weak speeches that lack logic.

• See the situation at its current moment.

Weaknesses:

• The game becomes difficult, if a suspect provides a decent alibi and deceives them.

• Not effective at the beginning of the game, when there is not enough information for making logical lanes.

Mathematician

They are Logicians who use technical methods, which often come from their professional or personal hobbies. At the end, such participants can decompose the whole game and explain each round in details. They work only with established facts; it is difficult for Mathematicians to foresee the future. They are better than Strategists in their analytical abilities, but worse in predicting the outcome.

Strengths:

• Find mutual understanding with Logicians and other Mathematicians.

• Make reliable conclusions und provide others with good arguments.

• Rarely make mistakes when there is enough information.

• Consistent.

• Excellent memory.

Weaknesses:

• They need a large amount of information from others to be productive in the game.

• Overconfident.

• Lose concentration in the present moment when thinking about their theory.

Psychologist

A universal player in Mafia. Often they are successful not because of their Mafia practice, but because of personal life experience. They read people very well, and can calculate a black player without mathematical schemes and logical chains.

Strengths:

• Understand arguments of Logicians, Mathematicians and Strategists, but do not forget about their own vision of the situation.

• Are not prone to prejudice.

• Are involved in the game from the very beginning, even when there is not enough information to work with.

Weaknesses:

• Have difficulties with their argument.

• Can interpret the behavior of others incorrectly, confuse real characters of people with their roles.

Paranoid

A weak red player who is obsessed with something. Such players can follow a certain person whom they blindly believe, despite all the arguments against this person, or they can use an aggressive model of behavior to pressure others when there are no reasons for that.

Strengths:

• Ideal for Sheriff's role.

• Do not doubt themselves.

• Excellent members for the Red team and dangerous for the Blacks (if their suspicions are correct).

Weaknesses:

• Being with them in the team is hard enough, because they do not know how to take arguments.

• Far from reality.

• If their guesses are wrong, they are playing for the Mafia basically.

Intuit

Many people consider this type of player to be weak, but there are some situations which neither a Logician, nor a Psychologist can handle. Intuits feel the moment and make the subjective choice, depending on their own interpretations of gestures, intonations and other small details. In fact, any of their arguments are justified by the phrase: "I do not know why but I think that…." The complete opposites of Logicians.

Strengths:

• Do not need a lot of information to make a decision, therefore they are active from the very beginning.

• See people through.

• Psychologists can understand their reasoning quite well and help to find the right arguments.  

• Become strong players with the development of logic.

Weaknesses:

• Cannot prove their point.

• Do not get along with Logicians, Strategists and Mathematicians.

• Cannot play if their intuition is silent.

• Easily influenced by others.

 

Types of players depending on tactics

Leader

A Leader takes responsibility for the team and leads the game in the chosen direction. A dangerous position for the Leader of the Citizens, because mostly likely this player will become the next victim. After the elimination of one Leader, usually another Leader appears. However, the second Leader might choose absolutely different strategy, and it might confuse the Red team. If there are only inexperienced players in the Black team who make many mistakes, the Reds can win even without a Leader, otherwise it is necessary to have one.

The Leader in the Red team is most often the Sheriff. In the Black team, the Leader might decide to reveal himself as a false Sheriff.

Silent type

One of the favorite tactics of beginners. They keep silent and just watch what is happening around. Silent Citizens only make it worse when do not reveal any information, since such players easily become suspected. Experienced players can also use this tactic to observe and notice small details in the behavior of others, and at some point in the game they turn into Leaders (the Sheriff can choose such tactics).

It is a fairly risky tactic for the Blacks. An experienced black player might also pretend to be a  Silent type, and then reveal himself as the False Sheriff.

Vassal

A Vassal always follows a Leader and does not have his own opinion. If a Vassal with a red card follows a black player, it usually leads to the defeat of the Citizens. The Mafia tries to make such players their allies.

The Mafia can play a role of a Vassal in the red team and appear to others as a 100% Citizen. If all the suspicious players are eliminated, and the game is still going on, then the Citizens should look for the Mafia just among the Vassals.

Bomber

This player sacrifices himself for the sake of the team. A red Bomber might reveal himself as a False Sheriff to protect the real one from the Mafia. At the same time, this tactic also helps to knock out one of the Mafia players. Errors in this scenario lead to defeat, so this model is rarely used.

An Instigator

It is similar to the tactic of a Vassal. The only difference is that an Instigator does not have such a close connection to a Leader. This type is the one who convinces a Leader to make a definite decision. Two black players with this tactic might vote for different players to mislead the Reds (this situation is called a "fork").

Bug

Black player who allegedly plays for the Citizens. First, he helps the Reds, earns their trust, and stays in the game due to his alibi. This tactic sounds very appealing, but is quite difficult to perform, so only experienced players can handle it. Also, in this case it is extremely important to control all you speeches and movements in order to not appear suspicious at all. It is not the best situation when there are two Bugs in the Black team at once, since the Citizens will quickly understand that and vote for those players.