When I first came to Moscow, I kept reading and hearing references to Mafia Games. Also did a bit of
geo-caching, so just assumed (perhaps stupidly) that this was some kind of street-based cops and robbers role-playing game. But recently bought a designer cards version from
Art Lebedev of what turns out to mainly involve a lot of sitting around and opening and closing your eyes.
Actually, the game looks great and somehow very Russian. People are allocated roles on the basis of cards, resulting in a minority of mafia and the larger group of unknowing innocents, plus some other characters. In the 'night time' when the goodies have their eyes closed, the baddies get to murder someone. During the 'daytime' everyone tries to work out who the baddies are (including, of course, the baddies). The game continues until either the mafia are destroyed or they outnumber the good people.
Then almost simultaneously with this discovery, I found out that you
can do an
'adventure' game in Moscow. It is basically a tour - sorry quest - with clues. Will report back more when I get around to trying it....
You can read the original Mafia Games rules here and a more detailed explanation and brief history on Wikipedia.
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