Mafia Game
Level up the Mafia Game with advanced roles: the Mastermind (fools the Detective), the Serial Killer (solo third faction), and the Lookout (sees who visited).
Once your group has played the Mafia Game a few times with the core four roles, Mafia, Villager, Detective, Doctor, you are ready for the next level. The four advanced roles in our free Mafia Game fundamentally change the game's dynamics: the Mastermind corrupts the Detective's information, the Jester adds a chaos win condition, the Serial Killer opens a third faction, and the Lookout gives the town a new surveillance tool.
This guide focuses on three of the four advanced roles: Mastermind, Serial Killer, and Lookout. (The Jester has its own dedicated guide: Mafia Game Jester Role.)
🎮 Play the Mafia Game with advanced roles
In the setup screen, scroll down to the Extra Roles section. Toggle on any combination of the four optional roles. The app will automatically adjust the Villager count to maintain balance and warn you if the configuration would be unfair for your group size.
Each extra role replaces one Villager in the deck.
Team: Mafia Night action: None (passive role) Special power: Reads as "Not Mafia" (innocent) to the Detective's investigation
The Mastermind is a Mafia member with one devastating passive ability: if the Detective investigates them, the result comes back Not Mafia. The Detective performs their investigation normally, the narrator checks the app, and the app returns a false innocent result.
This is not a trick the Mastermind actively does, it is a built-in property of the role. The Detective cannot distinguish a genuine Villager result from a Mastermind result. They look identical.
The Detective is the Village's most valuable information tool. A confident Detective who has investigated three players and gotten clear results can sway the entire group. The Mastermind poisons that well: now even a "confirmed" innocent could be the Mastermind, and the Detective knows this.
This doubt is worth more than the information the Mastermind corrupts. Even if the Detective never investigates the Mastermind, the mere possibility that they might changes how the Detective shares their results and how the town weighs them.
You know you read as innocent. Use this aggressively:
The Mastermind's ideal play is to be "confirmed clean" by the Detective and then spend the remaining game redirecting suspicion to Villagers while their Mafia teammates stay hidden.
Team: Neutral (solo third faction) Night action: Eliminate one player (independent of the Mafia kill) Win condition: Last player standing, alone
The Serial Killer is a completely separate faction, neither Village nor Mafia. Every night, they silently point at one player to eliminate. This kill is resolved by the app separately from the Mafia's kill. Both can happen on the same night.
The Serial Killer wins only if they are the last surviving player, everyone else (Villagers, Mafia, all other roles) must be dead or eliminated.
In a standard Mafia Game, the Village has one threat to deal with: the Mafia. Add a Serial Killer and the game becomes a three-way race:
Nights with a Serial Killer can produce two deaths, one from the Mafia, one from the Serial Killer. This accelerates the game and puts enormous pressure on the Doctor (who can only save one person per night).
You are alone. You have no allies. You must survive to the end while appearing to be a Villager.
Phase 1 (early game): Eliminate Mafia members. This is counter-intuitive, but it serves two purposes: it makes you look like a helpful Villager (fewer deaths from the Mafia side), and it reduces your eventual competition.
Phase 2 (mid-game): Once the Mafia threat is reduced, pivot to eliminating Villagers. The town is less alert at this point and you blend into the confusion.
Phase 3 (endgame): If you are one of the last three players, you need to make sure neither remaining player is more trusted than you. One correct vote by the town eliminates you.
Team: Village-aligned neutral Night action: Watch one player, learn who visited them that night Win condition: Village wins (same as Villagers, all Mafia and killers eliminated)
The Lookout chooses one player to watch each night. The app shows the narrator which roles visited that player overnight, specifically: whether the Mafia targeted them, whether the Detective investigated them, or whether the Doctor protected them.
The narrator conveys this to the Lookout silently (typically a nod toward each player who visited, or using a brief silent whisper). The Lookout learns movement, not roles.
An example: the Lookout watched Player A on night 2. The narrator signals that two players visited Player A. Cross-referenced with the night result (Player A survived), the Lookout can infer:
This is not direct information, but it is significant circumstantial evidence. With careful tracking across two or three nights, the Lookout can often identify the Doctor (by tracking saves), identify Mafia members (by tracking kill patterns), and corroborate or challenge the Detective's claims.
The Mafia does not know who the Lookout is watching. But a Lookout who has been watching the same player for multiple nights may accumulate enough information to identify a Mafia member's visit pattern.
The Mastermind has no direct counter to the Lookout, the Lookout does not investigate alignment, only movement. This makes the Lookout a useful tool even in games with a Mastermind.
Some combinations work especially well:
Mastermind + Detective: The Mastermind poisons the Detective's results. The Lookout can potentially track the Mastermind's movement to corroborate or challenge the Detective's claims.
Serial Killer + Doctor: Two killers, one Doctor. The Doctor must guess right every night. The pressure is immense.
All four advanced roles: Best for groups of 12–15 who have played multiple games. The three-faction structure, corrupted Detective results, and surveillance tools create a genuinely complex game. Not recommended for beginners.
Q: Can the Doctor save the Serial Killer? A: Yes, the Doctor does not know who has what role. If the Doctor chooses to protect the Serial Killer, that save is valid. The Serial Killer cannot be killed by the Doctor, but the Doctor's save blocks a Mafia or Serial Killer kill on the protected player.
Q: Can the Serial Killer and Mafia target the same player? A: Yes. If both target the same player and the Doctor does not save them, that player is eliminated. The app handles the resolution correctly.
Q: Does the Lookout ever directly learn a player's role? A: No. The Lookout learns which players visited their watch target, not what roles those visitors hold. They must infer roles from the visit pattern.
Q: Can the Mastermind win if the rest of the Mafia is eliminated? A: Yes, the Mastermind is a Mafia member. If the Mastermind is the last Mafia alive and reaches parity with the Village, the Mafia wins.
Advanced roles are what experienced Mafia Game groups live for. Enable them one at a time so your group can absorb each role's mechanics before adding more.
🔥 Play Mafia with advanced roles
Also try: Mafia Game Roles Explained · Mafia Game Jester Role · Mafia Game Strategy Tips