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Day-One Discussion — the Board and the Flow

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Day one of a werewolf game is a day with almost no material. Nobody has died; nobody has been checked. Yet your speaking turn still comes around, and by evening you have to vote for someone. This is where hands freeze — the first wall of werewolf.

The day-one board: who knows what

Under MAFIA's default rules, day one opens like this.

  • The first-night attack is off by default. ∴ At most tables, discussion starts on a morning where nobody is missing.
  • The Seer has automatically been told one 'Not' result on night one (it is not the result of choosing a target).
  • The Werewolves know each other; the Twins know each other.

That is the entire day-one board. Board-first thinking starts with counting exactly these three lines. For most of the table, day-one information is "zero" — which means the day-one speech itself is the first information.

What to say on your turn

MAFIA's day is turn-based, and your turn will come. There are three basic moves for day one.

  1. Place a question. "When do you plan to claim, Seer?" — "Is everyone up for a day-one vote-out?" — questions work even when you hold no checks of your own, and how each player answers becomes information about all of them.
  2. State a plan. "Today we can only vote from the grey pool" — "I'll vote whoever stays silent" — talk about the village's overall plan (the Glossary calls it the plan, or line of play) is one of the few topics available from day one. You don't need to be right. Whoever states a plan can be checked later for consistency.
  3. Say what you saw. "Seat 3, you never answered that question" — records are material. Anyone can pick them up, and someone will use them.

The worst move is silence. From the werewolves' side, a silent seat is one that "gives no information when voted out, and isn't worth biting" — in other words, a seat that can safely be ignored.

The day-one vote

You'll be choosing from players with no checks on them — the grey pool (see Grey in the glossary). A simple standard is fine: vote for the player whose speech told you least about them, and say why. Even "just a feeling" becomes tomorrow's material once you put the reason into words.

The Interrupt works from day one

MAFIA lets you cut into another player's speech with the 'Interrupt' (once per day — rooms can also turn the feature off entirely in settings). From day one you can stop the flow with "doesn't that contradict what you said earlier?" — the debate's flow is yours to change. Save it for the moment that matters, but keep its existence in mind.

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