Manners and Prohibited Play
In a werewolf game, lying is legitimate play. That is exactly why the line between "fair" and "out of bounds" is harder to see than in other games. As the page to read right after the rules, this article draws that line in two levels.
| What it breaks | Who handles it | |
|---|---|---|
| Bad manners | The fun of the game (the table's agreement) | The players at the table. The operators generally stay out |
| Prohibited play | People, or the place itself | The operators respond (this is what reporting is for) |
🔴 First, the premise: being tricked, being voted out, and losing are neither of these. They are the results of legitimate play.
Bad manners
These are not things the operators punish — they are behaviors that thin out everyone's time at the table. "Stop when someone points it out" is about the right temperature.
Metagaming
Reasoning from information outside the game (Glossary) — reads like "they were a werewolf last game too" or "their connection is unstable, they must be rattled".
Why is it disliked? Because bringing answers in from outside the board makes everyone's in-board thinking worthless. Being right doesn't help — if anything, a correct meta read deflates the table even more.
Claiming to be a beginner
Announcing "I'm new at this" (Glossary). MAFIA shows a 🔰 badge automatically on players with fewer than 20 lifetime games, so the whole table already knows without being told. The announcement adds no information; all that remains is the request "please don't vote me out" — which is why it's considered bad manners.
More on this in Beyond Beginner — Surviving the Day-One Vote.
Rushed claims
Claiming abruptly, out of nowhere (Glossary). When claims land on top of each other, sorting out the board gets tangled and the whole day's reasoning goes dull. If you're going to claim, do it at a natural break in the flow.
Other things that thin the table out
- Filling your turn with small talk (turns are timed — that time comes back to nobody)
- Meaningless interrupts (when you really need one, the table will have learned to tune you out)
- Abandoning your vote (in MAFIA, abstentions are shown to everyone, listed by seat number)
Prohibited play
From here on, these are acts that leave the game — the operators respond.
Abuse and personal attacks
Saying "vote them out" or "bite them" as your role is the game. Personal insults, discriminatory speech, threats aimed at real life, and doxxing are not.
MAFIA's text chat is monitored automatically: when a problematic phrase appears, AI judges it in full context. In-game vocabulary like "execute, bite, shoot" is treated as game language; only aggression aimed at the real person is ruled abusive. ∴ You don't need to fear false positives for playing rough, in character.
⚠️ Voice abuse is prohibited too. Don't argue back on the spot — report it.
Rage-quitting and going missing
Staying in the seat but never coming back. A werewolf game runs on everyone's speech and votes, so one absent player breaks the experience for the rest of the table.
In MAFIA, going idle and dropped calls are visible to the other players (the player display shows '💤 Away' and '📵 Voice Lost'). ∴ "Nobody will notice" is not a thing.
🔵 A connection accident is not prohibited play. Anyone's line can drop. What crosses the line is abandoning the game on purpose — quietly leaving the moment you can't win, or doing it table after table. If you drop, come back when you can. If you can't, take more care next table. That's enough.
When someone crosses the line
First: don't feed them
A troll's goal is your reaction, not winning the argument. If it keeps going on voice, you can simply leave that table. Your time matters more than one game.
Report
Open the player's avatar menu in the room — 'Report' is there. You can send it while the game continues, so there's no need to argue back on the spot.
- There's a limit on how many reports you can send, so one specific, complete report works best. The more "when, who, what was said" it carries, the faster the operators can act
- Reports are read by the operators only. The reported player is never told
- For anything after you've left the room, or account-level issues, use Contact(ja) and pick 'Report abusive player' (works even while signed out)
Once you've sent it, leave the rest to the operators. Private "punishments" between players only multiply the trouble.
If you're the host, the room settings can do the guarding
If you open the table, you can make it hard for trolls to get in at the room-settings level — playing with people you know, raising the entry fee, and so on. See Make Your Own Rules and Play Your Way.
Related
- Troll Defense — Abuse and Smurf Detection — how fake beginners are detected
- Beyond Beginner — Surviving the Day-One Vote
- Is lying allowed?
- There's a player harassing people
- Glossary — Meta, CO, Report