Glossary

Werewolf tables have a vocabulary of their own. Not knowing it puts you at a real disadvantage — you simply can't follow the discussion — so here are the terms you'll actually hear, plus how classic Mafia/Werewolf role names map onto MAFIA's roles.

The essentials

This section alone will get you through most games.

Term	Meaning
Vote out / execution	Removing a player by the day vote. MAFIA's UI calls it execution.
Claim / CO	Publicly declaring your role — "I'm the Knight." MAFIA has a dedicated Claim editor in the UI for this.
Counterclaim (CC)	A second player claiming the same role in opposition. At least one of them is lying.
Confirmed	A player whose role is beyond doubt from everyone's point of view — e.g. the only Seer claim standing.
Fake claim	Claiming a role you don't have. A core werewolf tactic — and legitimate play.
Soft claim	Hinting at your role without stating it outright, so you can point back at it later.
Hiding / no claim	A power role staying quiet instead of claiming. A werewolf passing as a villager is also "hiding".
Innocent / guilty	Divination results. The Seer's check reads "is NOT a Werewolf" / "IS a Werewolf" — table talk shortens this to 'Not' / 'Werewolf' (or innocent/guilty, white/black). On the CO board, logged results appear as the badges 'I' / 'W' (Innocent / Werewolf).
Grey	Players with no claim and no check on them — the pool suspicion falls on.
PoE (process of elimination)	Narrowing the werewolves down by eliminating the grey pool day by day.
Wagon	The pile of votes forming on one player. "Joining the wagon" = adding your vote.
Night kill (NK)	The werewolves' attack at night. "Getting NK'd" = dying to it.
Executions left	How many day votes the village has before it loses — count it as (players − 1) ÷ 2, rounded down.
MyLo / LyLo	End-game states: one wrong vote loses the game (MyLo), or the game is lost unless today's vote hits a wolf (LyLo). Community acronyms from the older terminology.
Slip	A statement that contradicts known facts and exposes a liar — "caught in a slip".
Tunnel	Locking onto one read and ignoring new information.
Sheep	Voting along with someone else's read instead of your own.
Town read / scum read	"Feels like a villager" / "feels like a wolf". A null read is neither.
Meta / metagaming	Reading players from outside-the-game information (connection status, habits from past games). Considered bad manners.

Flow and basics

Term	Meaning
Day / Night	Day is open discussion and the vote; night is when werewolves and power roles act.
Final day	The day the next vote decides the game.
Plan / line of play	The village's overall approach for the day (protect the Seer, clear the grey pool, etc.).
Leader / organizer	The player steering discussion and votes — often the Knight or the Medium.
Calling the vote	The leader naming the day's target.
Spectating	Watching a table without playing. MAFIA supports spectators.
Room Master (RM)	The table's host. Only the Room Master can kick a disruptive player.
Surrender	Conceding the game. MAFIA has no surrender feature.

Claims and roles

Term	Meaning
Counter-CO	Claiming at the exact moment you're about to be voted out or named.
Dodging	Escaping the day's vote with a claim.
Retracting	Taking back an earlier claim.
Wolf claim	Openly claiming werewolf — seen when the wolves already have the votes to win (see "parity").
Fake results	A real power role reporting a false result — or a fake claimant inventing one.

Divination and colors

Term	Meaning
Real / fake	The genuine holder of a role vs. a fake claimant.
Conflicting checks	One player checked 'Werewolf' by one Seer claimant and 'Not' by the other.
Half-cleared	Checked 'Not' by only one of the competing Seer claimants.
Committing to a read	Deciding which claimant is real without full proof — and playing accordingly.
Credibility fight	Competing claimants trying to out-argue each other for the village's trust.
Cross-check	Competing Seer claimants divining each other.
First-night divination	In MAFIA, the Seer's first night is automatic: a 'Not' result is delivered to them. A Fox never dies to the first-night divination.

Village play

Term	Meaning
Lurking	Saying almost nothing. Gives the village no information, so it draws suspicion.
Dying quiet	A power role dying without ever claiming — their information dies with them.
Heat management	Keeping suspicion and resentment from piling onto you.
Offering yourself	"Check me" / "vote me out" — volunteering yourself to move the day forward.
Runoff vote	On a tie, the tied players give a last statement and everyone else revotes (the tied players cannot vote). Still tied → no execution that day.
Last words	The final read or request you leave before dying — "if I die, look at #4".
Vote alignment	The village agreeing on one target on a deciding day, so votes don't scatter.
Roleplay (RP)	Playing in character.

Werewolf play

Term	Meaning
Cover / clearing a wolf	A fake Seer giving a fellow wolf a 'Not' result. Giving them 'Werewolf' on purpose is a deep-cover play.
Charging	A fake claimant throwing a 'Werewolf' result at a power role or a grey player.
Painting	Steadily making a villager look like a wolf.
Bussing	A wolf voting or accusing their own teammate to buy credibility.
Distancing	Wolves avoiding any visible connection with each other.
Last wolf (LW)	The final surviving werewolf.
Re-biting	Attacking the same target on consecutive nights (allowed in MAFIA — unlike the Knight, who cannot guard the same player two nights running).
Testing the guard	Attacking a likely-guarded target (usually the Seer or Medium) knowing the Knight may be there.
Save	The Knight's guard stopping the night attack. From the outside, MAFIA does not distinguish a save from a failed attack.
Parity / voting power	When wolves and their allies match or outnumber the village, they can win the vote outright. On a tied final vote, MAFIA's runoff → no-execution flow means the night kill brings true parity.
WIFOM	"Wine in front of me" — second-guessing loops ("they'd never do the obvious thing… which is exactly why they would"). Borrowed from the wider Mafia community.

Factions and winning

Term	Meaning
Village faction	Wins by finding and executing every werewolf.
Werewolf faction	Wins by cutting the village's numbers down.
Anti-village	Everyone who isn't village — werewolves, the Madman, third parties.
Third faction	Win conditions outside both sides: the Fox, the Lovers, the Creeper.
Madman	A human who wants the werewolves to win. Doesn't know who they are — and divines as 'Not'.
Solo win	Neither main faction wins — a third party takes it alone (a surviving Fox, for example).
Playing for your side	Acting in your faction's interest; helping the other side is "playing against your own".

MAFIA-specific terms

Term	Meaning
Table	One room = one game.
Deck / preset	A player count with its role lineup. Presets cover 6 to 13 players.
MP (MAFIA Points)	The in-game points. Used for things like entering tables.
Turn-based werewolf	MAFIA's core format: players speak one at a time — individual turns (two rounds on day 1) → open discussion → vote.
Speaking order	The order players take their turns in the day discussion. Shown in the rules board.
Interrupt	MAFIA's signature move: cutting into another player's turn with a short remark. The button is labeled Interrupt.
Guard	The Knight protecting one player from the night attack.
Skipping the guard	The Knight ending the night without guarding anyone — used to reset the "can't guard the same player twice in a row" rule.
Death by divination	A Fox dies when a Seer divines them (the Knight can't prevent it). Never happens on the automatic first-night divination.
Failed attack	With multiple werewolves, if their chosen targets don't line up, no attack happens. Nobody dies — indistinguishable from a save from the outside.
Fox	A third faction belonging to neither side. Survives the werewolves' attacks, dies to divination (first night excepted), and wins alone by surviving to the end.
Revive	The Witch bringing that night's attack victim back. Once per game — and the potion is spent even if there was no victim.
Poison	The Witch killing a chosen player. Once per game; cuts through guards, and kills even the Fox.
Trap	The Trapper's mechanism: if a trapped player is attacked, they survive and the attacking werewolf dies.
Hunter's shot	When the Hunter dies, they take one survivor down with them (or hold their fire).
Delegating	The Delegator entrusting their one vote to another player.
Channeling	The Necromancer speaking with one of the dead at night.
Thief's swap	On Night 0 only, the Thief trades roles with one player — who becomes the Thief.
Medium	Learns that night whether the executed player was a werewolf. Called the "medium" in most werewolf games too.
Twins	Two players who know each other from the start and share a private night chat — MAFIA's version of the classic confirmed pair (masons). ⚠️ In MAFIA, if one twin dies, the other dies too.
Knight	Guards one player each night. The classic werewolf "hunter"/"bodyguard" — but note MAFIA's Hunter is a different role (fires a shot on death).
Werewolf chat	The wolves' private night channel. In MAFIA it's the chat channel labeled "Werewolf".
Twins chat	The twins' private night channel — the chat channel labeled "Twins".

Coming from Mafia or other werewolf games? Role names compared

Classic Mafia/Werewolf role names and where they landed in MAFIA:

Classic name	In MAFIA
Doctor / Bodyguard	Knight — guards one player per night (can't guard the same player twice in a row, and never themselves).
Cop / Detective / Fortune Teller	Seer — divines one player per night: 'Werewolf' or 'Not'.
Medium	Medium — same name: learns whether the executed player was a werewolf.
Mason	Twins — a confirmed pair with a private chat. ⚠️ Unlike masons, if one twin dies the other follows.
Hunter (dies firing)	Hunter — same idea: on death, take one player with you (or hold fire).
Godfather	No equivalent. In Mafia games the godfather leads the mafia, picks the kill, and reads as innocent. MAFIA has no wolf leader — the werewolves choose their target together, and every one of them divines as 'Werewolf'. ⚠️ Don't confuse this with MAFIA's own Mafia role: an add-on layered on a base role that can assassinate one player instantly, once per game — it isn't a faction leader.
Jester	Closest: the Creeper. A third faction that wins by getting killed — execution and night attacks both count. More extreme than a jester: on death it takes every survivor with it, and the game ends instantly in a Creeper solo win.
Vigilante	No equivalent. MAFIA's Hunter only fires on death — nobody shoots at night by choice. (The Witch's poison is the closest thing: one kill, once per game.)
Cupid	No Cupid player. Lovers exist as an add-on: a fated pair with a private chat who win together if both survive.
Serial Killer	No equivalent. The Fox is the lone third party — but it survives by dodging attention, not by killing.

Conduct

Term	Meaning
Report	Sends a description of harassment to the operators. Only the operators read it, and the reported player is never told who reported them.
Troll / toxic	Derailing games, deliberately helping the other side, or making the table miserable.
Teaming	Secretly cooperating across the rules — e.g. sharing roles outside the game.
Sniping	Timing your entry to land in a specific player's games on purpose.
Ghosting / stream sniping	Using information you shouldn't have — e.g. watching someone's live stream mid-game.

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Want a term added — or spotted a mistake? Tell us through the contact form(ja). The glossary grows from what players actually send in.