Werewolf game online with video

Werewolf and Mafia are the same game

Mafia was invented in 1986 by Dimitry Davidoff, a psychology student at Moscow State University. In 1997 the game designer Andrew Plotkin retold it with a village and werewolves instead of a town and gangsters, and the new theme spread under the name Werewolf. The rules underneath did not change: an informed minority hides inside an uninformed majority, the minority eliminates someone every night, and the majority tries to vote them out every day.

So if your friends know Werewolf, they already know how to play Mafia on Omerta. The night is when the hidden team acts, the day is for speeches and accusations, and the game ends when one side has no way to win. Only the names on the cards are different.

Werewolf roles and their Mafia names

Omerta uses the Mafia names. Here is how the familiar Werewolf roles map onto them:

• Werewolves — the Mafia. They know each other, wake up together at night and choose a victim.
• The Alpha Werewolf — the Don. The leader of the Mafia, who also hunts for the Sheriff every night.
• The Seer — the Sheriff in Classic Mafia or the Commissioner in City Mafia. Every night they check one player and learn whether that player is on the evil team.
• Villagers — the Civilians. No night action, only their voice and their vote.
• The Doctor, Healer or Bodyguard — the Doctor and the Guard in City Mafia. The Doctor saves one player from every shot of the night; the Guard takes the bullet instead of the player they protect.
• The night blocker (the Harlot or Escort in some Werewolf sets) — the Seductress in City Mafia. She cancels one player’s night action.
• The Serial Killer or Lone Wolf — the Maniac in City Mafia. He plays only for himself and shoots every night.
• The Narrator or Moderator — the server. It deals the roles, wakes each role in turn, runs the timers and counts the votes.

What playing online on Omerta looks like

Everybody sits at a virtual table with a camera and a microphone. The tiles are arranged by seat number, like chairs around a real table, and everyone sees everyone else. The cards are dealt face down, with cameras off for a few seconds so that nobody gives their role away with a reaction.

At night the town sees and hears nothing. The werewolves — the Mafia — see each other and agree on a target. In the morning the server announces who died, and the day begins: each living player speaks for a set time while everyone else is muted, can nominate a suspect, and then the table votes. The player voted out gives a last speech. Night falls again, and the game goes on until one side wins.

Because the server keeps track of every rule, nobody has to sit out as the narrator. That is the biggest difference from playing Werewolf around a kitchen table: the person who usually runs the game finally gets to play.

How to create a lobby for your group

Omerta is free and runs in the browser on a phone or a computer — nothing to download. The interface switches to English automatically if your browser is set to English. To get your group playing:

• Sign in with email or Telegram.
• Press “Create lobby”, give the table a name and pick Mafia as the game.
• Set Access to Private and choose a password, so that only your friends can sit down.
• Press “Create table”, then open the menu and use “Invite friends” → “Copy link”. Send the link to your group chat.
• For fewer than ten people, open Game settings and switch Variant to City, then set the number of seats to the size of your group (5 to 12).
• When every seat is taken and everyone presses Ready, the server deals the cards and the first night begins.

How many players do you need

Classic Mafia is played by exactly ten people: the Don, two Mafia, the Sheriff and six Civilians. It is the competitive format with a rating.

City Mafia — the closest to a typical Werewolf evening — takes anywhere from 5 to 12 players. On small tables the server limits the roles so that one side is not stronger from the start:

• 5 players — the Don alone against the Commissioner and three Civilians.
• 6 players — the same, plus a Doctor.
• 7–8 players — the Don and one Mafia; at 8 the Seductress and the Armor can join.
• 9 players — the Don with one or two Mafia.
• 10–12 players — every role is available, including the Maniac, the Lawyer and the Guard.

Other social deduction games like Werewolf

Werewolf belongs to a whole family of hidden-role games. Town of Salem is a text-based online version with dozens of roles. One Night Ultimate Werewolf squeezes the game into a single night and a few minutes of talk. Among Us moves the idea to a spaceship, where the impostors sabotage and the crew votes them out. The Resistance, Avalon and Secret Hitler replace night kills with team missions and policy votes. Blood on the Clocktower adds a storyteller and a large cast of characters.

All of them share the same pleasure: reading people. Omerta focuses on the original Mafia formula, played face to face over video — you hear the voice, see the eyes and catch the half-second pause before an answer. These names are trademarks of their owners, and Omerta is not affiliated with them.

Tips for an English-speaking group

Many open tables on Omerta are Russian-speaking, so English-speaking groups usually create their own private table and invite friends with a link. If someone is new to the game, start with City Mafia: the night goes step by step, every role has its own timer, and there are no gestures or club conventions to learn. Classic Mafia is for groups who want a faster, stricter game with a rating.

Keep your camera on and your face in the frame — it is part of the fun and part of the fair-play rules. If your connection drops, reconnecting brings you back to the same seat.

• Mafia game online — both modes and how a game goes
• Mafia rules — speeches, voting, night and victory
• City Mafia — the Doctor, the Seductress, the Maniac and the step-by-step night