RAFO Mafia Rules v 3.2
Introduction
Although RAFO Mafia has developed a number of In-House Rules, these typically do not effect new players much, and so this Flash Introduction is the first place to begin. Additionally all standard roles and much other information can be found at Mafiascum Wiki. New players should go to that first link before proceeding, the second tends to serve as a regular reference, and initially you will want to consult it to see details on your own role, if you are assigned one. Be aware that any and all rules are subject to change by the Game Moderator.

Do’s and Do Not’s
Do…

Try to post on average once a day

Keep posts on the game, as opposed to tangents

Act in a courteous fashion to other players

Send a Note Board (NB) Message to the Moderator if you have any questions or confusion

Seek to win, your role message will specify your victory condition, which may differ from others.

Do Not…

Post your role message to the game board

Speak to other players via the NB about the game unless you have permission from the Mod

Edit any posts you make in the game thread

Post after you have died, nor during the Night Phase

Quote any message from the Moderator to yourself, paraphrase instead

Ask players how a role ability works, ask the moderator or check the mafiascum wiki

The Lynch
The core of the game, players seek to gather sufficient votes to Lynch a player each day. This is done by having a majority of votes for that player to be lynched. There are circumstances and abilities that can modify this, but the normal is that if Half Plus One players vote for another player, that person has been lynched, and is removed from play. So for 3 players, 2 votes are needed, for 4, 3 votes, for 5, 3 votes, for 6, 4 votes, for 7, 4 votes and so on. Be aware that a lynch takes place the moment the majority is reached, an Unvote – detailed below – after this time has no effect.

Voting, Actions, and Deadlines
Casting a Vote:The core concept of the game is voting for who to lynch each day, with the day typically ending in a lynch. To do this, the format is Vote: Name where the name of the player you wish to be lynched is listed. The text must be in bold to count if it is in the body of a message, if it appears in the title, it does not. To bold text, simply surround the words with < b>Text to be Bold</ b> removing the space from in front of the ‘b’, for more on formatting text, including italics, underlines, strikethrough, and color see this post and this one. Be aware that only administrators and premium plus account holders can insert hyperlinks directly into messages.

Unvoting: If a player decides they do not wish to vote for someone any longer, or wish to change their vote, they must unvote them. The preferred format is Unvote: Name but Unvote is sufficient. As with voting, where format or spelling is not correct, clear intent may be sufficient, but is at the Mod's discretion.

Actions:
Often referred to as ‘Night Actions’, players often have available to them abilities they can use, typically only at night but some day abilities exist. These are typically broken up into Passive and Active Night Actions. Passive Abilities essentially work all the time, Active Actions require the player to send in that action, what and who, to the Moderator. Once an action is sent in, it may not be changed, barring special circumstances. You will typically not find out the results of your actions until Dawn, and often not at all if you died that night.

Deadlines:
Typically every Night has a deadline by which time players must have sent in any Night Action or it will be assumed not to have been used, the deadline is typically 48 hours, players planning not to use an ability should still NB the moderator to let them know they aren’t using it, as the moderator will otherwise have to wait, especially later in the game, night actions tend to get sent in fairly quickly and Night need not last the full 48 hours. There are also Day Deadlines. Typically a Day is expected to last one to two weeks, many moderators avoid setting deadlines or extend them if posting is high in frequency, alternatively many will often impose a deadline if posting slumps, the default is 96 hours if a moderator feels such a slump has occurred, and a moderator may extend that if posting picks back up. Should no one have received sufficient votes to be lynched by a deadline, the day ends in a No Lynch.

No Lynch: In addition to deadlines, a day may end without a lynch if players vote not to lynch someone, by casting Vote: No Lynch, this requires the same number of votes as a normal lynch would.

Posting
Frequency: Players are expected to average at least one post a day, obviously few players post every single day but you are definitely posting too little if you are not getting in at least 5 messages a week. Posts with little or no content are also frowned on and not really viewed as applying to that minimum.

Editing: The Rule of Thumb is that players do not edit any messages, if you make a mistake, reply to your own message with “EBWOP” – Edit by way of Post - in the title. However, there are some exceptions. First, we tend to follow a ‘3 strikes’ rule. Second, you may edit Tables, these posts typically contain compilations of information in response to questions a player has asked of others, thus is edited as information comes in, you must put (Table) in the title of the post and it is customary to make it a new thread inside the Game Thread or otherwise prominent. Third, should you find you have accidentally edited a message, you may edit it again to include (Edit) in the title, alerting players the content has changed. While the first edit counts against your 3 strikes, the edit to include (Edit) in the title will not.

Posthumous Posting: As mentioned above, you may not post after you die, while cheerleading comments containing no game information are usually permitted, doing this much is frowned on.

Quoting: You may never quote the moderator, referred to as ModQuoting, for this reason it is also discouraged and often banned to forge a ModQuote, even though you may lie through your teeth about anything else, or paraphrase the mod as you please, truthfully or not, this ban is in place both on the game board and in NB’s between players. Bans on quoting NB’s from other players, or NB’s from a moderator prior to the game, vary from Mod to Mod, but even if allowed it is usually frowned on.

Note Board Messages: If you are allowed to NB other players, and this is typically only specified people at night time, it has become rather customary to include the moderator in these NB’s. Whether or not it is required varies from Mod to Mod.

Code Phrases: If you are allowed to NB other players, you may seek to set up code phrases that can be innocuously used to send messages, however, you may only use correspondence legally transmitted in the current game for this. You could not, for instance, use codes from previous games where you could speak to a player to send them messages in the current game, nor otherwise non-public correspondence, like telling them to 'Investigate the player whose first name starts with the same letter as the first word in our NB on date X'. You could however tell someone during your legal night phase NBs 'If I title a message What should we do next? vote for the first player I name in that message.' This rule prevents players who have extensive prior contact with many players from gaining an unfair advantage, a player for instance who has moderated a previous game will have exchanged private NBs with most players.

Modkills, Substitution, and Inactivity
Modkills: These come in two types, Inactivity Modkills and Rule Violation Modkills. Rule Violation Modkills instantly end the day, as a lynch would, to prevent a townie who is likely to be lynched from breaking the rules to get modkilled and prevent their allies from ‘wasting a lynch’. Inactivity modkills, on the other hand, end the day only at Moderator Discretion, typically two in one day ends the day.

Inactivity: In the absence of a RBIRL – Real Busy in Real Life – warning of impending inactivity, a player will be considered inactive if they haven’t posted in the last 72 hours. Each Mod deals with this as they deem appropriate but the normal is a warning of inactivity via NB followed by a modkill, some Mods may remove a player from the count needed to lynch and allow a longer period of inactivity.

Substitution: As players who are modkilled for inactivity or who are RBIRL for very long times (more than a week) would represent an imbalance in the game, moderators can, if they choose to, use dead players or people previously not in the game to replace a player rather than modkilling that character. The qualification to sub is little to no useful knowledge from a prior role, substitution may or may not be in play in a game.

Guidance for New Players
First and foremost, this is a game that typically forces players to lie and manipulate, the rules used to include a warning that tempers can sometimes get raised, but in practice it has rarely if ever happened. The players typically follow a ‘Lynch Liars” philosophy though, so while no rule restricts Townies from lying, it is usually discouraged.

When you first enter the game, you will likely not want to reveal your role, even if that role has no powers, a role called ‘Vanilla Townie’.

Day vs day – Since the usual game has Day and Night phases that last multiple real life days, it can occasionally be confusing which someone is referring to, context usually makes it clear, and you should be mindful of that when reading and posting.

Players occasionally find that the game isn’t too their liking, should this be the case with yourself, or should you find you simply can’t spend the time on the game, a resignation, either on the board or to the moderator, is expected, no one will object or try to talk you out of it, but it lets the Mod and players know that you are leaving, and gives the Mod more opportunity to replace you. Should you simply be busy, which everyone is at some point, you are strongly encouraged to post a message with “RBIRL” in the title. RBIRL – Real Busy in Real Life – is our In-House term for this. Err on the side of caution and courtesy, there is no rule or expectation that if you say you will be gone for three days you can’t post until that time has passed.

Terminology and Glossary

EBWOP - “Edit by Way of Post” – this acronym is placed in the title of a message in reply to that players previous post, to indicate a correction, as editing messages is banned.
Night Kill (NK) – Most games feature the ability of one or more persons or groups to attempt to kill a player at night, called the NK

Hypocop - Players will often attempt to protect the cop - an investigative role able to find bad guys - by Hypocopping, or HCing, in this players list who they would have investigated and what they discovered if they were the cop, thus allowing the cop to list who they did investigate without formally Roleclaiming.

LyLo - "Lynch or Lose" - refers to cases where the Town must lynch correctly or lose the game, common late in the game.

Mafia - Often Scummers, Scum, Darkfriends, or Bad Guys, typically a small group able to speak to eahc other at night and kill players.

Mason - This term generally gets used to refer to anyone able to speak to other players via NB, while the role itself generally refers to two or more vanilla townies who can speak at night, it has come to mean in house anyone who can talk via NB at all.

NB - Noteboard, NB'd, NBing, got a NB, etc refers to use the Noteboard.

One-Shot - Abilities which can be used only once
RBIRL – “Real Busy in Real Life” – this acronym, typically in the title of a message, is used when a player expects to be away. It is customary to give a rough timeline for that absence if you know.

RC - Role Claim, these may be fake or true or partial

Roled - A Player with a role power

Scum - A catch-all for anyone not of Town alignment

Tank-f - Tank-f or "Tank Scenario" is short for "Two Apparent Night Kill Factions" and is typically used when players have reason to believe more than one scum faction exists, as a short hand to avoid referring to the full range of options, it does not imply a presence or lack of multiple members in either or both scum team.

Third Faction - Many games feature not just Townies and Mafia, but a player or players who are totally seperate from either faction.
Townie - A player who wins with the Town, may be vanilla or roled

Vanilla - A player with no role powers, typically town-aligned