On Christmas I took a chance. The family party was beginning to break apart. The older folks were falling asleep on the couch. The younger folks were texting friends to make plans to go out drinking. I had traveled too far to let the family party end so early. Also, I wanted to continue drinking the free beer.
I taught them Mafia. And I am so proud of how well they played. There were no monologues of logic. There were few flip-flop votes. And there was absolutely no talking from beyond the grave! Instead we had gut-reactions, mob-mentality voting, and no sympathy for children. Siblings rallied to convict siblings, children took down their parents in the night, and spouses avenged previous games even when innocence was a sure thing. It was great. Nothing brings a family together like murder and lies.
Already we're talking about the next time that there will be enough people around to play a few more rounds. I think we have a tradition.
1 comment:
I taught my family mafia too! It was a blast! All of my cousins are old enough now to play, so we can do this at every get together!
Admittedly, it was more of a "Tom vs. Adina" style game with two siblings accusing each other every single round regardless of guilt, innocence, or role; and by the second game everyone agreed the surefire strategy of voting me out in the first round.
My history teacher cousin-in-law spent hours afterwards hasing out ideas to adapt the game for his terrorism studies class.
Huge hit.
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