Godfather
Holds the trigger, reads as innocent, and shrugs off the bullet.
- Side
- Mafia — wins when the mafia reach parity.
- Appears at
- In every game, at every size from five to twelve.
- At night
- Chooses who the mafia kill. The mafia land exactly one kill a night and exactly one of them is offered it — while the Godfather lives, that is always him.
- During the day
- He has to argue like a townsperson, and he is the one player who can survive being investigated and shot, so he can afford to be visible in a way his team cannot.
The thing people get wrong
Two separate immunities, and they are often confused. The Detective investigating the Godfather is told he is town — that is inquiry immunity. The Sniper shooting the Godfather achieves nothing at all: he lives, and because the target really was mafia the Sniper takes no penalty for it either. He is visible and targetable. He is simply bulletproof.
Why the five-player game has no Detective
At five players the mafia team is the Godfather alone. An investigation can only ever return "town", so the Detective would be dead weight and the game deals a Doctor and three Citizens instead. The Detective first appears at six players, where there is a plain Mafia for him to catch.
Succession
If the Godfather dies, the trigger passes to the first living plain Mafia in seat order. Nothing is announced and nothing is stored — the game works out who holds it from who is still alive. The mafia never lose their kill while one of them is breathing.
Where it turns up
Games with this role: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 players. See the exact composition at each size in setups by player count, or read the full rules.