First of all, because I know this question is going to be asked, what is mafia? According to the OP we use for almost every game:
Mafia is an educated guessing game of epic proportions. The objective of the game is to lynch or kill all mafia members before they outnumber the rest of the town. It's much like a game of poker because mafia members are also part of the town during the day and may manipulate the vote to their liking. If the mafia at any time outnumber or equal the townspeople, they win. The town's goal is to lynch all the members of the mafia.
(thanks to whoever wrote that originally in the mafia forums, I can't remember who it was, but its been used in the OP to practically every mafia game)
That sounds kind of dry, but in reality mafia is much, much more epic than that, mafia is about sitting at your computer with three minutes left in the day to cast the deciding vote on a game changing lynch. Mafia is about pressing f5 waiting for the daypost to see if you lived or died. Mafia is about spending two hours writing an in depth analysis of why a player is mafia, only to have him lynched and discover he is town. Mafia is watching a player suicide bomb into another player and winning the game for the opposing team, despite pretty much having figured out the entire scum team. Mafia is a ridiculous amount of fun, all the time I've been avoiding laddering I've been sitting in the mafia forums refreshing to see what new arguments were popping up in the games I was playing, thinking about how to outmanuver, outhink and outplay the opposition. (and frankly failing). Its also a ridiculously good way to boost your post count, when I joined the TL mafia forums I had a little over 90 posts, now, well, you can see where I'm at.
The mafia forum is more than just a place where we play mafia, its a mini-tl inside TL. Where mere mortals like myself get to rub shoulders with legends such as, flamwheel and Ver. Many, many of the current mods of team liquid have played in the mafia forum at one point or another, in my first game I was teamed up with The Mango (which at the time was a bit daunting, I mean the man is a mod, that makes him at least a demi god if not more) and frankly some of my best moments on TL come from the mafia forums, from the thrill of winning my first mafia game (Mini Mafia III) to the first time I was night killed (Mafia XXXVII), all are moments I remember fondly. One of the times I had the most fun was when the entire TL Mafia forum that was on line at the time showed up to cheer Ver on in the live stream chat for the WTR1BE LAN. I do believe that our spamming of “Ver for mayor” in chat was one of the best moments in my TL career.
If this sounds even remotely fun to anyone, then I urge you to visit the sports and games forum (http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=173557) and request access, the mods were even kind enough to move Mafia XXX into the public forums so you can get an idea of the epic fun that awaits you.
Also, a shout out to the entire TL mafia forum, especially Qatol and all the other vets who have been there for ages and strive to make the forums work. You guys made my already good TL experience into something awesome.
~GMarshal
(sorry if this sounds a little disjointed, but it is a Monday, I'm tired and I wanted to be able to post again)