Mafia de Cuba: Dealing Roles

(Originally posted on BoardGameGeek.)

For #UntestedThursday today, a variant on Mafia de Cuba.

You’ll need an additional set of components, because the existing role chips are difficult to distribute secretly: the spades from a deck of cards. You’ll use the Ace and a number of other cards (at random) to bring you up to the number of players in total.

Setup

Shuffle the cards and deal them out, one per player, so that none are left. Whoever has the Ace should reveal it: they’re now the mob boss.

2-9 are (so far) loyal henchmen and women. Jack is the driver, that player wins if the player to their right wins. The Queen and King are FBI and CIA agents, and win if the Ace picks them as a traitor.

The Ace should take the box, remove up to five gems from it, and pass it to their left. That player takes the top card from the leftover spades and [secretly] either puts it in the box or hides it elsewhere. Then they keep the box and the betrayal round begins.

Betrayal

Each player privately looks in the box and counts the remaining gems. They may trade their card to the box for one or more gems, or keep their card. Once that’s done, they close the box and pass it clockwise.

When the box gets back to the Ace, they empty the box onto the table in public (along with any gems they took at the beginning), and the accusation round begins.

Accusation

Each card that was in the box (except for at most one) represents a person that stole from the Ace. Players are free to discuss as they like, but may not reveal their card (or even if they still have it), nor reveal any gems they may have taken.

At any point, the Ace may point at another player. That player must either reveal their card or any gems they stole.

  • If they stole gems, the Ace recovers them (to join the others on the table), and may continue; flip over one of the cards on the table to represent that player.
  • If they were loyal or the Jack, they lose, along with the Ace and all other loyal players – the player who stole the most wins.
  • If they were the Queen or King, they win.

If all the money is recovered (or all the cards are flipped face-down), the Ace and all loyal players win.

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