Possibility of Mafia business?

[Beefy187]

Fellow mafia players
Firstly I would like to thank you all for making mafia a fun experience for me. When I started, mafia was just one of the games I played during the lunch break and nothing special. But years I spent here have taught me that this game have potentials to go beyond "just a game"

Now hosting mafia games in real life has been something I wanted to do recently. By hosting I mean as a business earning me enough to pay for whats needed and perhaps a little more. I know there is one in Kiev and apparently thats going well enough to fund the trip to Sicily, though I don't know how they're doing it.

This is my plan so far.

Funding
1.Players will pay the entrance fee to take part in the game. 10 percent will go to the hosts, rest will go towards the reward.
2. If the towns win, they get their 90 percent back as well as mafias fee awarded to the most valuable townie.
3. If the mafia win they will share the money amongst them.
4. If this gets TV coverage or sponsors... sweet. But the price shouldn't be that expensive

I think this system will gather interest, and its not going to be overly expensive for them.

Management
1. Host tells the story and what is going on. As well as that, we'll have actors acting out what happened. This actors will also serve as security guard in case something goes wrong.

2. During the night phase, players will go to their room. Theres a computer in the room which players can use to send in night orders or chat to other players using messengers.

3. We'll have two types of games. Classical set up which will use the said approach regarding the entrance fee. Or the experimental game where there is no gambling system and players pays for the set price.

4. Realistic stage setting and costumes to get the feeling. As if your really experiencing it.

Thats about it for what I came up with so far.
I think the biggest problem in real life mafia is that its easy to find mafia through facial expression or body movement.

Anyhow, if you were to manage a mafia role playing club in real life, how would you do it?

[Beskar]

You need to gain the interest in Mafia in the first place. You also need to get people introduced and develop from the bottom up. To do your current idea, you would need a lot of money to invest and advertise to get it popular enough to reap any sort of real return.

Organizing several small-scale interests in mafia would create the conditions where people would actually want to pay and compete.

Unfortunately, your advertising campaign for Giga Pudding was more successful.

[pevergreen]

Woah beefy, big, big plans.

Your best bet would be to start off with just a group of people playing it for fun. Get the core audience, then try introducing stakes, such as money. If it gets popular, over time you may grow bigger, do it more often etc. You can't go from nothing to huge, you have to build over a period of time.

It wouldn't be fast or easy. Obviously I only knew how you acted when you were around here, but you've got to have the descriptive skills to tell the story. We both know I don't, whereas our 'friend' (cant use real name, so username: killfrenzy) did have.

I had an idea for taking mafia mainstream, but unfortunately, mine is one of those 'sit up at night and dream "what if"' ones.

edit:

When I started, mafia was just one of the games I played during the lunch break and nothing special.

Ah yes, how we learnt at the camp, how it evolved and took over Warlords and Scumbags/Hearts. How, no matter how weak your case was, or if you felt someone else move during the night phase, a single instance of anyone voting for our malaysian player would result in an instant bandwagon and lynch of him. How superior we became through skills and methods we stole off members here.

[TinCow]

The biggest problem I see with this is the funding. Since you are planning this in real life, you would need start-up capital above and beyond the fees paid by the participants. This is because you'll have to rent the facility, pay the actors, hire/construct the costumes/set, etc, as well as advertise to get participants. So, you'd need someone to give you a loan, which could be difficult as well as very financially risky for you personally.

My suggestion: take the basic idea but do it online instead. Mafia works well online and doing it online would be much, much cheaper. All you'd need to do would be to rent a web server to host a forum where you are the admin. Then set up a paypal account for deposits. You can manage everything yourself without extra overhead. From there it's just a question of getting people to participate, which is a problem you're going to encounter no matter what you do with this. If the online side is successful, you could then use profits to fund the real life version.

That said, make sure you do a serious analysis of the financial risks involved in such a venture. Make sure that you know exactly what the personal costs to you will be, and operate under the assumption that you will never turn a profit and never get any of that money back. If you can live with a worst-case scenario like that, then pursue it. If, however, the potential personal costs are too high for you and would would be risking unaffordable debt, I strongly recommend that you avoid the project altogether.

If you do go ahead with this, make sure you incorporate to minimize personal loss as much as possible. You will likely need to consult with professionals on how to do this in your jurisdiction.

[ArpeggiateTHIS]

I know a few pubs that regularly do "murder mystery" nights near where I live, so there is a similar market + fanbase (in the UK at least). I suppose to start off with, you'd need to follow that sort of crowd and get promotional adverts/flyers around town.

Either way, it'd be a decent job if you could pull it off! Good luck!

[Cecil XIX]

My suggestion: take the basic idea but do it online instead. Mafia works well online and doing it online would be much, much cheaper. All you'd need to do would be to rent a web server to host a forum where you are the admin. Then set up a paypal account for deposits. You can manage everything yourself without extra overhead. From there it's just a question of getting people to participate, which is a problem you're going to encounter no matter what you do with this. If the online side is successful, you could then use profits to fund the real life version.

An additional benefit of this approach is that it would, if succesful, establish a brand name that would help with the success of an irl venture.

[Yaropolk]

I know there is one in Kiev and apparently thats going well enough to fund the trip to Sicily, though I don't know how they're doing it.

They play it for real! They extort local businesses then use the proceeds to hire hitmen while mafioso is on vacation in Sicily.

[Double A]

I think you should give something like 5% of the mafia's entry fee to the rest of the townies so they have some incentive for playing other than just for fun. Because money is always nice.

Of course, that really depends on how much the fees are.

[Beefy187]

@ Beskar
Since I'm in Uni right now and Japanese Uni have this tradition of clubs and circles where we make a group of people who shares the common interest, I plan on creating a club called "clubs like Higurashi". Just like that club in Higurashi no nakukoroni and what me and pever did during lunch breaks and I plan to make mafia one of the main games we play there. Hopefully they'll be my core supporters.

Strange... I couldn't see that mega pudding video before, now I can. Feel free to call me a pedo but that girl is so cute!

@pever

Defs. I tried making a forum like the Org for the Japanese people, but I couldn't gather much interests or get it prepared fast enough. I learnt my lesson there I'll work hard and build up some fortune. If I still have this ambition then, I will definitely have this through.
I might be able to narrate well enough in Japanese, but if I can't I'm sure theres some good story tellers around. If were to do this in the land of Oz, I will definitely hire you

Good old lunch break mafia We all got lynched for the most random and illogical reasons ever. Oh and if your still in contact with Killfr3nzy (& the other gang) tell them to come back here

@ Tincow
Funding is definitely going to be a problem. Early stages is going to be crucial. I don't plan to start this until I'm sure I've got enough money. But even then I should proceed with extreme caution. Start nice and small.

Hosting on a internet first is definitely what I plan to do. We do have werewolfs in Japan, but problem with that site is that they only play classical set ups. Where as each game over here is unique, written by talented and creative story tellers. Internet mafia is definitely the way to enjoy the psychological warfare. But I really want to try it in real life as well at some point. The reality, the atmosphere and battle of wits against real people should be a worthwhile experience.

My palm sign tells me that I will never have to worry about money But knowing how bad I am with numbers and financial side, I will ask someone to help me with finance side when I go through with it.

@ArpeggiateTHIS
I'm sure we've got them too... somewhere... We're not the most social people on earth
Thats another reason why I want to do this. To provide place to interact with real people.

@Cecil
Agreed completely. Just like the Org made me want to do this.

@Yaropolk
Seriously? Would love to here more details about it.

@Double A
Yea I agree. Playing it self should be interesting experience but its even better when we can get some profit out of it.

I really appreciate your feed backs. Please keep them coming

[pevergreen]

Good old lunch break mafia We all got lynched for the most random and illogical reasons ever. Oh and if your still in contact with Killfr3nzy (& the other gang) tell them to come back here

They're all to inactive and I'm not in contact with any of them, by choice.

Did you really think I was actually friend with Tblade/Kill?

Sarathos kept flaking on me ~year after we graduated, got to the point where it was just too annoying to deal with. Fell out of contact with cimm, saw him at my 18th, but the christianity level is too far from me to deal with really. Played a game of dota with him a few weeks ago though.

I told you man, the only people I'm in contact with from school are you and...well its just you now.

[Beefy187]

Perhaps we'll talk more about it on private

[Double A]

@Double A
Yea I agree. Playing it self should be interesting experience but its even better when we can get some profit out of it.

I really appreciate your feed backs. Please keep them coming

Or better yet, you could send me 5% of everyone's entry fees.