Line Mafia
About this game
A drawing liar game for 3–10 players. Everyone gets the secret word except the mafia, who only knows the category. Take turns adding one line each to a shared drawing, then vote on who was faking it. Catch the mafia and the town wins, unless the mafia guesses the word. Play with friends using a room code, or hit Quick Play to join players from around the world.
Controls
- Draw
- On your turn, drag on the page to draw one line (mouse, finger or stylus)
- Vote
- Tap the player you think is the mafia
- Hide word
- Tap your word card to hide it if someone can see your screen
- Chat
- Type in the chat box to discuss and accuse
How to play
Everyone sees the category, like Animals or Food. Everyone except the mafia also sees the secret word. Players take turns adding one line each to a shared drawing, going round the table two to four times.
The mafia doesn't know the word, so they have to watch what others draw and add lines that fit without giving themselves away. Draw too clearly and the mafia learns the word; draw too vaguely and you look suspicious.
When the drawing is done, everyone votes for who they think the mafia is. If the town catches the mafia, the mafia gets one last chance to guess the word. A correct guess steals the win.
Playing with friends
Tap Create private room to get a five-letter room code, then share it with Invite friends or Copy code. Friends join by typing the code, or by opening the invite link. Every new room gets a fresh code. The host picks how many lines each player draws and starts the game when everyone's in.
Quick Play
Quick Play puts you in a public room with other players looking for a game. Public rooms start automatically once three players are in. If you join in the middle of a round, you watch until the next one starts.
Practice vs computer
Practice mode lets you play alone against four computer players. The bots build the drawing from real doodles of the word, collected by Google's Quick, Draw! project. When a bot is the mafia, it slips in lines from a doodle of a different word in the same category, so look for the line that doesn't belong.
You'll sometimes be the mafia yourself, so it's a good way to practice faking it before playing with friends. Practice uses the words that have doodles available, so its word list is a little shorter than online games.
Scoring
- Town catches the mafia and the mafia misses the word: every town player scores 1.
- The vote picks an innocent player, or ends in a tie: the mafia scores 2.
- The mafia is caught but guesses the word: the mafia scores 3.
- With 7 or more players there are two mafia, who know each other.
Tips
- Innocent players: draw something that only fits the word if you already know it. A detail rather than the whole object.
- Mafia: wait for a few lines before committing, and build on what's already there.
- Watch for lines that hedge, like a vague circle or squiggle that could be anything.
- Use the chat to ask people why they drew what they drew.
Published October 6, 2026