Fury erupts in Italy over mafia board game that turns players into killer crime bosses

La Famiglia: The Great Mafia War players can forge alliances, set up drug labs and murder each others foot soldiers with the help of weapons such as car bombs to come out on top

Adela Whittingham and Abigail Hunt Content Editor

20:44, 24 Jan 2025

La Famiglia: The Great Mafia War is a board game that turns players into killer crime bosses(Image: CBS via Getty Images)

Victims of the Mob are furious over a new board game that sees players turn into murderous crime bosses. Outraged Italians claim La Famiglia: The Great Mafia War is offensive to those murdered by gangsters over the years.

Created in Germany two years ago, the game was recently translated into Italian and has rave reviews. It involves players moving pieces around a map of Sicily to take over different regions as the heads of families in its Cosa Nostra gang.

Players can forge alliances, set up drug labs and murder each others foot soldiers with the help of weapons such as car bombs to come out on top. It even won last years As dOr, or Golden Ace, a coveted prize given at an annual games festival in France.

[La Famiglia: The Great Mafia War]

Victims of the Mob are furious over the new board game(Image: boardgamegeek.com)

The award-winning game is said to be inspired by the brutal battle waged by the Sicilian Corleonesi clan in the 1980s, which claimed at least 1,000 victims between 1981 and 1983 alone, including innocent civilians.

Maria Falcone, the sister of a Sicilian anti-mafia magistrate killed by a car bomb in 1992, said: I dont understand how anyone came up with a game like this. The mafia has only created death in Sicily and Italy.

She also said the game was an insult to all those who lost their lives serving the state.

The furore has even reached Italys Parliament, with politician Alessandro De Leo writing to Sicilys president about the game.

He said: This product not only offends the dignity of Sicilians but devalues the daily commitment of millions of citizens who fight for legality and justice in our region.

[La Famiglia: The Great Mafia War]

The award-winning game is said to be inspired by the brutal battle waged by the Sicilian Corleonesi clan in the 1980s(Image: boardgamegeek.com)

The games maker has doubled-down, insisting players can only kill other Mob bosses and not innocent people.

Apologising to anyone who felt hurt or offended by the game, designer Maximilian Maria Thiel said: This was not our intention.

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In this game, only mobsters kill each other. So I dont see the problem - apart from the theme, which for some seems to be a trigger.

In addition, the game is deliberately kept very abstract [blocks instead of figures] so that these murders are not made conscious in the game.

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