Last night at the game club I go to, I got the opportunity to test play a new game that one of the guys I have met before brought in. He is a game designer and is working on a game that is sort-of like Clue on Steroids.
The basic premise is that you are the suspect in a murder mystery. (So is everyone else in the game.) You have to establish your innocence beyond a doubt so that you can prove your innocence at trial.
The game is played on a map of the town and you and your opponents travel around the town trying to gather evidence that your have alibis for the time the murder was committed, that you have witnesses that can substantiate your alibis, while trying to get rid of any evidence that may tend to tie you to the crime scene, the victim, and the murder weapon.
There are also motives that are randomly collected. If you get on, you either have to transfer it to another player or collect a friend who will offset the motive by vouching for you. Additionally, there may be witnesses that can place you at the scene of the crime. These witnesses have to either be bribed to vouch for you or otherwise "dealt with."
It was a fun game, I am not sure about the mechanics of the trial at the end. I have a basic issue with the fact that there is no winner, per se. The point of the trial is to determine who is the least successful at getting rid of the evidence against them and collecting exculpatory evidence. There is no mechanism to determine who was the best at this.
It was, none-the-less, a good game and I cannot wait to see the next version that the designer comes up with after the input we had for him.
Wherever you are, I hope you're having fun today!
Don Bergquist - 12 July 2007 - Thames Ditton, Surrey, UK
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