CLUE EXPRESS (2007)

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So Here's another great little way to play CLUE. The speedy 20 minute version way. And this time there are two different games to play - Detective or Master Detective version. In both versions there are only suspects; the rooms & weapons play no part.

Detective Version
The suspects and crime are the same but this time there may be a conspiracy between two suspects. One being the brains of the operation, the other being the brawn and actually committing the crime. The six suspects appear on two cards each, one bearing the word Brains the other, Brawn.

These are separated into two piles, one brains the other brawn and shuffled face down. Then one of each pile is placed unseen into the solution envelope. Both sides of the envelope are shown below. If you look at the bottom at the back of the envelope you will see a small red hole. More on this later. As the same character could be chosen from each pile it is possible that the brains & brawn of the crime was the same person.

The remaining ten cards are shuffled and dealt to each player. The cards held in your hand are noted on the detective notes sheet as usual. You will notice a column headed "Driver" on these notes. This is ignored in the detective version.

The game continues by rolling four dice. Three of these dice show the six suspects once on each face and are coloured black, the fourth shows different symbols and is coloured blue. (There are only three suspect dice, I have just stuck two pictures together below to show all six suspects).

When you roll the dice you pick two of the suspect dice to place on the suggestion board which is a beer mat sized card and shows the version of the game you are playing.

So as an example, you have rolled Col Mustard and Mrs. Peacock twice. You wish to eliminate Mrs. Peacock if possible so you place both the dice on the white squares thus suggesting Mrs. Peacock as the brains & the brawn. As usual, the player to the left checks their cards ands shows you one if held as in the normal game. Obviously, if that player has both Peacock cards only one is shown. Once that part is finished you turn to the fourth dice.

There are four symbols on this dice, two appearing twice, and their meanings are printed at the bottom of each detective notes sheet.
Question Mark There are two of these symbols. This means you can ask any player about the third dice rolled. In the example above, you could ask any player to show you a Colonel Mustard card.
Pointing Finger This also appears twice. This means you can make a free accusation. To do this you can choose the two suspects you think were involved in the crime (or of course the same suspect twice if you think this is the solution) and place them on the suggestion board. If no one has a card you suggest you can win the game there and then.
Magnifying Glass This appears once only and allows you to look at one card randomly picked from another players hand.
Keyhole This means you may look at the back of the solution envelope. This is where the small hole in the back of the envelope is used. In the picture above, the circle is red. This shows that Miss Scarlet is at least one of the cards in the envelope. This can be extremely useful if you have already discovered that one of the cards in the envelope is Mrs. White but not so useful if Miss Scarlet is the only card you have discovered.

So that is basically the game. Short & Sweet. And now on to the:-

Master Detective Version
There are only a couple of differences between this version and the normal detective version. The main difference is that up to three suspects can now be involved in the crime as there is now a getaway driver. Therefore there are three cards in the solution envelope.

The suggestion board when flipped over now has three spaces for suggestions, but you can still only place two at any one time. So you can suggest the brain and the driver but not the brawn as an example. The only time you can place a dice into each space is when you have a free (or final) accusation.

And that's it. A really good little version for a swift game. Ingenious.

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