CLICK ON THE THUMBNAILS TO OPEN THE LARGER PICTURE
I had always fancied going on a
Murder Mystery Weekend Break or at least buying one of the many "Host a Murder"
type party games. However, I had never managed to get to a murder weekend and I
found that the "Host a Murder" games normally required many more people than I
could get together in an evening. Then, one evening when my self and some of my
mates from The Chicken Run (See FRIENDS Page) had had
an evening playing CLUEDO, I said it was a shame that we couldn't do a live
version of the game.
The idea was thought a good one but no one could think of how it could be done
so I
really put my thinking cap on.
There were six of us in all - perfect. Graeme and his girlfriend Jo, Mat, Vikki, myself and friend Martin. So we had six players. Myself, Graeme and Jo got together to think up some ideas and
eventually an idea started to formulate.
First we allocated characters.
Miss Scarlet - Jo
Colonel Mustard - Graeme
Mrs. White - Vikki
Reverend Green - Mat
Mrs. Peacock - Me (Don't Ask!!!)
Professor Plum - Martin
I got Mrs. Peacock as there was an uneven division of the sexes!
I had to search around for some weapons and between us we got the lot.
The Candlestick I found in a charity shop
The Dagger was supplied by Graeme
I think it was Mat who had a bit of pipe hanging around that became The Lead
Piping
Sadly, I had to buy a toy gun. but at least it didn't need a firearms licence!
Turning out my Kitchen cupboard I found a nice bit of Rope
And finally, Mat dipped into his tool shed and came up with a Spanner
So we had the characters and the
weapons - all we needed was a game to go with it!
Jo suggested that the player who was the murderer should place all the weapons
around the house with a clue to which was the actual murder weapon and the room
in which you found that particular weapon was also the murder room. This seemed
like a good start and I got my thinking cap on and tried to base the game around
this premise.
Eventually, I decided that in addition to the six weapons there would be six
tags numbered 1 - 6 and six blocks also numbered 1 - 6. The murderer would
decide which weapon and room would form that part of the solution. The weapons,
labels and blocks would be placed in a lidded box at the start of the game.
To start the game the murderer would have to take the weapons from the box. He
would also take any one tag (e.g. no.4) and all six blocks. He decides on which
room and which weapon would form the solution (e.g. The Candlestick and the
Kitchen.) He would then hide all six weapons in six different rooms but when he
hides the Candlestick he would hang the number 4 tag around it, identifying it
as the murder weapon. The six blocks he would hide in the same way placing the
block number 4 in the Kitchen identifying that as the Murder Room. The other
five blocks would be red herrings.
As the murderer has to walk around the house hiding stuff it was decided that
all players should go, one by one, around the house so you never know which one
is hiding the weapons. This is the reason that the weapons and blocks are in a
lidded box to begin with so that an innocent player just walking around the
house will not see the weapons are gone and have been hidden by an earlier
player.
Unfortunately, there has to be a certain amount of trust in this game and
Innocent players must not lift the lid of the box to see if the weapons
have already been removed by the Murderer.
To choose the Murderer, there are five "Innocent" cards and one "Murderer" one.
These are shuffled at the beginning of the game and one dealt to each player.
Activity Cards
There are a number of activity cards that are used throughout the game.
Open Search Cards These give you the option to search
the room of your choice. There are Search a Room Upstairs and Search a Room
Downstairs - 5 of each.
Named Room Search Cards Mat has 12 possible areas in
his house for hiding weapons and blocks - Back Garden, Bathroom, Bedroom, Dining
Room, Front Garden, Garage, Hall, Kitchen, Lounge, Porch, Radio Room & Toilet.
These cards tell you to search one of the named rooms - 3 of each of the 12
rooms. I decided that, although there were 12 possible rooms/areas, only 9 would
be used in a game. This was because one room we need to actually play the game
from which will not be used for hiding e.g. In Summer, we might play in the
garden so all the back garden cards would be removed from play. In Winter, the
Lounge might be a preferable playing area so the Lounge cards would be removed -
and so on. The 9 rooms to be used would be agreed at the start of the game.
There are 3 of each of these cards for each room.
Ask any Player a Question card This is where the
information you pick up during your searches comes in handy. The murderer must
always lie during questioning by other players and you must use your skill to
check the movements and discoveries of the other players in order to trip up the
murderer. These cards allow you to question any player on your turn. There are
10 of these cards.
Ask a Named Player a Question card The same as above
but you may only ask the player depicted on the card a question. There are 3
cards for each suspect.
Blocking Cards These are used as the title suggests to
block activities by other players. If a player lays a SEARCH card you can play
your BLOCK SEARCH card and force him to miss that turn. The same applies to
questioning. 10 Block a Search and 3 of each Block a Question.
At the start of the game, the SEARCH cards
are shuffled together and one dealt to each player. Then all the cards are
shuffled together and one more card dealt to each. This ensures that each player
has at least 1 SEARCH card in their hand as searching is the only activity you
can do on the first round. You cannot ask questions OR Block on a first round.
As soon as you play an activity card you draw another so that you always have
two in your hand.
There is one more set of Activity Cards that are shuffled into the main pack at
the start.
WEAPON CARDS
These are picked up in the same way as the cards above but you may collect up to three of them making the maximum amount of cards held in your hand five. There are 21 of these cards. 20 depicting a unique combination of 3 different weapons and one JOKER card which can be used for any weapon. The idea behind this is to collect three of a kind. For example, if you collect three cards bearing the Revolver, you can lay the cards down and ask all players if they have seen the Revolver on their searches. All players must answer by using the following cards.
All players have one of each of these cards given to them at the start of the game. All questions asked MUST be questions requiring just a YES or NO answer. The player shows the appropriate card to the questioning player thus keeping the information secret from other players.
So now we have to find out!!!
Was it...?
Miss Scarlet with the Spanner in The Bedroom
Colonel Mustard with the Lead Piping in The Bathroom
Mrs. White with the Revolver in The Dining Room
Reverend Green with the Dagger in The Kitchen
Mrs. Peacock with the Candlestick in The
Lounge
or
Professor Plum with the Rope in the Radio
Room
The first game was played a couple of weeks ago - See the report of the game by clicking HERE!
◄ CLUEDO Posters HOME BACK TOP Poppets ►