Cluedo
| Cluedo | |
|---|---|
| Players: | 3 to 6 |
| Age range: | 8 and up |
| Setup time: | < 5 minutes |
| Playing time: | 45 minutes |
| Rules complexity: | Easy |
| Strategy depth: | Medium |
| Random chance: | High |
| Skills required: | Dice rolling, Deduction |
Cluedo (Clue in North America) is a murder mystery board game originally published by Waddington Games, UK in 1948. It was devised by Anthony Pratt, a solicitor's clerk from Birmingham, England. It is now published by the US game and toy company Hasbro, which acquired American board game company Parker Brothers, which originally manufactured the game.
| Contents |
Overview
The game is set in an English country mansion, with the board divided into different rooms. The players each represent a character who is a guest staying at this house, whose owner, Dr. Black, has been found murdered (Mr. Boddy in North American version).
Players take on the role of suspects and attempt to solve a murder. The solution to the murder contains the three components of Suspect, Weapon and Room.
Game contents
- Instructions
- A game board, representing the location of the murder
- Six colored game pieces, representing the suspects
- Weapon pieces, representing possible weapons used
- Cards, containing depictions of game elements (weapons, suspects or rooms)
The suspects
- Miss Scarlet (a red piece)
- Professor Plum (purple)
- Colonel Mustard (yellow)
- Rev. Green (Mr. Green in Pre-2002 North American version) (green)
- Mrs. White (white)
- Mrs. Peacock (blue)
Possible murder weapons
- The Rope
- The Lead Pipe
- The Knife (also called the Dagger)
- The Spanner (The Wrench in NA version)
- The Candlestick
- The Revolver
- The Poison (added for 50th Anniversary edition)
The rooms
There are nine rooms in the mansion where the murder can take place, laid out on the board as follows:
| Study | Hall | Lounge |
| Library | Dining Room | |
| Billiard Room | ||
| Conservatory | Ball Room | Kitchen |
Gameplay
The gameplay involves moving the game pieces around a board depicting the interior of a country house (supposedly the residence of the deceased) and the cards. This game is unusual in that it requires at least three players, as opposed to a minimum of two for most board games.
At the beginning of play, one card of each type is chosen at random and put into a special envelope to represent the true facts of the case. The remainder of the cards are distributed among the players.
The aim is to deduce the details of the murder. This is done by announcing suggestions to other players. A typical suggestion would be, for example, "I suggest it was Mrs. White, in the Library, with the Rope." All elements contained in the suggestion are moved into the room in the suggestion (so Mrs. White and the Rope would be moved to the Library). The other players must then disprove the suggestion if they can. This is done in clockwise order around the board. A suggestion is disproved by showing a card containing one of the suggestion components to the player making the suggestion (for example, the Rope). Showing the card to the suggesting player is done in secret so the other players may not see the card being used to disprove the suggestion. Once a suggestion has been disproved, the player's turn ends and moves onto the next player. The player's suggestion only gets disproved once. So, though several players may hold cards disproving the suggestion, only the first one will show the suggesting player his or her card. A player may only make a suggestion when his or her piece is in a room and the suggestion can only be for that room.
Once a player thinks he or she knows the solution, the player can make an accusation. The player checks the validity of the accusation by checking the cards in the file. If the player made an incorrect accusation, that player is out of the game (since the player now knows the correct solution). If the player made a correct accusation, the solution cards are shown to the other players and the game ends.
An interesting feature of Cluedo's design is that it is possible for a player to be using the piece representing the murderer. This doesn't affect the gameplay, the object of the game is still to be the first to make the correct accusation.
Strategy
While appearing, at first glance, to be a simple game of guessing, Cluedo is, in fact, much more…
Trivia
- In North America, the game is known as Clue. Possibly it was retitled because the traditional game Ludo, on which the name is based, was less well known there. There are also localised versions for Japan and China.
- Expressions such as "Colonel Mustard, in the Billiard Room, with the Candlestick" have entered popular culture, in much the same way as "hotel on Boardwalk" from Monopoly.
- Enough rope has been included in Clue and Cluedo games to encircle the world.
Legacy
Movie
There is a comedy film based on the game, as well as several interactive video versions. In the US film version, the person murdered was Mr. Boddy. The film, which featured different endings released to different theaters, failed at the box office but has attracted a "cult following."
Television
Main article: Cluedo (Televison)
There have also been two television game shows based upon this game. There have been, to date, three seasons of the British version of Cluedo (and a Christmas version that in fact shows some similarity to the North American movie), and there has been other versions in Germany, France, and Australia. The format for each pits two teams (each usually containing one celebrity and one person with law enforcement/research experience) against six very in-character actors as the famed color-coded suspects. There is a new murder victim every episode, who usually has it coming to them for one reason or another.
Spin-off games
Hasbro created some spin-off versions of the game, such as Clue Master Detective, Clue Jr. and Simpsons Clue.
- Clue Dungeons & Dragons (2001) was produced by Hasbro shortly after their purchase of Wizards of the Coast, owners of the Dungeons & Dragons license. The characters are D&D character types (such as Monk, Rogue, Wizard, etc.). The rooms depicted on the board are fantasy-themed (Dungeon, Dragon's Lair, Lost Crypt, etc.), and the weapons also draw inspiration from the popular role-playing game (Mace of Disruption, Flaming Axe, etc.). Gameplay is identical to standard Clue unless you use the optional Wandering Monsters deck. Using this deck, players must battle monsters when landing on special spaces on the board. The players must battle monsters via dice rolls and are rewarded with magic items that confer special powers.
- Clue Master Detective (1998) is an expanded version of the original game. In addition to the original characters, weapons and rooms, the game introduces four new characters (Mme. Rose, Sgt. Grey, M. Brunette and Miss Peach), two weapons (poison and horseshoe), and seven rooms (courtyard, gazebo, drawing room, carriage house, trophy room, studio and fountain) to the mansion. This version was also made into a computer game.
- Clue Jr. is a version of Clue themed for children. Instead of solving a murder, the children search for clues for the whereabouts of some lost toys. The rules are significantly different than those for the regular board game. The characters, which look like the original game's suspects as children, are named Mortimer Mustard, Georgie Green, Peter Plum, Wendy White, Polly Peacock, and Samantha Scarlet.
- Simpsons Clue is a Clue board game themed after the popular TV series, The Simpsons. Like the numerous versions of Monopoly Hasbro produces based on themes such as Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, Simpsons Clue is Clue with locales and an art treatment paying homage to the TV show. It features Homer as Mr. Green, Bart as Prof. Plum, Krusty as Col. Mustard, Marge as Mrs. Peacock, Lisa as Miss Scarlet, and Smithers as Mrs. White.
- Clue: The Great Museum Caper is rather different from the original. One player is a thief moving in a museum stealing paintings, while the other players cooperate to catch the thief. The thief keeps track of his position secretly on paper and is thus not seen by the detectives, until the thief is spotted by a detective or the museum's security system. Ideally, multiple rounds are played, with each player getting to be the thief once. The winner of the match is then the thief who stole the most paintings without getting caught.
Books
A series of 18 humorous children's books were published in the United States by Scholastic between 1992 and 1997 based on the Clue concept and created by A.E. Parker (possibly of Parker Brothers). The books featured the US Clue characters in short, comedic vignettes and asked the reader to follow along and solve a crime at the end of each. The tenth and final vignette would always be the murder of Mr. Boddy. A similar series of books featuring the Clue Jr. characters was also published.
Computer and video games
Various versions of the game have shown up on Commodore 64, PC, Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Genesis.
Criticisms of the game
Critics cite that Cluedo is effectively a logic game, much like Mastermind. A board game with gameplay which more closely simulates detective work is the Sherlock Holmes-themed 221B Baker Street.
See also
External links
- Hasbro's US Clue site
- Instructions for US Clue: PDF Format
- Extensive Clue Collection and Fan Discussion Forums TheArtofMurder.com
- A Cluedo/Clue fan site: CluedoFan.com. Includes game history and other game facts