There's been a murder at The Grange ...... (Cluedo)

Member Name: SusanLesley

Product:	Cluedo
Date:	25/02/01 (145 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A game for all the family

Disadvantages: None

When I was a girl mom and dad bought me the board game Cluedo and I loved it!

I have never tried to describe a board game before so here goes.

The game is made by Hasbro and is recommended for children of aged 8 and over.

Dr Black has been murdered and the basic premise of the game is to discover who murdered him, where they did it and with what.

The playing board is laid out like the floor plan of a house with 9 rooms - The Billiard Room, The Kitchen, The Ballroom, The Library, The Dining Room, The Conservatory, The Study, The Hall and The Lounge. Between the rooms are corridors divided into spaces for the movement of pieces around the board. There are also two secret passages between opposite corners of the board. With one move you can move diagonally across the board.

The six players are Colonel Mustard, Mrs Peacock, Miss Scarlet, Professor Plum, Mrs White and Reverend Green, each represented by a playing piece of the relevant colour. They each have their own starting place on the board.

There are six implements with which the murder could have been committed and these are the lead piping, the rope, the spanner, the revolver, the candlestick and the dagger. These are placed randomly on the board in any of the rooms.

The rooms, people and implements are all also represented by playing cards and the game begins with the assigning of cards. One of each of the cards is taken from the deck (without anyone seeing them of course!) and they are placed in a special envelope in the middle of the board.

The rest of the cards are then dealt to the players. Each player also has a small sheet of paper with all the people, cards and implements listed. All you have to do is work out which are the three cards in the envelope - i.e. who killed Dr Black, where and with what.

You look at your cards, but don't let anyone else see them, and mark them on your sheet. I would also advise you to put an initial next to each one to show who is holding each card.

The game can be played with 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 players. I have never played with just two players but I would assume that it isn't too interesting - it's a case of the more players the better.

Each player shakes the dice in turn and moves the number of spaces shown on the dice. When you get into a room you can make an accusation naming that room, any implement and any person. You then move the implement and person accused into the room with you.

The player to your left then has to show you (and only you) the card pertaining to one of the three parts of your accusation if the has one. If he doesn't the person to his left must show you one of the three cards and so on round the table until someone has shown you one of the cards.

You then know a little bit more - you know something that is not in the envelope. As before it is worth making a note of who showed you what. I'll tell you why in a minute.

Play passes to the person on your left and the game continues until someone thinks they have worked out the answer. To make an accusation you must be in the room where the murder took place so often the game ends with a mad scramble to get to the relevant room first in order to make the winning accusation.

The winner will make the accusation and none of the other players will show him a card, then the cards in the envelope will be checked and if they match the accusation you have a winner.

The reason I said that you should make a note of who shows you which card is that if an accusation is made on the other side of the table between two other players and a card is shown and you already know the whereabouts of two parts of the accusation the card being shown must be the other one if you see what I mean. This can be very useful.

You can also male an accusation naming a card that you have yourself in order to try and flush out one of the others, but beware if no one has either of the other cards you will have to confess and show everyone the card you hold..

I have always loved playing this game although I haven't played for years. When I used to play with mom and dad when I was young it used to stop mom sleeping! She would go to bed and keep thinking about who did it, where and with what!!

Just as a final laugh we set the game up once and couldn't work out the answer. It was because the person putting the cards in the envelope wasn't concentrating and had put two people and a room instead of one person, one implement and one room!!

Summary: A great board game