Mrs. Peacock in the Lounge with a candlestick?. Review on Clue

For more than fifty years, board game buffs have tried to solve the mystery of who killed ''Mr. Boddy''. The game of Clue was originally created in Great Britain as Cluedo. It is now produced world wide in many versions under both names. Players travel around a board layed out as a diagram of Mr. Boddy's house and try to find out who did the crime with what weapon where.

There are several versions of the original gameboard. We have the anniversary edition which comes packaged in a tin box and includes a folding game board and ''gold'' weapons. All versions contain the board and weapons as well as game cards for each suspect, weapon and room and colored game pieces representing each of the characters. There is also a score pad on which players can keep track what they learn.

The set up.

First take a card from each category(person, place and weapon) without looking at them. These are placed in an envelope and represent the details of the crime.

The remaining cards are shuffled together and dealt to all players. The weapons are randomly placed in each of the rooms. Each player selects a color and places their game piece on the board.

The play.

Players roll the dice and move along the corridors trying to get into a room. Miss Scarlett(red) always goes first and play proceeds to her left.

When a player enters a room, they are then able to suggest a possible scenario for the crime. A player entering the kitchen might say Mustard in the kitchen with a rope. The weapon and character for that scenario are moved into the room. If the player to the left has any cards corresponding to any of these, he/she must show one to the player who has suggested the scenario without others seeing it. If he/she has none, the next player is asked etc. Each player is keeping track on his card of the cards he has and those he learns about and uses this to figure out what happened. There are secret passages between rooms that can be used to move quickly from one to another. Players continue to move and ask questions until one thinks they are ready to accuse someone. Once they have done so, they look in the envelope and see if they are correct. If they are, they win, if not they are out of play from that point.

Clue is best played with at least 3 players. Younger children (under 9-10) may have trouble using the score cards and keeping track of information at first. A single game rarely takes more than 20-30 minutes at the most.

Parker Brothers the original maker of Clue ( now made by Hasbro) also produced a number of related games including Clue-the Great Museum Caper and 221B Baker St based on Sherlock Holmes stories.

For a bit of campy fun-check out Clue the movie with Tim Rice, Madeline Kahn, Eileen Brennan etc. When originally in theaters it had several possible endings. The TV version has all the original endings.