Jolly Thinkers PJOL01 Deception: Murder in Hong Kong, Mixed Colours

Product Information

The set up for Deception is done in three parts. There is the scene set up, the roles, and then badge tokens. Scene The Forensic Scientist draws a new tile from the draw pile. This tile replaces one of the previously used Scene tiles except "Location of Crime" and "Cause of Death". The forensic scientist will then discard their clue and means cards and take the evidence tiles and shuffle them leaving the green and purple ones off to the side. The remaining tiles will be face down in a pile next to the forensic scientist. They will also get the rule book to read from the script provided. Badge Tokens The only new information you gain related to the group hypotheses are the new clue cards swapped in. I really do like this dynamic as the forensic scientist player has to use the new card, and has to eliminate one from the table. Do you remove a clue that everyone has already gained as much information out of as they will, to prevent them from overthinking it? Or do you remove that clue that didn’t give them anything at all? Do you try to angle your strategy towards bringing them closer to the cause of death, or the clue? Maybe you eliminate one of the clues they spent a lot of time over in the previous round, indicating that they were misleading themselves by overthinking it. Everything about it is touchy and subtle, and when you draw a clue that can’t possibly give them any information it’s frustrating in the best kind of way.

Finally, the Forensic Scientist should instruct, "Everyone, open your eyes", and then remove the Badge token from the player indicated by the Inside Man.

Game Play

If you are playing the murderer or the accomplice, you want the game to end without you being properly prosecuted. If the murder does get caught you have one last chance to win if there is a witness in the game, if you kill the witness then the murderer and accomplice go free. If you are playing the accomplice, you want to draw attention away from the murder any way you can. ROLES The set-up is pretty straightforward. Shuffle the blue ‘means of murder’ cards and the red ‘key evidence’ cards, and place four of each in front of each player. Then give each player a badge token. Put out the ‘cause of death’ tile and the four location tiles, before putting the remaining tiles face-down in a draw pile. Place the bullet markers on the table. At this point, each player is given their secret role card. So when a game comes out and I hear that it’s a Resistance-killer, my ears perk up a bit. I’m skeptical, for sure, but willing to give each challenger a fair shake. Spyfall was one of the early challengers, but I found it far too dependent on the players knowing all of the possible locations and everyone being very good at coming up with questions. It was frequently hilarious as an awkward-conversation creator, but far too inconsistent as a game. Secret Hitler has come the closest to matching the enjoyment of The Resistance, but that’s mostly because it’s essentially a modification of that game, though not for the best. Hybrid

Witness (1): The witness wins if they or the investigators correctly identify the murder and the evidence and means that prove their guilt. The witness knows which players are playing the murderer and accomplice are but not which role they have. The witness will try to lead the investigators towards these two subtly because if they are caught and killed at the end of the game the murder goes free. SETUP After each player has presented their opinions a second time, the Forensic Scientist moves on to the final round of Evidence Collection. The premise is in the title: there’s been a murder and you’ve got to figure out who it is and how they did it. Everyone gets a set of 4 potential murder weapons/causes, and a set of 4 clues in front of them, along with a secret identity card. Just like in real life investigations, the person who gets the Forensic Scientist role knows all of the details, but can’t tell the investigator players the answer. Instead, they communicate through clue cards that provide frustratingly little information. The Witness is an optional role when playing with six or more players.* The Witness is an Investigator who has witnessed the culprits leaving the crime scene. They have no way of knowing which is the Murderer and which is the Accomplice and they do not know how the crime was committed.As far as player count goes, we’ve enjoyed the game as much with 4 as we have with 9. With only 4 players it’s very difficult for the Murderer to escape. And with more players we love having an Accomplice and Witness in the game. Finally, give each player (except the Forensic Scientist) a badge token. This token indicates a player has not yet attempted to solve the crime and should be clearly displayed in front of the player. Return excess tokens to the box. The Inside Man spreads rumors and is an optional role recommended for games with 8 or more players. The Forensic Scientist announces, "Murderer (and Accomplice), open your eyes", and confirms that they have done so. The new Event tile should be used in the same way as the original Event tiles. Use of the Event tile remains optional.

Finally, each Investigator should take a Badge token and put it in front of them. This tells everyone that they have not yet tried to solve the crime. Committing The CrimeDeception: Murder in Hong Kong, players find themselves in a scenario of intrigue and murder, deduction and deception. One player is the Murderer, secretly choosing their weapon and the evidence they leave behind. Another is the Forensic Scientist who holds the key to convicting the criminal but is only able to express their knowledge through analysis of the scene. The rest are investigators, interpreting the clues to solve the crime – and the killer is among them.