MysteryOfTheAbbey

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A BoardGame by Days of Wonder, which combines BucketLoads? of theme with a lack of very much game once you strip the theme away (I mean, even Cluedo has more deduction in it). But it's still worth playing a couple of times for the theme ;) --Angoel

I'd just like to express disappointment of your impugning of Cluedo. Cluedo actually has a fair bit of skill in it, when you take into account the ability to force players to visit rooms, the choice of whether to move or guess and deciding when to make an educated guess based upon another players pattern of questions. --Vitenka

: I meant no disrespect for Cluedo. I meant my comment more in a "Cluedo's been around for ages - it is the archaetypical deduction game. Surely they could at least have matched it's deductive strength." sort of way. --Angoel

I have found it nigh-impossible to do much deduction. I've seen two distinct styles of question take place: either everyone asks the others whether they've personally seen the cards of suspect so-and-so, or just how many <Franciscans or whatever> they've "eliminated in their enquiries". The latter achieves results rather faster, but has the risk that if one player makes a mistake, it spreads around the board so that everyone ends up with all 24 suspects eliminated and has to start again (or give up in disgust). The atmosphere is great, though. --AlexChurchill

Could we get a quick ruoles synopsis here, for those who'd not heard of the game before this page? --Vitenka (i.e. me)

: There are a set of cards depicting monks with various features, such as hoodedness, their order, how senior they are, etc. One card is the murderer and is placed somewhere hidden. The players are dealt a number of the other cards. There are various mechanisms for drawing the remaining cards, and passing cards around the table. You can also ask other players questions about what cards they are holding, what cards they've eliminated, etc. When you've worked out who the murderer, or what certain of their features are, you can reveal it for mucho points. The person with muchoest points when the murder has been solved wins.

I'd add that the "asking others questions" dynamic is key to the game: every time you move to a space with someone else in it, you *must* ask them a question. They must either decline to answer, or answer truthfully to the best of their knowledge. In the latter case, they may then ask you a question, which you *must* answer truthfully. (All players, as monks, have taken a vow of honesty.) --AlexChurchill
It's just occurred to me that, since the rules expressly permit the questions to be about anything, one could subvert the mechanism to a TruthOrDare?-style purpose... --AlexChurchill

: Requiem boggles. Briefly. Looks at the below and RunsAndHides.
: It occurred to PeterTaylor long ago, but he decided to play to win rather than to embarrass the other players.
: I suspect that it's a vow of honesty within the game terms rather than a vow of honesty full stop. ("Brother Michael - who was the first person you kissed?" "I have never kissed - I came straight into the monestry as a child." ) --Angoel

CategoryGames