Haven't Got a Clue

While on our trip, our children played the classic game Clue for the first time. If your are not familiar with the game, it works like this:

At the beginning of play, three cards - one Suspect, one Weapon, and one Room card - are chosen at random and put into a special envelope, so that no one can see them. These cards 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; that is, the cards in the envelope. There are 6 different characters, 6 possible murder weapons and nine different rooms (typically Hall, Lounge, Dining Room, Kitchen, Ballroom, Conservatory, Billiard Room, Library, and Study), giving 324 possible solutions. To do so, players announce suggestions to the other players, 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.

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), as this proves that the card cannot be in the envelope. Showing the card to the suggesting player is done in secret so the other players may not see which card is being used to disprove the suggestion. Once a suggestion has been disproved, the player's turn ends and moves onto the next player.

My youngest daughter enjoyed the game, maybe a little too much.

This morning while unloading the dishwasher, she picked up two knives and with exaggerated innocence asked, "Mommy, where do we store the murder weapons?"


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Related Tags: Clue