deduction

Deception: Murder in Hong Kong

Deception: Murder in Hong Kong is a game of deduction and deception for 4-12 players that plays in about 20 minutes.

In the game, players take on the roles of investigators attempting to solve a murder case – but there's a twist. The killer is one of the investigators! Each player's role and team are randomly assigned at the start of play and include the unique roles of Forensic Scientist, Witness, Investigator, Murderer, and Accomplice. While the Investigators attempt to deduce the truth, the murderer's team must deceive and mislead. This is a battle of wits!

The Forensic Scientist has the solution but can express the clues only using special scene tiles while the investigators (and the murderer) attempt to interpret the evidence. In order to succeed, the investigators must not only deduce the truth from the clues of the Forensic Scientist, they must also see through the misdirection being injected into the equation by the Murderer and Accomplice!

Find out who among you can cut through deception to find the truth and who is capable of getting away with murder!

Roles

Forensic Scientist x1
As the game master, the Forensic Scientist holds the solution to the crime. They are responsible for assisting the Investigators in identifying the “Key Evidence” and “Means of Murder.” When an Investigator does that successfully, the crime is solved and the Forensic Scientist and the Investigators win the game.

During the game, the Forensic Scientist is NOT allowed to hint to the solution with words, gestures, or eyes.

Murderer x1
When the crime takes place, the Murderer chooses 1 Clue card and 1 Means card as the solution to the crime. These will be the “Key Evidence” and “Means of Murder” respectively.

The Murderer tries to hide their role and look for a scapegoat. Even if they are identified, the Murderer still wins the game if no one correctly identifies both the “Key Evidence” and the “Means of Murder”.

Investigators x8
To solve the crime, the Investigators must analyze the hints given by the Forensic Scientist. As long as one of the Investigators correctly identifies both the “Key Evidence” and “Means of Murder,” the Murderer is arrested and the Investigators win the game (as does the Forensic Scientist).

Bear in mind that the Murderer (and sometimes Accomplice) is among the Investigators! The innocent Investigators must make a vigorous effort to defend themselves from false accusation.

Accomplice x1
The Accomplice is an optional role for games with six or more players. The Accomplice knows who the Murderer is, as well as the solution to the crime. The Accomplice and Murderer both win if the Murderer gets away with his crime.

Witness x1
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.

If the Murderer is arrested but can identify the Witness, the Witness is considered to be killed, allowing the Murderer and the Accomplice to get away with murder and win the game.

Detective Club

Detective Club is a board game for players who enjoy party, with simple rules that take just a minute to explain. Intrigue, sudden revelations, limitless creativity, and tons of fun await you in this game! Lead the investigation as a detective, or cover your tracks as the infiltrated conspirator. Discuss, accuse, object and try to convince everyone.

In Detective Club, on each round, one of the players secretly teams up with another — the Conspirator — and tries to make them guess a secret word using just two illustrated cards! Other players are detectives, who also know the word, but don't know the identities of each other. Detectives have to find out who the conspirator is, making sure they don't get accused by their fellow players!

One Key

The Key is missing, and it is up to the players to find it! The team leader tries to communicate with the other players, proposing clues by indicating their degree of affinity — strong medium/weak — with the object that the team must find. With good team-play, the other players remove the wrong cards, step by step, until the Key is all that remains. Removing the Key results in instant defeat, so be careful!

One Key is a family game for all kinds of players, a light game that offers a co-operative experience based on the association of ideas and deduction. All the objects are like little universes of their own. Find the right one to solve the enigma! One Key is best played with an app with a three-minute timer and background music to add tension to your games.

—description from the publisher

Concept Kids: Animals

Concept Kids Animals is a cooperative version of the game Concept, adapted for children who don’t yet know how to read.

In turn, the children attempt to make the others guess an animal by playing pawns on the illustrated icons on the game board. Through this, the child indicates a feature of the animal to be guessed. Draw 12 cards and attempt to find as many animals as possible in order to get the most points together!

Concept Kids Animals offers 110 animals to be guessed, divided into two difficulty levels. Beautifully illustrated by Éric Azagury, this communication game for children will allow them to discover the world of animals in a fun and innovative way.

Game of Thrones: Oathbreaker

Who do you trust? If you sit on the Iron Throne, the wisest answer is "no one".

Game of Thrones: Oathbreaker is a game of deception and social deduction. One player assumes the role of King (or Queen), while the others represent the great Lords and Ladies of the Houses of Westeros. Some are loyalists who want order in the realm, others are conspirators who seek to undermine the throne, and all of them have a secret agenda of their own. Who is truly loyal, and who is simply hungry for power, honor, and coin? It's up to the King to figure it out before it's too late.

In more detail, the game lasts seven rounds. In each round, players reveal a number of mission cards, each of which has an associated influence type: crowns, ravens, or swords. Each noble plays influence cards face down to one or more missions and places their House Sigil at the mission where they played the most cards. Then each mission is resolved by shuffling the influence cards there and tallying up successes and failures. If a mission succeeds, Order is generated; otherwise Chaos is generated. Nobles earn rewards (coin, honor, power) based on whether the mission with their House Sigil succeeded or failed.

The King can play decree cards during the game to grant favor to nobles who seem loyal, or cast suspicion on suspected conspirators. Decree cards award Order if the King was correct and Chaos if the King was wrong.

At the end of the game, if Order exceeds Chaos, the King wins and any loyalists who achieved their personal ambitions win. If Chaos has the edge, then any conspirators who achieved their personal ambitions win.