Cluedo

01Discover the game

Cluedo is a deducing game. Three hidden cards give the identity of the culprit, the weapon and the piece of crime. You move to ask questions and eliminate false leads. We choose the classic Waddingtons/Hasbro 1996 rule, without bonus cards, for three to six participants; recent editions can modify characters and travels.

02Equipment

Prepares a manor tray, six pawns Personal, six miniature weapons, 21 cards comprising six suspects, six weapons and nine pieces, one envelope, two dice and one investigation sheet per person with a pencil. The six conventional weapons are the dagger, candlestick, revolver, rope, English key and lead rod or pipe, depending on the translation. The names of the cards in your box are used to formulate the questions.

03The goal

Discover the three cards in the envelope and make an exact accusation before the others. A simple suggestion is to get a clue; a charge commits your only chance to win.

04Preparing the Mystery

Place the six pawns on their squares Departure, even those that no one will choose. Place the weapons in the rooms, no importance for the hidden solution: to take back the booklet 1996, dagger in the living room, candlestick in the dining room, revolver in the office, rope in the ballroom, pipe in the veranda and English key in the kitchen.

Separate suspects, weapons and coins. Mix each package without seeing the faces and take one card from each: slide these three cards into the envelope without looking at them. Mix the remaining 18 cards and distribute them all, one by one. Some players will have one more card; it's normal.

Choose each one a pawn and an investigation sheet. Secretly bar all your cards: they can't be in the envelope. Each throws a dice; the biggest result starts, re-launching the equities. The turns move in the clockwise direction. This dice start is that of the version chosen; other records always give the start to Miss Rose.

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05Getting around and investigating

Getting around in the mansion

In your turn, throw the two dice and move your pawn at most their total by following the corridors, horizontally or vertically. No diagonal, no crossing of the walls or one square occupied by another pawn. Do not use twice the same square during the trip. Enter a room by a door: arrive in the room stops your move, even if there are points left. Several pawns and weapons can share a room.

If you start in a room with a secret passage, you can borrow this passage in place of the throw. It connects the living room to the veranda, or the kitchen to the office. You arrive in the other room and can make a suggestion. The passages do not allow you to then continue in the corridors the same turn.

The 1996 version allows you to stay in a room to continue the investigation; some later versions require you to leave before a new suggestion. Here we retain permission to stay. If an opposing suggestion has moved your pawn there, you can use this new piece in your next turn without having to leave it first.

Make a suggestion

When your pawn is in a room, you can make a suggestion including this room, a suspect and a weapon. Bring the named pawn and the gun into this room, even if that pawn belongs to someone else. They stay there. Say for example: "I suspect Colonel Mustard, with the rope, in the kitchen."

The first person on your left looks at his hand. If she has at least one of the three cards named, she must show you exactly one, secretly. If she has several, she chooses which one. If she has none, the request goes to the next player, then so on. As soon as a card is shown, we stop the answers: the others show nothing.

Note the card actually seen and who showed it. If no one can answer, the cards absent from your own hand are serious candidates for the envelope. You can include a card you have in a suggestion to isolate the question on another card. You must not reveal to the group the card you were shown.

Make a charge

When you're sure, clearly announce a charge during your turn, possibly after your suggestion. Name a suspect, a weapon and a room, then check the envelope alone. In the classic rule chosen, you can accuse without having to go into the room accused. You are only entitled to one charge throughout the whole game.

If you're wrong about a single item, put the cards secretly in the envelope. You can't move, suggest or accuse, but you keep responding to the suggestions with the cards of your hand. You don't reveal what you learned in the envelope.

06An example to understand

You have the Corde card and the Kitchen card. From the kitchen, you suggest Mustarde-Corde-Cuisine. No one shows a map. Since you have the last two, the absence of an answer proves that Mustarde is in the envelope. It does not prove that the crime took place in the kitchen: you have this map!

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Conversely, if the first player shows you Mustard, you don't know anything about the Corde or Cuisine cards in the following players: they were not asked to answer after this first proof.

07Win or lose

A charge that matches exactly the three cards wins immediately. Then show the evidence to everyone. There are no points. A bad accusation prevents you from winning but does not prevent you from answering the questions. If everyone has been wrong, no one wins: reveal the solution to understand the errors of investigation.

08Frequent errors

Do not confuse the piece of your pawn with a room freely chosen for a suggestion. Do not require to see all possible cards of an opponent. Do not treat a lack of response as evidence on a card that you have in hand. Do not return in their original place the pawns and weapons moved by a suggestion.

09Start well

Note each evidence with its source, not only a cross without explanation. Use two known cards to test the third element. Also observe the suggestions of others: you can infer that a player has at least one card of a trio, even without knowing which one. Accuse only when your conclusion is based on the three categories.