Cluedo

Cluedo
Game data
author	Anthony Ernest Pratt, Elva Pratt
publishing company	Waddingtons (1948/49), Parker Brothers (1949), Schmidt Spiele (1959), Miro Company , Carlit , alga , Editrice Giochi , Hasbro
Publishing year	1948, 1949, 1982, 2005, 2015
Art	Deduction game
Teammates	2 to 6
Duration	45-60 minutes
Age	From 8 years

Cluedo [ ˈkluːdoʊ ], but mostly Germanized [ klu'e: do ] ( Clue in the USA and Canada ) is a board game for three to six participants in which a murder case has to be solved by combining clues.

history

Grave site of Anthony Ernest Pratt

In 1943/1944, the British paralegal Anthony Ernest Pratt (1903–1994) and his wife Elva (1913–1990) came up with a game that they Murder! called. In 1944 a patent for the game concept and the game plan was filed, which was then granted in 1947. 1945/46 Waddingtons acquired the rights to the game, which was only released as Cluedo in 1948/49 due to material shortages . The game was licensed to Parker Brothers for the North American market, who released the game in 1949 as Clue, The Sherlock Holmes Game . Since then, around 3 million games have been made annually worldwide.

In 1959 Schmidt Spiele brought the game under the title Who is Master Detective? on the German-speaking market, but only the later Parker version was able to establish itself on the market.

Parker Brothers and Waddingtons were taken over in 1991 and 1994 respectively by the US game manufacturer Hasbro , who still produces the game to this day.

The game idea may come from the card game The King of Hearts Has Five Sons .

Surname

The word Cluedo is a suitcase word from the English term Clue , which means something like key or hint for the progress of the action , and Ludo . In fact, you have to find out the perpetrator, the weapon and the scene of the crime through a talent for combination, skillful questioning techniques and a little chance (after all, there is also a die included).

Course of the game

The game plan shows the floor plan of a house with nine rooms and the hallway. In this house is Dr. Schwarz (including Count Eutin) was murdered and all players take on the role of a detective during the course of the game . At the beginning, one card is drawn face down from the stacks of cards for the suspect, murder tools and murder room. This has to be determined in the course of the game. All other cards are dealt to the other players. They can now find out which card they have by cleverly combined suspicions that they always present to the other players. This means that everyone has to draw conclusions about the correct murderer, the weapon and the crime scene. Whoever can answer these three questions correctly first has won. However , anyone who brings a false charge is eliminated. There are a total of 324 different solution combinations with six suspects, six weapons and nine rooms.

Innovations in the 2008 edition

Suspects: The suspects have basically remained the same, but some have different names and different background stories. In addition, there is also the dodging (see below).
Crime scenes: Sometimes there are other crime scenes (see below).
Weapons of murder: Instead of six weapons, there are now nine (see below).
Plot cards: They must or may be drawn in certain situations and give the player the opportunity, for example, to express another suspicion, to roll the dice again or something similar.
Clock cards: The player who draws the eighth clock card from the plot cards is the killer's next victim and is eliminated from the game.
Tricks: Each of the game characters has an additional property that can be played once per game.

Innovations in the 2015 edition

This new edition is more similar to the original edition than the new edition from 2008. The murder weapons are the same as in the original edition, as are the crime scenes. The list of suspects has changed slightly. There is no longer Frau Weiß, instead there is now a Frau Dr. Orchid. The innovations of the 2008 edition (plot cards, clock cards, tricks) do not exist in this latest edition.

Suspects (old version and edition from 2015)

These six people are the suspects that appear in the game (the original name in italics):

Colonel Günther von Gatow (yellow) (Colonel Mustard)
Professor (Peter) Bloom (purple) (Professor Plum)
(Lord) Director Green or Reverend Jakob Grün (green) (Reverend Green)
Baroness (Patrizia) von Porz (blue) (Mrs. Peacock)
Fräulein Ming or Fräulein Gloria Roth (red) (Miss Scarlett), only referred to as "Fräulein Gloria" in the 2015 edition
Mrs. (Elvira) Weiß (white) (Mrs. White), in the edition of 2015 by Dr. Orchid (pink) (Dr. Orchid) replaced

Suspects (2008 reprint)

Surname	Guiding principle	Dodge (once per game)
Dennis Gatow	"Did I mention how many goals I scored?"	You can draw twice. Roll the dice, draw and roll again
Felix Bloom	"I am the king of the crowd."	You can express suspicions twice in the same turn.
Tom Green	“I'll do it for you. What do I get in return? "	You are allowed to express a suspicion in a room that you are not in. The guest of suspicion is placed in the named room.
Klara Porz	"I prefer to take matters into my own hands."	You may look at a card from the player to whom you have just shown one of your cards.
Gloria Roth	"I beg your pardon? You don't know who I am? "	You are allowed to look at a card that another player has just shown someone else.
Diana Weiss	"I'm so sick of always being overlooked."	You can move into any room that does not have a secret passage.

Murder weapons (old version and edition from 2015)

Pistol (revolver)
Dagger (Dagger)
Rope (rope)
Candlesticks (Candlestick)
Pipe wrench (wrench)
Heating pipe (lead pipe)

Murder weapons (new edition from 2008)

gun
Candlesticks
rope
knife
Club

continuation

Axe
dumbbell
trophy
Poison

Crime scenes (old version and edition from 2015)

Kitchen (Kitchen)	Music room (ballroom)	Winter garden (conservatory)
Dining room (Dining Room)	basement, cellar	Billiard room (Billiard Room)
Dining room (Dining Room)	basement, cellar	Library (Library)
Salon (lounge)	(Entrance) hall (hall)	Study (Study)

House Neubrunn or Schloss Eutin (orig. Tudor Hall): The cellar is not a crime scene, this is where the murder envelope is.

Tatorte (new edition from 2008)

Kitchen (1)	terrace	Wellness room (2)
Dining room	swimming pool	Home theater
Dining room	swimming pool	living room
Guesthouse (2)	(Entrance hall	Observatory (1)

The swimming pool is not a crime scene, this is where the weapons and the rest of the suspicion cards are located and only here charges can be brought. The rooms marked with numbers are connected by secret passages

Variations

Cluedo video

In the late 1980s, the Parker Brothers company brought out the Cluedo game in a new version. During the game, the players watched the plot on a video recorder on an enclosed cassette in order to learn important facts, and made notes about the suspects, the rooms and the tools used. Of course you needed a TV set and a video recorder. However, this variation did not take hold for very long, as the highly motivating sequences of the tape lost their playful appeal over time due to the repetition.

Computer game (1999)

This CD version for Windows PCs was released by Hasbro in 1999 and offers two game variants. The “classic” variant is a true-to-original implementation of the board game, while the “without dice” variant does not roll the dice, but each player has nine points per turn, which he can use for actions. A step costs one point, a suspicion or the indictment costs three points. You can choose to move in a 3D view of the house or on the two-dimensional game board. Expressed suspicions are animated by short video sequences. The computer can replace any number of human players (and also play against itself). The game can also be played on the network.

Cluedo DVD

As with the Cluedo video (see above), a medium, in this case a DVD , is used to expand the game with videos. The only difference is that this variation does not solve a murder, but a theft. In the DVD cases (one main case plus ten special cases) there are a total of ten characters, of which only five characters (three to five players) are played at the same time. These are fixed and are given in detailed instructions before the start of the game. Next to the old figures

Colonel von Gatow (yellow)
Professor Bloom (purple)
Reverend Green (green)
Baroness von Porz (blue)
Miss Gloria (red)
Woman white (white)

there are four new characters:

Sir Albert (ocher)
Konrad (orange)
Mrs. Wiesental (turquoise)
Madame Monique (violet)

Then there is the commissioner and a butler who help solve the case. In the special cases, the butler gives tips about his own observations in the various rooms. The commissioner gives instructions and provides assistance.

The cube is completely omitted, as you can only go from room to room. Over time, more and more help will be activated on the DVD and it can be used in every round instead of expressing a suspicion. For example, special promotions in the secret passage or search images in individual rooms.

The game was released by Parker and Hasbro in 2005.

Great Cluedo

This is an expanded version of the classic Cluedo game. There are more crime scenes (including a garden and stables), weapons, and suspects, which allows for more combinations. The number of players has been increased to up to ten. Also new are magnifying glass-shaped special fields that are distributed in the hallway. If you move across such a space, you can see an opponent's hand card. Otherwise, however, the rules are the same as the original.

Cluedo - The card game

The game author Philip Orbanes published a map version of the game at the publishing house Winning Moves in 2002, which was also published in German a year later. There are detective cards, suspicion cards, wanted cards, hot track cards and insider tip cards. Players can express suspicions about the perpetrator, the getaway vehicle and the city, which the other players can answer based on the cards in their hand.

Cluedo - The Simpsons

Also in 2006, Parker (Hasbro) released a variant of Cluedo with characters, crime scenes and weapons from the television series The Simpsons . The gameplay is identical to the original game, but can be played from two people. The characters in the series slip into the roles of the original game, including: Krusty the Clown as Colonel von Gatow , Bart Simpson as Professor Bloom , Homer Simpson as Reverend Green , Marge Simpson as Baroness von Porz , Lisa Simpson as Miss Gloria and Waylon Smithers as Ms. White . Possible weapons are a poisonous donut, a box arm, a necklace, a slingshot, a fuel rod and a saxophone. The crime scenes are also from the series and are Barney's Bowl-A-Rama , the Krustylu Film Studios , the Nuclear Power Plant , the Simpson House , the Frying Dutchman , the Kwik-E-Mart , the Burns Estate , the Springfield Retirement Home , and the Android's Dungeon .

Cluedo - Harry Potter Edition

A Cluedo variant with characters from the Harry Potter universe. The venue is the Hogwarts Magic School . The rules of the game have been expanded to include house points that every player has at the start of the game, but which he can randomly lose when the Dark Mark appears, whereby protection cards can be purchased during the game. If all house points are lost, the player is eliminated. In addition, the game plan has been expanded to include movable elements (four turntables below the plan) that make it possible to open and close doors and to open secret passages between the individual rooms. The following characters are available: Harry Potter , Ron Weasley , Hermione Granger , Ginny Weasley , Luna Lovegood and Neville Longbottom . The rooms are designated as Dumbledore's Office, Library, Owlery, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Potions, the Great Hall, Room of Desires, and the Hospital Wing. The suspects here are Draco Malfoy , Lucius Malfoy , Bellatrix Lestrange , Peter Pettigrew , Crabbe, and Goyle.

Cluedo - Sherlock Edition

In September 2012, a variation of Cluedo was released in Great Britain with locations and characters from the successful British TV series Sherlock , which has been in production since 2010 . With its reference to Sherlock Holmes, this edition creates a reference back to the origin of the game.

Cluedo secret agent

This version of the classic detective game turns the individual player into a secret agent in a world metropolis. As in the classic game, evidence has to be collected and perpetrators found out, but there is an SMS game mechanism through which every player receives special orders via SMS. As a special feature, the Cluedo secret agent version comes with a black light lamp that can be used to decipher clues.

Cluedo Live Party

In 2007 a live role-play version was released. It consists of only two cases, one for six players and one for eight. As usual in an RPG, the players take on the role of one of the guests. The roles are taken from the characters of the old version: Prof. Bloom, Colonel von Gatow, Fraulein Gloria, Reverend Grün, Baroness von Porz and Frau Weiß. In the case of eight players, Lord Lukas and Madame Monique are added. For each character there is a small role description with biography, character traits and behavioral tips. There are also suggestions for the costume (color, accessories). The game also comes with name tags that can be hung like a bib. Each player receives a set of clue cards, which he is only allowed to read when instructed by the game master. They contain information about when and where your character did what.

The weapons of the old version (dagger, candlestick, rope, pipe wrench, pipe, pistol) are used as weapons. These are made of cardboard and contain a note about the weapon, which can be deciphered with the enclosed red magnifying glass (light blue writing overprinted with a red pattern. The magnifying glass makes the pattern disappear and makes the text more readable). The note provides information about whether the weapon can be used as a murder weapon.

The nine rooms of the old version (music room, salon, kitchen, study, library, dining room, hall, winter garden, billiard room) can also be used as a crime scene. The rooms are represented by envelopes that contain a card with a note.

The party is organized as a dinner evening with a three-course menu. Starters, main courses and desserts are integrated into the course of the game, thus providing opportunities for reflection and conclusions. The butler guides you through the evening on the enclosed CD. He gives instructions for the further course of the game. The guests, guided by the butler, gradually feel their way to the solution. Points are awarded for the correct conclusions and for exposing the murderer.

In addition to the soundtracks for both cases, the enclosed CD also contains print templates for the game materials (invitations, character information, solution notes, etc.).

Cinematic implementation

Based on the basic idea of the game, the crime comedy Clue was created in 1985 (German: All murderers are already there ), which offers both the original character names and three possible solutions to individual murders. Initially not very successful, Clue is now considered a cult film in the USA, Canada and Great Britain.

Adaptations

In 1992 the broadcaster Sat.1 produced twelve episodes of a game show of the same name (title music: Martin Böttcher , director: Wolfgang F. Henschel ), moderated by Gundis Zámbó . Notes were given via feature films; the audience in the studio had to find the killer. The show was also parodied on the radio show Kalkofes Mattscheibe in 1993 .
In autumn 2006, according to the manufacturer, over 250,000 players took part in the online version of the game Cluedo Online - The Great Killer Hunt . It lasted about a month, was titled An Almost Perfect Murder, and it became the murderer of Dr. Black wanted. The main prize was a family trip to San Francisco with a visit to Alcatraz Island .