Mr. Jack

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Mr. Jack
Hry a hlavolamy 2008 - Mr. Jack 3.jpg
Game data
author Bruno Cathala ,
Ludovic Maublanc
graphic Pierre "Pierô" Lechevalier
publishing company Hurrican Games ,
Brain Games
Publishing year 2006
Art Board game
Teammates 2
Duration about 30 minutes
Age from 9 years

Awards

Tric Trac d'Or 2006: nominated
International Gamers Award 2007: Winner "2-Player"
Dutch game award 2007: Nominated
As d'Or - Jeu de l'Année 2008: nominated
JoTa 2008: Winner "2 Player Game"
Vuoden Peli 2011: Finalist adult games

Mr. Jack is a tactical two-person board game with deductive elements and an asymmetrical style of play. It was developed by the French game designers Bruno Cathala and Ludovic Maublanc , and Pierre “Pierô” Lechevalier was responsible for the graphic design. The game was released by Hurrican Games in 2006 , and an expansion was released the following year.

action

In Mr. Jack is about the identity of the serial killer Jack the Ripper , who in 1888 in the London district of Whitechapel haunts - he is behind one of eight people, who at the time of the game in the district.

The two players take on the roles of Jack and an investigator . Jack's player knows his identity and must keep it secret for as long as possible. He wins the game if Jack can escape the district or is not caught until the end of the game. Conversely, the investigator's aim is to uncover Jack's identity, prevent him from escaping, and catch him before the game ends.

material

  • 1 game board
  • 8 tokens, 8 person cards and 8 alibi cards
  • 10 game board markers (6 burning lanterns, 2 blocked sewer shafts, 2 police barriers)
  • 1 witness card
  • 1 lap counter

Game flow

The game board shows Whitechapel in London at night, divided by a hexagonal grid . Several houses as well as eight gas lanterns and sewer shafts are marked on the game board. There is also an exit from the district in each of the four corners. The empty fields are streets on which the pawns can move freely. The Jack player draws one of the eight alibi cards face down and keeps it - the corresponding person in this game is Jack . The remaining alibi cards are laid out as a face-down pile. The pieces of all figures start in predetermined positions and can be moved by both players.

The game is divided into rounds, a game lasts a maximum of eight rounds. Before each odd round (including the first), all eight character cards are shuffled and four of them are revealed. These are available to the players in the round. Each player chooses and moves two of the pieces. In the subsequent even rounds, the four remaining pieces are moved. The chosen figure must be moved one to three spaces and can use open manholes for faster movement. Each of the characters also has a special ability:

  • After his move, Sherlock Holmes draws one of the remaining alibi cards face down. The investigating player can thus exclude a person as a suspect, while the jack player conceals the identity of a suspect.
  • Dr. Watson carries a lantern with which he illuminates all fields in a certain direction (see below).
  • Before or after his move, Mr. John Smith relocates a burning gas lamp.
  • Before or after his move, Inspector Lestrade moved one of the two police barriers to another exit.
  • Mrs. Stealthy can be moved up to four spaces instead of the usual three, and during the movement it can usually pass insurmountable obstacles (e.g. a house).
  • Sergeant Goodley uses his whistle before or after his move to call for help and thus move up to three other figures one space closer to him.
  • Instead of moving normally, Sir William Gull can swap places with another character.
  • Before or after his move, Jeremy Bert relocates one of the two blocked manholes to an open manhole, thus preventing its use.

Each round ends with a witness interview . In this the Jack player must announce whether Jack is currently "seen". This is the case when the character that Jack represents

  • is right next to another figure, or
  • stands right next to one of the still burning lanterns, or
  • in Dr. Watson's lantern is up.

The investigator can use this information to rule out certain characters as suspects and thus gradually comes closer to Jack's identity. However, four of the gas lanterns are extinguished in the course of the game, which in turn gives the jack player an advantage.

If the investigating player thinks he knows Jack's identity, he moves a figure on the suspect and confronts the Jack player with this allegation. If the investigator's guess is correct, if he has caught Jack and if he wins the game, if he is wrong, the Jack player wins. The latter wins the game even if Jack can leave the district via an exit or could not be caught by the end of the eighth round.

Criticism and Awards

The reviews for the game were generally very positive. Among other things, the comparatively simple rules of the game and the short playing time as well as the successful and atmospheric presentation were praised. The most frequent point of criticism was a found imbalance in favor of the investigator, which would make the game as Jack much more challenging, but at least more exciting.

In 2007 Mr. Jack won the International Gamers Award in the category “General Strategy - 2-Player” and was nominated for the 2007 Dutch Game Award in the same year . The game was also nominated for the French As d'Or - Jeu de l'Année 2008 game award and won the first Brazilian JoTa Award in 2008 in the “2 Player Game” category. At the Finnish game award Vuoden Peli 2011 it was a finalist in the adult games category.

background

The authors initially found no publisher for the game, whose title was originally Une Ombre sur Whitechapel (French: "A shadow over Whitechapel"). So they initially had an edition of only 250 copies produced by the small French publisher Neuroludic. After the game was unexpectedly well received, it was reissued in a revised form and distributed through the newly founded publisher Hurrican Games . The reason for the change of the title to Mr. Jack that went with the new edition was on the one hand that the French game publisher NekoCorp had already announced a board game expansion with the title Whitechapel for 2006 , and on the other hand that Mr. Jack was more suitable for international distribution.

On the occasion of the 2008 Summer Olympics , Hurrican Games made a special online version of Mr. Jack available on their website. The game mechanisms were identical to those of Mr. Jack , but the entire design and the theme were adapted to the Olympic Games: Eight fictional athletes from different countries are suspected of sending messages to the international media every night and thus about China's human rights violations and Tibet Struggle to point out independence. One player takes on the role of the suspect, the other that of the rest of the athletes. Their special abilities correspond to those of the original characters. The redesigned game board shows the streets of Beijing with some distinctive competition venues such as the national stadium or the swimming center . The special version was only available until September 25, 2008.

Extensions

In 2007, Hurrican Games released an expansion called the Mr. Jack Expansion . In addition to some rule variants, it also contains five new figures:

  • The Spring-Heeled You can jump over other figures and obstacles.
  • Inspector Abberline reduces the movement of neighboring figures.
  • The butcher John Pizer has a deterrent effect on neighboring figures, so that they move away from him at the end of the train.
  • The revolutionary Joseph Lane can erect a street barricade between two spaces, which blocks the movement and special abilities of other characters.
  • The Madame can be moved up to 6 spaces, but never enters the sewers

The Spring-Heeled Man and Abberline characters are the winning entries in an ideas competition held in April 2007 by Hurrican Games. The new figures can be used in place of some of the old figures, but the game is still only played with a total of eight figures.

The reviews of the expansion were also positive. Above all, the new tactical possibilities and the harmonious integration of the new characters into the game atmosphere were praised, and an equalization of opportunities in favor of the jack player was also determined. In the first edition of the expansion, however, it was criticized that the cards included were not compatible with certain editions of the base game. The new editions of the expansion therefore contain two sets of cards.

In 2006, a mini-expansion entitled Die Kutsche was also released , which was included in issue 4/07 of the game magazine spielbox . The carriage is played instead of a figure and can be moved up to 8 spaces. During the movement, she can pick up any figure and put it down again at the target location.

Mr. Jack in New York

Mr. Jack in New York
Game data
author Bruno Cathala ,
Ludovic Maublanc
graphic Pierre "Pierô" Lechevalier
publishing company Hurrican Games
Publishing year 2009
Art Board game
Teammates 2
Duration about 30 minutes
Age 14 years and older

In 2009, Mr. Jack appeared in New York, an independent game that is based on Mr. Jack and takes over the game mechanics unchanged. Only the plot, the characters and some elements have been redesigned or revised. Some of the changes and innovations are intended to give the Jack player better chances, who, in the opinion of many reviewers, was at a disadvantage with the predecessor (see section Criticism and Awards ).

Handlungsort in this game is the New York district of Manhattan . In contrast to its predecessor, the game board has only a few fixed game elements in the form of a few buildings. Street lights, parks and subway stations, on the other hand, are placed by the players themselves during the game. The parks are a new element, a person placed there is always "invisible". There are also six exits instead of the previous four, although five of them are berths - they can only be used by Jack to escape if one of the two ships is there.

The characters and special abilities have been completely redesigned:

  • Alfred Ely Beach puts new subway stations on the schedule. These correspond in their function to the manholes in the predecessor.
  • Lewis Howard Latimer puts new lanterns on the board.
  • Cloud Rider puts construction sites on the map and can move through these and other buildings without the use of movement points.
  • Mrs. Emma Grant converts any subway station, construction site or lantern into a park.
  • Captain Edward John Smith moves one of the two ships to a different berth.
  • James H. Callahan moves one of the two police barriers.
  • Francis J. Tumblety can have a neighboring and a third figure swap places.
  • Instead of moving, Monk Eastman can move another figure.

Another, passive figure comes into play with the informant . It starts on the Liberty Island off Manhattan , which can only be reached by ferry. If one of the pawns is moved onto the informant, the player takes one of the remaining alibi cards from the stack (this corresponds to the special ability of Sherlock Holmes from the predecessor).

The reviews of Mr. Jack in New York were as positive as those of Mr. Jack . The game plan, which is open at the beginning, and the variable game elements would result in a wider range of tactics and an overall more dynamic feel than the predecessor.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Harald Schrapers: Review in Fairplay, January – March 2007 edition at gamesweplay.de
  2. ^ Henry Krasemann: Review in the game magazine Casual Players (PDF; 3.1 MB), Issue 10 (Fall 2007), p. 23
  3. ↑ Thomas Nezold: Review at spieletest.at from June 12, 2008
  4. ↑ Tobias Brouwer: Review by H @ LL9000 from June 20, 2008
  5. ↑ 2007 winners on the International Gamers Awards website
  6. ↑ Winners and nominations 2007 in the archive ( memento from January 23, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) on the website of the Dutch Games Award (Dutch)
  7. ↑ Information on the JoTa Award at BoardGameGeek (English)
  8. ↑ Vuoden peli 2011 at lautapeliopas.fi (Finnish)
  9. ↑ Information on Hurrican-Verlag at spielbox-online.de
  10. ↑ Review and background information on Mr. Jack at boardgame.de (English)
  11. ↑ Hurrican Games website (see web links)
  12. ↑ Message on the Hurrican Games website (see web links)
  13. ↑ Jörg Köninger: Review of the extension at cliquenabend.de from August 9, 2009
  14. ↑ Thomas Nezold: Description of the extension at spieletest.at from October 7, 2008
  15. ↑ Jens Loddeke: Review of Mr. Jack in New York at Spiele-Akademie.de from February 12, 2010
  16. ↑ Carsten Pinnow: Review of Mr. Jack in New York at Ludoversum from April 6, 2010
  17. ↑ Thomas Netzold: Review of Mr. Jack in New York at spieletest.at from June 17, 2010