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Cluedo (Clue in Canada and the U.S.) is a murder mystery board game originally published by Waddington Games, UK in 1948. It was devised by Anthony Pratt, a solicitor's clerk from Birmingham, England. It is now published by the US game and toy company Hasbro, which acquired American board game company Parker Brothers, that originally manufactured the game.
Overview
The game is set in an English country mansion, with the board divided into different rooms. The players each represent a character who is a guest staying at this house, whose owner, Dr. Black (Mr. Boddy in Canadian and U.S. version), has been found murdered.
Players take on the role of suspects and attempt to solve the murder. The solution to the murder requires the three components of Suspect, Weapon and Room.
Game contents
Instructions
A game board, representing the location of the murder
Six colored game pieces, representing the suspects
Weapon pieces, representing possible weapons used
Cards, containing depictions of game elements (weapons, suspects or rooms)
The suspects
Miss Scarlet (a red piece)
Professor Plum (a purple piece)
Colonel Mustard (a yellow piece)
Rev. Green (Mr. Green in Pre-2002 Canadian and U.S. version) (a green piece)
Mrs. White (a white piece)
Mrs. Peacock (a blue piece)
Possible murder weapons
The Rope
The Lead Pipe
The Knife (also called the Dagger)
The Spanner (The Wrench in Canadian and U.S. version)
The Candlestick
The Revolver
The Poison (added for 50th Anniversary edition)
The rooms
There are nine rooms in the mansion where the murder can take place, laid out on the board as follows:
Study Hall Lounge
Library Dining Room
Billiard Room
Conservatory Ball Room Kitchen
Each of the four corner rooms contains a secret passageway that leads to the room on the opposite corner of the map.
Gameplay
The gameplay involves moving the game pieces around a board depicting the interior of a country house (the residence of the deceased) and the cards. This game is unusual in that it requires at least three players, as opposed to a minimum of two for most board games.
At the beginning of play, one card of each type is chosen at random and put into a special envelope to 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. This is done by announcing suggestions to other players. An example of a suggestion is, "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 (so Mrs. White and the Rope would be moved to the Library). 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). Showing the card to the suggesting player is done in secret so the other players may not see the card being used to disprove the suggestion. Once a suggestion has been disproved, the player's turn ends and moves onto the next player. The player's suggestion only gets disproved once. So, though several players may hold cards disproving the suggestion, only the first one will show the suggesting player his or her card. A player may only make a suggestion when his or her piece is in a room and the suggestion can only be for that room.
Once a player thinks he or she knows the solution, the player can make an accusation. The player checks the validity of the accusation by checking the cards in the file. If the player made an incorrect accusation, that player is out of the game (since the player now knows the correct solution). If the player made a correct accusation, the solution cards are shown to the other players and the game ends.
An interesting feature of Cluedo's design is that it is possible for a player to be using the piece representing the murderer. This doesn't affect the gameplay, the object of the game is still to be the first to make the correct accusation.
The game cannot be played with two people, because the process of elimination diffuses the same information to both players. Such a game passes quickly and ends with a race to the room where the murder occurred....
Trivia
In Canada and the U.S., the game is known as Clue. Possibly it was retitled because the traditional British board game Ludo, on which the name is based, was less well known there than its American variant Parcheesi. There are also localised versions for Japan and China.
Expressions such as "Colonel Mustard, in the Billiard Room, with the Candlestick" have entered popular culture, in much the same way as "hotel on Boardwalk" from Monopoly.
Enough rope has been included in Clue and Cluedo games to encircle the world.
Legacy
Movie
Main article: Clue (movie)
There is a comedy film based on the game, as well as several interactive video versions. In the US film version, the person murdered was Mr. Boddy. The film, which featured different endings released to different theaters, failed at the box office but has attracted a cult following.
There is also a French version of this film, released in 1993.
Musical
Main article: Clue (musical)
A musical was also created based on the board game. The cast is composed of 5 men and 3 women. The female roles are Mrs. Peacock, Mrs. Scarlet and the Detective. The male roles are Mr. Green, Col. Mustard, Professor Plum, Mr. Boddy, and Mrs. White. The role of Mrs. White is traditionally played by a crossdressing man.[1]
Songs include:
Overture
The Game
Life is a Bowl of Pits
Everyday Devices
Once a Widow
Corridors and Halls
The Murder
After the Murder (The Game Reprise)
She Hasn't Got a Clue
Everyday Devices (Reprise)
Seduction Deduction
Don't Blame Me
The Final Clue
The Game (Finale)
She Hasn't Got a Clue (Reprise)/Bows
Like the movie, the show has three endings, with an audience member drawing the card for the ending at intermission.
Television
Main article: Cluedo (television)
There have been several television game shows based upon this game. There have been, to date, four seasons of the British version of Cluedo (and a Christmas version that in fact shows some similarity to the North American movie), and there have been other versions in Germany, France, and Australia. The format for each pits two teams (each usually containing one celebrity and one person with law enforcement/research experience) against six very in-character actors as the famed color-coded suspects. There is a new murder victim every episode, who usually has it coming to them for one reason or another.
Spin-off games
Waddingtons, Parker Brothers and Hasbro have created many spin-off versions of the game, ranging from themed version such as Simpsons Clue, to alternative rule versions such as Clue Master Detective. These include:
Super Cluedo Challenge is an advanced version of the Cluedo rules, introducing three new characters (Captain Brown, Miss Peach and Mr. Slate-Grey) and three more weapons (the blunderbus, poison and axe). The rules are greatly expanded, with each card having coloured and numbered squares in each corner, which are uncovered by special card holders. These allowed 'clues' to be given by uncovering a small segment of the card, showing only a colour/number. Rather than the remaining cards being dealt out at the start of the game, they had to be 'discovered' by reaching one of the many blue counters scattered on the board.
Cluedo Super Slueth is another advanced version of the Cluedo rules, though in a different manner. There is no set board to this game, instead the board is made up of twelve tiles which are laid out randomly as players enter new rooms, to create a 4x3 grid. The murder cards remain unchanged to the basic edition, but are not dealt to each player, instead there are 'clue' squares on the board marked by small plastic magnifying glasses, which players collect to get clues. In addition to the 'clue' counters there are also item counters, which allow the player to pick a card from an item deck. These item cards allow such things as making more than one accusation per turn, or moving an incidental character. There are three incidental characters in the game (Inspector Grey, Hogarth the Butler, and the Black Dog) who can serve as help or hindrance, and are controlled through the item and event cards. Event cards are drawn from a deck upon a certain roll of the die and can have varying impact on a game.
Cluedo Passport to Murder (2000) was an update of Super Cluedo Challenge with the setting changed to an Orient Express style train in Istanbul station. There is very little change to the mechanics of the game (except you can only play the six original characters), with mainly cosmetic changes and updates to the characters.
Clue FX (2003, released as Cluedo SFX in the UK, 2004, and Super Cluedo Interactif in France, 2004) is another departure from the original rules. You play as one of four new characters (Lord Grey, Lady Lavender, Miss Peach and Prince Azure, adding a non-caucasian character for the first time) none of whom are suspected in the crime. The murder is not of Dr. Black (Mr. Boddy) but of his attorney Miles Meadow-Brook. The usual suspects are in place, this time bolstered by two new people Mrs. Meadow-Brook and Rusty the Gardener. The gameplay is completely different though, with the introduction of the electronic section announcing moves and clues and no die rolling. Instead players move from location to location to track down each of the suspects to gain their clues, before finding Inspector Brown to make an accusation.
Clue Mysteries (2005) This is another change of rules, and this time the gameplay is based heavily on another boadrgame called "Mysteries of Old Peking".
Cluedo DVD Game (2005)This is the most recent edition of the game, with different rules based around DVD interaction.
Clue Dungeons & Dragons (2001) was produced by Hasbro shortly after their purchase of Wizards of the Coast, owners of the Dungeons & Dragons license. The characters are D&D character types (such as Monk, Rogue, Wizard, etc.). The rooms depicted on the board are fantasy-themed (Dungeon, Dragon's Lair, Lost Crypt, etc.), and the weapons also draw inspiration from the popular role-playing game (Mace of Disruption, Flaming Axe, etc.). Gameplay is identical to standard Clue unless you use the optional Wandering Monsters deck. Using this deck, players must battle monsters when landing on special spaces on the board. The players must battle monsters via dice rolls and are rewarded with magic items that confer special powers.
Clue Master Detective (1988, released as Super Cluedo in France) is an expanded version of the original game. In addition to the original characters, weapons and rooms, the game introduces four new characters (Mme. Rose, Sgt. Grey, M. Brunette and Miss Peach), two weapons (poison and horseshoe), and seven rooms (courtyard, gazebo, drawing room, carriage house, trophy room, studio and fountain) to the mansion. This version was also made into a computer game.
Clue Jr. is a version of Clue themed for children. Instead of solving a murder, the children search for clues for the whereabouts of some lost toys. The rules are significantly different than those for the regular board game. The characters, which look like the original game's suspects as children, are named Mortimer Mustard, Georgie Green, Peter Plum, Wendy White, Polly Peacock, and Samantha Scarlet.
Simpsons Clue is a Clue board game themed after the popular TV series, The Simpsons. Like the numerous versions of Monopoly Hasbro produces based on themes such as Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, Simpsons Clue is Clue with locales and an art treatment paying homage to the TV show. It features Homer as Mr. Green, Bart as Prof. Plum, Krusty as Col. Mustard, Marge as Mrs. Peacock, Lisa as Miss Scarlet, and Smithers as Mrs. White.
Clue: The Great Museum Caper is rather different from the original. One player is a thief moving in a museum stealing paintings, while the other players cooperate to catch the thief. The thief keeps track of his position secretly on paper and is thus not seen by the detectives, until the thief is spotted by a detective or the museum's security system. Ideally, multiple rounds are played, with each player getting to be the thief once. The winner of the match is then the thief who stole the most paintings without getting caught.
Clue VCR Mystery Game (1985) uses an hour-long VHS tape containing humorous scenes of the suspects interacting at Boddy Mansion shortly after Mr. Boddy's death instead of a board. Players uncover details of several murders per game by matching clues given on cards to the action on the video. Only five weapons (Candlestick, Knife, Gun, Rope, and Poison) and five rooms (Dining Room, Kitchen, Hall, Conservatory, and Library) are featured but there are a total of ten suspects (original six plus M. Brunette, Madam Rose, Sgt. Gray, and Miss Peach). A sequel, Clue II: Murder in Disguise, was released in 1987.
Books
A series of 18 humorous children's books were published in the United States by Scholastic Press between 1992 and 1997 based on the Clue concept and created by A.E. Parker (possibly of Parker Brothers). The books featured the US Clue characters in short, comedic vignettes and asked the reader to follow along and solve a crime at the end of each. The tenth and final vignette would always be the murder of Mr. Boddy. Somehow, Mr. Boddy would always manage to cheat death, such as fainting before the shot was fired or being shot with trick bullets. However, at the end of the 18th book, Mrs. Peacock kills Mr. Boddy out of starvation and Mr. Boddy STAYS dead. A similar series of books featuring the Clue Jr. characters was also published.
Computer and video games
Various versions of the game have shown up on Commodore 64, PC, Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Genesis.
Criticisms of the game
Critics cite that Cluedo is effectively a logic game, much like Mastermind. A board game with gameplay which more closely simulates detective work is the Sherlock Holmes-themed 221B Baker Street.
Variants
A variant of the game involves removing the dice rolling in the game. Instead each player has 9 "moves" to use on a turn with each move onto another space counting as 1 move and an accusation costing 3 moves adding more strategy into the game. Incidentally, this variant is offered in the 1998 version of the Clue/Cluedo computer game.
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