Clue board game:

The game is set in a 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 the North American version), has been found murdered. Players attempt to solve the murder. The solution to the murder requires the three components of Suspect, Weapon, and Room.

More games, books, and a film have been released as part of the Cluedo franchise. The board games form an overall story whose complete chronology can be found at Cluedo chronology.

Gameplay

At the beginning of play, three cards — one Suspect, one Weapon, and one Room card — are chosen at random and put into a special envelope, so that no one can see them. These cards 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; that is, the cards in the envelope. There are six different characters, six possible murder weapons and nine different rooms (typically Hall, Lounge, Dining Room, Kitchen, Ballroom, Conservatory, Billiard Room, Library, and Study), giving 324 possible solutions. In the course of determining the details of the murder, players announce suggestions to the other players, for example, "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.

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), as this proves that the card cannot be in the envelope. Showing the card to the suggesting player is done in secret so the other players may not see which card is 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 has sufficiently narrowed the solution, that player can make an accusation. According to the rules, "When you think you have worked out which three cards are in the envelope, you may, on your turn, make an Accusation and name any three elements you want." You may name any room (unlike a Suggestion, where your character pawn must be in the room you suggest).^[3]

The accusing player checks the validity of the accusation by checking the cards, keeping them concealed from other players. If he has made an incorrect accusation, he plays no further part in the game except to reveal cards secretly to one of the remaining players when required to do so in order to disprove suggestions. Also, according to the rules, "If, after making a false Accusation, your character pawn is blocking a door, [you must] move it into that Room so that other players may enter." Since a character pawn can only block a door by being outside of a Room, this clearly demonstrates that the character pawn need not be in any Room to make an Accusation. If the player made a correct accusation, the solution cards are shown to the other players and the game ends.

It is possible for a player to be using the piece representing the murderer. This doesn't affect the game play; the object of the game is still to be the first to make the correct accusation. If the game is played with two people, the process of elimination diffuses the same information to both players. Such a game tends to pass quickly. The Hasbro version of the game is not advertised as a two-player game.

Legacy

Film

A comedic film Clue, based on the American version of the game, was released in 1985. In this version, the person murdered was Mr. Boddy. The film, which featured different endings released to different theatres, failed at the box office but has attracted a cult following. All three endings released to theatres are available on the VHS and DVD versions of the film, to watch one after the other (VHS), or to select playing one or all three endings (DVD).

In 2008, Universal Pictures reported that Hasbro, the makers of Cluedo, had licensed several of its board games to the film company for feature film adaptations; among these was Clue. ^[4]

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, Australia, Portugal and Scandinavia. The format for each puts two teams (each usually containing one celebrity and one person with law enforcement/research experience) against six in-character actors as the famed colour-coded suspects. There is a new murder victim every episode, who usually has it coming to them for one reason or another.

On American television, the Clue title and theme were used in the 1986 documentary Clue: Movies, Murders and Mystery, which took a look at mystery-related pieces of media, including Murder on the Orient Express, Murder, She Wrote, Sherlock Holmes and other television series and movies, as well as a look at the board game itself, among other things. The one-hour special was hosted by Martin Mull, who had starred in the feature film adaptation the previous year; clips from the movie are seen intertwined with the footage.

Spin-off games

Waddingtons, Parker Brothers and Hasbro have created many spin-off versions of the game. Spin-off games fall under two categories, alternative rule variations such as Clue Master Detective, and themed versions such as Simpsons Clue. These include:

Rule variants

Theme versions

The following games are licensed thematic variations of the original Cluedo game.

Unlicensed variants

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 crime would usually be the murder of another guest besides Mr. Boddy, a robbery of some sort, or a simple contest, in which case they must figure out who won. 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. The first book, unlike the others, features thirteen mysteries, not ten, and is titled simply enough Who Killed Mr Boddy?. The name of the book is usually the name of the tenth mystery in which Boddy is killed.

The books notably depart from the film. Mr Boddy is a trillionaire, and the guests are his friends. But since Boddy has his will made out to his friends, they each try to kill him at one point with the intent on cashing in on his will. The guests are all given some sort of defining characteristic for comic effect, as well as to help the reader discern the culprit. Colonel Mustard constantly challenges other guests to duels, Professor Plum often forgets things, even what he is doing or his own name, and Mr. Green is notoriously greedy. Mrs. Peacock is highly proper and will not stand for lack of manners, the maid Mrs. White hates her employer and all the guests, and Miss Scarlet is beautiful and seductive. The traits all help the reader identify the guests. For example, if a mystery thief suddenly forgets what he is doing, and another guest scolds him for his bad manners, the reader can safely assume the two guests are Plum and Peacock. Mr. Boddy himself is ludicrously naive, to the point where he accepts any attempt to kill him as an accident or a misunderstanding (such as a dropped Wrench flying all the way across the Mansion and hitting him in the head), and invites the guests back to the mansion. This explains why he never seeks any legal action against his "friends," and invited them back despite repeated attempts to kill him. However, after a few books, he wises up enough to be suspicious of them, but continues to invite them over against better judgment.

The Clue Jr. series originally had all six characters, but suddenly, some of the characters were taken out, leaving only four. The mysteries usually only included cases similar to the theft of a toy, but sometimes the cases were more serious. They are usually solved when the culprit traps himself in his own lies.

Video games

An arcade version of the game was released on an itbox terminal which involves answering questions with a chance to win money. It is available in many pubs throughout the UK.

In 1994-1996, there were 6 mysteries: "The Hooded Madonna", "Happy ever after" and "deadly patent" and "blackmail", "the road to damascus" and "not in my backyard" too with actors.

Cluedo Reinvention

On August 8, 2008, Hasbro redesigned and updated the board, characters, weapons, and rooms. There is no more lead pipe or wrench and the revolver is now known as the pistol. Three new weapons have been added: a bat, an axe, and a trophy. The nine rooms have changed to (in clockwise order):

There is also another deck of cards - the Intrigue cards. In the Intrigue deck, there are two types of cards, Keepers and clocks. Keepers are special abilities. For example, "You can see the card."
There are eight clocks. The first seven that are drawn do nothing. Whoever draws the eighth is killed by the murderer and out of the game.^[33]

The player must move to the indoor swimming pool in the center of the board to make an accusation. This adds some challenge versus the ability to make accusations from anywhere in the original game.

Alternate rules

A variant of the game involves removing the dice rolling in the game. Instead each player has nine "moves" to use on a turn with each move onto another space counting as one move, and an accusation, use of a secret passage, or guess, costing three moves, adding more strategy into the game. This variant is offered in the 1998 version of the Clue computer game.

Worldwide differences

Besides some rule differences listed above, some versions contain different names, both of characters and of the actual game.

In Canada and the U.S., the game is known as Clue. 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.[2] There are also localised versions for Japan and China.

The North American versions of Clue replace the character "Reverend Green" from the original Cluedo with "Mr. Green". This is the only region to continue to make such a change. However, modern editions of the games now call him Reverend Green.

In some international versions of the game (mostly the Spanish-language ones) the colours of some pieces are different, so as to correspond with the changes to each suspect's name.[3]

References

^ http://www.tpexpress.co.uk/destinations/City/destinationInfo.asp?selCRS=LDS
^ Waggoner, Susan. Under the Tree: the Toys and Treats That Made Christmas Special, 1930-1970. Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 2007.
^ Cluedo/Clue rules
^ [1]
^ Clue VCR Mystery Game at BoardGameGeek
^ Super Cluedo Challenge at BoardGameGeek
^ Clue VCR II: Murder in Disguise at BoardGameGeek
^ Clue Master Detective at BoardGameGeek
^ Clue Jr. - The Case of the Missing Pet at BoardGameGeek
^ Clue: The Great Museum Caper at BoardGameGeek
^ Cludeo Card Game at BoardGameGeek
^ Clue Little Detective at BoardGameGeek
^ Junior Cluedo from TheArtOfMurder.com
^ Junior Cluedo at BoardGameGeek
^ Cluedo Super Sleuth at BoardGameGeek
^ Clue Jr.: The Case of the Hidden Toys at BoardGameGeek
^ Cluedo: 50th Anniversary at BoardGameGeek
^ Cluedo Passport to Murder at BoardGameGeek
^ Cluedo Card Game at BoardGameGeek
^ Clue FX at BoardGameGeek
^ Cluedo Junior: The Case of the Missing Cake at BoardGameGeek
^ Clue Mysteries at BoardGameGeek
^ Cluedo DVD Game at BoardGameGeek
^ Alfred Hitchcock Edition Clue at BoardGameGeek
^ The Simpsons Clue at BoardGameGeek
^ Clue Dungeons & Dragons at BoardGameGeek
^ Clue - The Haunted Mansion at BoardGameGeek
^ Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! at BoardGameGeek
^ Clue - The Twilight Zone: Tower of Terror at BoardGameGeek
^ Kill Doctor Lucky at BoardGameGeek
^ Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: Mystery at Hogwarts Game at BoardGameGeek
^ Mystery Museum at BoardGameGeek
^ National Public Radio (2008-08-08). "Hasbro Gives Clue Board Game A Makeover". Retrieved on 2008-08-16.

Clue board game

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