deduction

Penny Dreadfuls were short illustrated periodicals, very popular in the United Kingdom in the second half of the nineteenth century.
They were very cheap booklets, costing just one copper penny and offering short stories with vivid and popular themes narrated with an emphatic and sensationalist style.
Despite the low cultural value, Penny Dreadfuls gave birth to a genre that has constantly evolved to this day.

In Penny Dreadfuls of Victorian London: Sensational Tales of Terror, 1 to 5 players will share bizarre and frightening tales masterfully narrated by our authors, set in gloomy Victorian London in the late 19th century, infamous for the mysterious serial murders in the neighborhoods of Whitechapel and Whitehall.

In each Sensational Tale, specific Characters living in an ordinary Victorian world are suddenly embroiled in shocking events that catapult them out of reality and natural conventions. By joining them, players face a bizarre scenario, investigating, making deductions and choices,
facing trials leading to unpleasant consequences or handsome rewards.

Each game has a variable number of turns with different possible outcomes, ranging from miserable failure to utter and satisfying success, all depending on how the players interpret the story, sharing the fate of their Stars.

—description from the publisher

The Stifling Dark is a one-vs-many hidden-movement horror board game with an innovative line-of-sight mechanic for 2-5 players. One player takes the role of the adversary, whose goal is to prevent the other players (the investigators) from escaping through a variety of unique actions. As an investigator, your only goals are to survive and escape.

Investigators move around the board in a point-to-point fashion using their base movement speed. They may sprint to move more quickly, but they need to keep an eye on their stamina so they don't become exhausted. Additionally, investigators can pick up and use items, lock and unlock doors, or use their flashlights to try and find the adversary. Meanwhile, the adversary is secretly moving around the board, trying to stop the investigators from escaping. There are a variety of investigators to choose from, each with their own special abilities. The adversary also has multiple attacks and abilities that change how you play the game.

Will you fix the car and drive out, or will you override the gate and try to sneak out? The investigators will need to decide if they want to stick together to watch each other's backs, or split up to race towards the exit. Either way, they must move quickly - the longer the game takes, the more chances the adversary has to stop them!

The game ends when either all of the investigators escape (meaning the investigators won) or the adversary achieves their win condition (which is different for each adversary).

There's been a spectacular prison break, and three well-known criminals from previous The Key cases are on the run again! How could that happen?

The Key: Escape from Strongwall Prison is the trickiest case of The Key series because more than just instinct is required here. You have to combine all types of hints and clues to determine escape types, laundry carts, hiding places, and gang affiliations. The right numerical code or key puts the three dangerous gang bosses back behind bars. Attention: It is not necessarily the fastest who wins here, but the most efficient investigator genius!

—description from the publisher

A severe series of burglaries shakes the Royal Star Casino. How did the three perpetrators get the sensitive data?

The Royal Star Casino has been shocked by a series of burglaries that have shaken the gambling world. Somehow three perpetrators accessed the sensitive data, but how? Players will start their investigations by combining all the clues about vault numbers, perpetrators, time of the crimes, and the codes entered. In the game cards for this case, the torn edges of currency straps must be examined, elevator movements must be put in the right order, and code tiles must be correctly put together. Witness statements about the activities on the evening of the crime add extra suspense until the correct number code appears that will put the burglars behind bars.

In The Key: Royal Star Casino Burglary, the players take up the investigative work and combine all the clues to safe numbers, perpetrators, times of the crime, and the codes entered. Only the correct number code will bring the burglar back under lock and key.

—description from the publisher

Every word counts, so focus and think carefully about your choices.

In the brain-teasing co-operative game Sides, you have to weigh your options and wisely choose your words.

The objective of the game is simple: Each round, help two detectives find a mystery word. To do so, the other players (the witnesses) give detectives a one-word clue that starts with the letter at either end of the letter-card line.

The detectives then jointly offer an answer, and if they found the solution, two other players become the detectives and a new word is uncovered; if not, the witness players suggest a new clue with a new letter card. The fewer the clues used and the more words guessed, the higher the score. Will you beat the world record?