deduction

Forever Young: A Vampire Game

From the back of the box:

Forever Young brings the excitement of life as a vampire to your gaming table. Each player plays the head of a vampire family struggling to maintain control among his minions and human protectors. Beware, your opponents are aiming to convert your servants and... Well, let’s just say they have something a little more 'unkind' in mind for your humans.

Forever Young is a light strategy game that involves secretly placing your vampires and humans, hiding weapons and items and trying to discover where your opponents have hidden theirs. Each beautifully produced and illustrated game has everything needed to play for 2 to 6 players.

Mystery Express

Days of Wonder announces Mystery Express

Whodunit on Rails re-invents the classic deduction-style board game
Los Altos, CA; Paris, France - January 25, 2010. Days of Wonder announces Mystery Express, an imaginative new take on the classic deduction game from Antoine Bauza & Serge Laget. While Days of Wonder's first "whodunit" game, 2003's Mystery of the Abbey, was considerably more quirky and chaotic, Mystery Express explores the more analytical side of the genre, rewarding a logical and more precise approach to solving the crime.

Players board the famous Orient Express in Paris just as a murder occurs. The rest of the trip - through Strasbourg, Munich, Vienna, Budapest and their final destination of Istanbul - is consumed with determining the who, what, when, where and why of the crime. Players use their special powers of deduction; information gleaned from others in various train cars; and investigative actions to determine the exact circumstances of the murder. The one who correctly identifies the most elements of the crime by the time the train reaches Istanbul wins the game.

Mystery Express is a classic Days of Wonder design made up of top-notch components and unique, period-perfect illustrations. Along with the Mystery Express board map detailing its itinerary from Paris to Istanbul the game features: 5 resin character figures and matching character tokens; 5 Ticket wallets that include a description of each character's special power; 100 Deduction sheets that players use to keep track of their deductions; 72 Crime cards; a Mystery Express miniature train to track the Mystery Express's journey on the map; a Conductor figure; 2 small passenger tokens, a miniature travel bag, a train whistle and rules booklet. Mystery Express is for 3-5 players and will be available worldwide in April 2010. Price is $50/€45.

Video Overview from Myriad Games Presentations available here

Letters from Whitechapel

Get ready to enter the poor and dreary Whitechapel district in London 1888 – the scene of the mysterious Jack the Ripper murders – with its crowded and smelly alleys, hawkers, shouting merchants, dirty children covered in rags who run through the crowd and beg for money, and prostitutes – called "the wretched" – on every street corner.

The board game Letters from Whitechapel, which plays in 90-150 minutes, takes the players right there. One player plays Jack the Ripper, and his goal is to take five victims before being caught. The other players are police detectives who must cooperate to catch Jack the Ripper before the end of the game. The game board represents the Whitechapel area at the time of Jack the Ripper and is marked with 199 numbered circles linked together by dotted lines. During play, Jack the Ripper, the Policemen, and the Wretched are moved along the dotted lines that represent Whitechapel's streets. Jack the Ripper moves stealthily between numbered circles, while policemen move on their patrols between crossings, and the Wretched wander alone between the numbered circles.

011

It’s year “011” in an alternative 19th century. The Inscrutable Organ of Eternity is hidden somewhere in Turin, and it’s the only instrument that can prevent the coming Ragnarök. Only one of the 8 Characters in the game is the “Chosen One” who can play the Organ. One of the others, meanwhile, has been possessed by the Spirit of Fenrir the Wolf, and will try to prevent the Chosen One from reaching the Organ.

The goal of the game, is to identify and deliver the Chosen One and the song of Making (which is composed as part of the game play) to the Inscrutable Organ of Eternity before the 12th hour.

011 is played over 11 rounds, called Hours. Each Hour is divided into 5 phases. All players, in order, must complete one phase, before the next phase begins:
1. Reveal Event
2. Bid for Turn Order
3. Place Clues on the Map
4. Character Actions and Movement
5. Play Location Tiles

Once all 5 Phases are complete, advance the Hour Hand one space on the Ragnarök Clock. If the Hand reaches XII (and so, the 11th Hour has passed), the game ends and all players lose! Otherwise, a new Round begins with Phase 1.

Ranking

At the beginning of the game each player receives a different set of picture tiles. To start a round, a theme is shown, e.g. "Women like it..." Everyone thinks about this and selects a tile from his set, but does not show it to the other players. Players lay their tiles picture-side down on the table, and these tiles are mixed up with random tiles from the stock.

On the board there are slots which are numbered from 0 to 6. Tiles are placed next to slot 3 so that everyone can see the pictures. The goal for each player is to have his tile reach the top (slot 6) of the ranking of items that best meet the requirement. Each player receives points equal to the slot number where his tile is at the end of each round. The point total is reduced if another player correctly guesses which tile belongs to whom and marks it with the player's color.

When it is your turn, choose two tiles in the same row/slot and compare them to one another in meeting the requirement of the theme. (Important: You can only compare two tiles in the same row. If there is only one tile in row 4, you cannot compare this tile to one in a different row!)
For example, say, "I think women like lipstick more than a car." Then, you move the lipstick tile up one row and the car tile down one row. After you have done that, the others can guess your tile, by placing a stone of your color on any tile. Each player has only one stone of each color and can only guess the active player, so this must be done selectively and timely!

The round ends when one tile reaches the 6 slot and another is in the 0. Then, you calculate the points. Each player gets points equal his slot, minus every correct guess stone on the tile. So, if your tile is in slot 4, but there are 2 correct color stones are on it, you get only 2 points (4 - 2 = 2).

Before the beginning of the next round everyone gets a new picture tile from the stock and a new theme is shown.

The first player to score 15 points after a round ends the game and is the winner. He is the RanKING.