Hi Everyone! I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Board games are the staple of families and have been enjoyed for decades. I wanted to write a post on a game that I loved playing when I was a kid. Monopoly, Sorry, Payday, and Operation were some of the games that I relished over the years. But there was one game that still stands in my mind as one of the greatest games which I never tired of playing: Clue.
To give you some background on this game, Clue was originally titled Murder! and was the brainchild of Anthony Lee Pratt, a English solicitor's clerk. He dreamed up this game as a way to past the long hours from air raid drills in underground bunkers. Mr Pratt presented his idea to Norman Watson, who changed the title to "Cluedo", which is play on words of "clue" and the Latin word of "ludo", which means "I play". The game was launched in 1949 in America after it was licensed to Parker Brothers for production. Making some minor changes (there were originally ten suspects, one of which was drawn to be the victim. In addition, there were eleven rooms. Unused weapons were an ax, bomb, syringe, poison, shillelagh, and fireplace poker). Wisely, Parker Brothers cut the game down to the version that is played today. From there, the game has enjoyed international acclaim.
If you were one of the unfortunate people who have never played, Clue is a game where up to six players have to solve who killed Mr. Boddy(very clever if you ask me). There are six suspects, six weapons and nine possible rooms. One of suspects, one of the weapons and one of the rooms are drawn and put into a case file and left in the center of the board. The remaining cards are dealt to each player. Players are given a notepad that lists the suspects, rooms and weapons, and they check their cards off the notepad. The players move colored tokens tokens around the board. The object of the game is to correctly guess who, with what object and what room was the murder committed. The players can solve the crime through the process of elimination.
The suspects are: Mrs Peacock (blue token), Miss Scarlet (red token), Mrs. White (white token), Colonial Mustard (yellow token), Professor Plum (purple token) and Mr. Green (green token). The weapons are a candlestick, rope, lead pipe, wrench, revolver and knife. The possible rooms are the study, hall, lounge dining room, kitchen, ballroom, conservatory, billiard room, and library. The players take turns rolling the dice, and then move their token towards one of the nine rooms. Once they land their token into a chosen room, they make a suggestion of the murder. "I think Mr Green killed Mr Boddy with the lead pipe in the kitchen." The player to the person's left has to show one card (if they have one of the three) to the person making the accusation. If that person has none of the three cards, then it goes to the next person to prove the accusation wrong. This continues until it comes back to the person making the accusation. If the person making the accusation is shown a card, they check it off on the notepad that they have in front of them and their turn ends. If none of the other players can prove the accusation wrong, the person making the accusation has the option to look in the file, or not. The next person takes their turn until a successful accusation is proved correct by looking at the cards in the case file.
I loved this game for years. When I was a kid, I loved reading mysteries and later murder mysteries. The suspense and intrigue had me gripped with anticipation until the thrilling denouement of the book. Shady characters with motives to kill are the stuff that fuel my active, young imagination. So this game really stoked my fire when I started playing. My first memory of this game was Professor Plum killed Mr Boddy in the study with the revolver. I think I was in 2nd grade when I first started playing, The mere fact that I can remember that first game all these years later scares me a bit. Why? Because I can forget where I put my cell and yet remember that solution to that game from all these years later. I think I need help!
If you are one of the poor souls who never played this game, I honestly feel sorry for you. Go get this game and do some legwork as a detective. Was is Mrs White in the Hall with the wrench, or was it Colonial Mustard in the dining room with the rope? Only one way to find out!
If you played this game, let me know in the comments your thoughts!
Take care guys and until next time!
Brian, this is one of my favorite games, as a child and as an adult. Cheyenne and I have played this many times. She has learned the "ropes", so to speak, and is pretty good at it now. Isn't it nice that we can carry on traditions like this inside our homes, especially with the way the world is on the outside? Thanks for this!!
ReplyDeleteJana, you crafty devil! Look at you with the puns! I actually laughed out loud! You are more than welcome. This is my absolute favorite board game and I recall playing it as a kid ALL THE TIME! Paula and the girls love it too, so we frequently play. You should let Cheyenne read this too. I agree that setting those traditions are important. Our kids will remember these moments all their lives!
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