Let's Talk About: Deduction games

Stop Thief!

Gregarius wrote: I haven't tried Mr. Jack in NY, but it is supposed to be equally good, yet different...I'm eager to try Phantom of the Opera. I think it's basically the same game, but the changed setting is suppose to give it a stronger narrative appeal.

NY is pretty awesome because by starting with an empty board early on you're not only using the characters to see/unsee suspects, you're using their ability to place scenery to mess with that as well. So it does add an awesome layer, but it really is for people well experienced with the base game, otherwise it is just overwhelming.

Phantom is pretty slick as well. It does away with a lot of the positioning being point to point rather than a grid based movement. A nice tweak is the random game end trigger rather than a fixed number of turns. I've just played this one a few times so I'm still unsure where it stands. My gut says it is a bit easier to "get" than base Jack since you're dealing with rooms and moving around a building. My plays did seem to go quicker with this one than Jack.

Gregarius wrote: Two-player Deduction Games:

Stratego, Battleship, Mastermind - Good ole Milton Bradley in the 70s! These are all solid but basic games. They're probably better suited for teaching logic or deduction than they are for long-term enjoyment.

Battleship, Stratego, and Guess Who are the earliest memories I have of a game 'clicking' with me. I loved playing these games, even against a computer opponent in Battleship's case (owned it for NES), there was something very appealing to me about setting up my own board in secret and then blindly stabbing at my opponents. It's no wonder the game that drug me deep into the hobby in 2011 was Letters from Whitechapel.

SuperflyTNT wrote: One more for the conversation: Heimlich and Co/Top Secret Spies. It's a weird mix of "race" and deduction in the sense that you don't know which pawn is which and so you may inadvertently be helping an opponent by moving their pawn. Great game for a LOT of players, but with less than 5, it loses some shine.

This is yet another form of deduction game. It's near social deduction, but isn't social. Secret objectives I'd guess is what to call it. Similar games are Winner's Circle, Clans, Monster Derby.