Let's Talk About: Deduction games

Per the discussion on Mystery of the Abbey in the "What are you playing" thread, I'm curious to know what F:AT thinks of deduction games. I'm talking the kind where there's some central mystery that needs solved. I think I can safely say that it's among my least favorite genres. I'm not a great logician by any stretch, and any game where I have to pay attention the whole time will eventually become stressful to me.

So how bout it? What are some deduction games that make the genre worth my trouble? What are the "classics" of the genre that are work checking out? Or is it just that the intrinsic qualities of deduction/mystery games means I may never enjoy them?

Clue I think is a fantastic game and I love it! Mystery of the Abbey so far is looking promising. Mr Jack is one of my favorite series of games in general. Would Stratego be a deduction game? Trying to find your opponent's flag? If so, I love that one.

Sleuth is easily the best pure deduction game I've played.

Mystery of the Abbey is okay. You may never get any "gamers" to play it though. Its been years since I've played, but I recall the only strategy is to try and see more different cards than anyone else. I forget which rooms let you do this (or really what any room did). Also always pass cards that were passed to you and avoid all questions. The more only you know others don't the better.

I really enjoy this genre.

Clue is good when you play it with gamers. You could also skip the roll and move portion which speeds up the game.

As stated in the other thread, I really enjoy Mystery of the Abbey. It's simply a deeper version of Clue for gamers.

Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective is one of the best, and it's a coop. I copied my review of that to the user blogs on here.

I like social deduction a bit more than pure deduction, but a good mystery always gets my heart pounding.

Deduction is somewhat broad, I think sleuth is the best "find the missing cards" deduction game, but clue is fun too, especially if you tweak the movement rules.

I like Scotland Yard and fury of Dracula a lot, and I love the new breed of social deduction in the resistance, one night werewolf, and two rooms and a boom.

i'm going to go heretical and say i prefer Cluedo (Clue) to Slueth. I find it very difficult, with the way my brain sorts information, to logically arrange different colours, jems, and numbers. When there are more clearly differentiated groups such as characters, weapons and rooms, and where i have to be in a room to do deduction on it if find it much easier to get my head around. Generally its not a category of game i like much, because it essentially becomes about optimizing your ability to track information to eliminate possibilities.

If we go beyond more pure games like cluedo to games like Confusion; Cold War, or hide and seek games like Letters from Whitechapel then i'm more interested. Here the deduction really just helps you gauge what you think your opponents strategy is, and is far less calculable anyway.

SCOTLAND YARD, FURY OF DRACULA, CLUE MUSEUM MYSTERY CAPER are all about figuring out where the hidden character is. That's deduction to me.

The hallmark of the design is probably MASTERMIND though.

Clue museum needs house rules to actually work. A sharky thief can usually easily avoid detection and dance around until they get an opportunity.

Bull Nakano wrote: Deduction is somewhat broad...

Yeah, I was trying to think what really constitutes a deduction game.
Where would traitor games like BSG or Shadows Over Camelot fall?
Confusion where you're trying to figure out the limitations of your pieces and how they can move?
The Resistance?

VonTush wrote:

Bull Nakano wrote: Deduction is somewhat broad...

Yeah, I was trying to think what really constitutes a deduction game.
Where would traitor games like BSG or Shadows Over Camelot fall?
Confusion where you're trying to figure out the limitations of your pieces and how they can move?
The Resistance?

hidden traitor/team games are part of the social deduction genre. I wouldn't consider shadows a deduction game, but it has deduction elements.

Oh, if you want to include hidden movement games (which I'm not arguing), I'd heartily recommend Ninja: Legend of the Scorpion Clan. It's on deep discount most places and it's fantastic. Extremely thematic and it reminds me of Mark of the Ninja which is a plus.

Gumshoe is better than Shelock Holmes. If you like the latter, you should try the former if you can find a copy

Yeah, in my head what I was referring to should maybe be called "mystery" games. Things like Clue, Mystery of the Abbey, Mystery Express, etc. Those differ from hidden movement games to some extent (in my head anyway) because there is a set item that is unknown that item doesn't change. A hidden movement game like Fury of Dracula has moving goalposts, so even if you missed something early, you can get back on track a little easier.

Space Ghost wrote: Gumshoe is better than Shelock Holmes. If you like the latter, you should try the former if you can find a copy

I've heard the 1st edition has quite a bit of erratta. Is that something that a person should worry about when tracking this down?

I love deduction games, even though I'm generally pretty terrible at them. I've played a ton, which I'll give my thoughts in another post.

The game I think would be good for Defanso is Lady Alice, a release from just last year. It's a deduction game that not only doesn't require note-taking, it's forbidden! Plus, a game usually finishes in 30 minutes or less, which is often about the limit most people have for this type of game.

The premise has each player as part of Holmes' "Baker Street Irregulars." The mystery is made of four separate clues (location, person, time, object) and each player is dealt one. On your turn, you use a nifty little flip book to make a guess. Then everyone "votes" Resistance-style by tossing in a card saying "Yes, I have one of those clues" or "No, I don't" (revealed randomly). Then everyone places victory points like bets on any clues they want. These can be used to bluff or to sincerely earn points. Pretty quickly it becomes clear what the answers are (especially since you all start with one piece of the puzzle) and someone will put forth the solution and the points are scored.

It's very non-intimidating and feels cooperative even though it isn't. Definitely a little-known gem.

Edit: I forgot to mention that Lady Alice includes a central board (for placing bets) that shows all the possible clues. This helps a lot for keeping track of things.