Deduction board game

Last updated

Deduction board games are a genre of board game in which the players must use deductive reasoning and logic in order to win the game. While many games, such as bridge or poker require the use of deductive reasoning to some degree, deduction board games feature deductive reasoning as their central mechanic.

Contents

Deduction board games typically fall into two broad categories; abstract and investigation games. [1]

Abstract

Abstract deduction games have no theme and focus on pure abstract reasoning. Though abstract, some introduce random elements. For example, in the game Code 777, the question cards used to gather information are drawn at random. Notable members of this category include Black Box and Master Mind . [1]

Investigation games

Investigation games are board games in which the players generally play as police, detectives or other investigators.

The best known game of this type is Cluedo . [2] In fact, many of games in this category utilize a mechanic known as "The Missing Card," which was developed by Anthony E. Pratt for Cluedo (Clue in the United States). "The Missing Card" takes a known set of cards (or other token) and removes one or more of them. By gathering information and using deduction and logic, the players can determine which cards were removed to win the game.

Other mechanics used in investigation games include the "one against all" mechanic, as seen in Scotland Yard , The Fury of Dracula and similar games. In these games, one player attempts to stay hidden as the others attempt to discover his location. [1]

There are some games, such as Lie Detector , published by Mattel in 1960, that use unique mechanics. This game used punch cards and plastic lie-detector machine that players could use to determine if statements were true or false. While popular, this game did not produce imitators akin to those from Cluedo or Scotland Yard. [2]

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Faidutti, Bruno; Branham, Frank (December 2000), "Deduction Games", The Games Journal, archived from the original on 2019-01-30, retrieved 2007-08-27{{citation}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  2. 1 2 Whitehill, Bruce (May 2007), "Whodunit Fun", Knucklebones, 2 (3): 16–21

Related Research Articles

<i>Kill Doctor Lucky</i> Board game

Kill Doctor Lucky is a humorous board game designed by James Ernest and released in 1996 by Cheapass Games. In 1998, Kill Doctor Lucky won the Origins Award for Best Abstract Board Game of 1997.

<i>Cluedo</i> Board game

Cluedo, known as Clue in North America, is a murder mystery game for three to six players that was devised in 1943 by British board game designer Anthony E. Pratt. The game was first manufactured by Waddingtons in the United Kingdom in 1949. Since then, it has been relaunched and updated several times, and it is currently owned and published by the American game and toy company Hasbro.

<i>Scotland Yard</i> (board game) 1983 board game

Scotland Yard is a board game in which a team of players controlling different detectives cooperate to track down a player controlling a criminal as they move around a board representing the streets of London. It was first published in 1983 by Ravensburger and is named after Scotland Yard which is the headquarters of London's Metropolitan Police Service in real-life. Scotland Yard is an asymmetric board game, during which the detective players cooperatively solve a variant of the pursuit–evasion problem.

Deductive reasoning is the process of drawing valid inferences. An inference is valid if its conclusion follows logically from its premises, meaning that it is impossible for the premises to be true and the conclusion to be false. For example, the inference from the premises "all men are mortal" and "Socrates is a man" to the conclusion "Socrates is mortal" is deductively valid. An argument is sound if it is valid and all its premises are true. One approach defines deduction in terms of the intentions of the author: they have to intend for the premises to offer deductive support to the conclusion. With the help of this modification, it is possible to distinguish valid from invalid deductive reasoning: it is invalid if the author's belief about the deductive support is false, but even invalid deductive reasoning is a form of deductive reasoning.

In tabletop games and video games, game mechanics specify how a game works for the players. Game mechanics include the rules or ludemes that govern and guide player actions, as well as the game's response to them. A rule is an instruction on how to play, while a ludeme is an element of play, such as the L-shaped move of the knight in chess. The interplay of various mechanics determines the game's complexity and how the players interact with the game. All games use game mechanics; however, different theories disagree about their degree of importance to a game. The process and study of game design includes efforts to develop game mechanics that engage players.

<i>Arkham Horror</i> American adventure board game, first published 1987

Arkham Horror is a cooperative adventure board game designed by Richard Launius, originally published in 1987 by Chaosium. The game is based on Chaosium's roleplaying game Call of Cthulhu, which is set in the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft and other horror writers. The game's second edition was released by Fantasy Flight Games in 2005, with a third edition in 2018.

<i>Cluedo DVD Game</i> 2005 video game

Cluedo DVD Game is a deduction/murder-mystery interactive DVD movie game based on the Cluedo franchise. It was published by Hasbro and Parker Brothers in the US in 2006, and designed by Rob Daviau. Previously, the Cluedo DVD Game had been released in the UK in October 2005, shortly followed by a French edition. It supports 3-5 players, and each case runs about 60 minutes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battlestar Galactica Collectible Card Game</span> 2006 collectible card game

Battlestar Galactica Collectible Card Game is an out-of-print collectible card game based on the Battlestar Galactica science fiction media franchise. The game, published by WizKids, saw first release in May 2006 and was officially canceled in March 2007.

Herlock Sholmes, known as Sherlock Holmes in the original Japanese language versions, is a fictional private detective in Capcom's Ace Attorney video game series, based on Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle and named in tribute to Arsène Lupin versus Herlock Sholmes by Maurice Leblanc in the English localization. Sholmes is featured as a supporting character in the two games of the spin-off prequel series The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, consisting of Adventures and Resolve. The character has also appeared in the manga adaptation of the series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Game</span> Structured form of play

A game is a structured type of play, usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work or art.

<i>Dominion</i> (card game) Deck-building card game

Dominion is a card game created by Donald X. Vaccarino and published by Rio Grande Games. Originally published in 2008, it was the first deck-building game, and inspired a genre of games building on its central mechanic.

Android is an adventure board game designed by Kevin Wilson and Dan Clark, published in 2008 by Fantasy Flight Games. Set in a dystopian future, where the Moon is colonized and androids and clones are real, players take on the roles of murder investigators, investigating a murder within the fictional cities of New Angeles and Heinlein, a colony on the Moon. Players attempt to gain Victory Points by solving the murder, solving the conspiracy, and/or resolving the investigators' personal issues. The player with the most Victory Points wins the game.

Argument–deduction–proof distinctions originated with logic itself. Naturally, the terminology evolved.

There have been two distinct mobile adaptations of the Hasbro board game Clue.

This glossary of board games explains commonly used terms in board games, in alphabetical order. For a list of board games, see List of board games; for terms specific to chess, see Glossary of chess; for terms specific to chess problems, see Glossary of chess problems.

Sleuth is a strategy deduction card game designed by Sid Sackson and published by 3M in 1971. It is a reimplementation of the 1967 game The Case of the Elusive Assassin without the game board. The object of the game is to deduce the identity of a missing gem by questioning other players and gathering evidence, similar to Cluedo.

Cluedo, known as Clue in North America, is a murder mystery-themed multimedia franchise started in 1949 with the manufacture of the Cluedo board game. The franchise has since expanded to film, television game shows, book series, computer games, board game spinoffs, a comic, a play, a musical, jigsaws, card games, and other media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The king of hearts has five sons</span> Card game

The king of hearts has five sons is a little-known, but traditional American deduction card game. Its methodology is similar to that of the well-known 1943 board game Cluedo, with game historian Bruno Faidutti writing that the card game may be a predecessor, having been taught the game by an American who recalled playing it in school prior to World War II.

Spyfall is a 2014 card game for 3–8 players designed by Alexander Ushan and published by Hobby World. A sequel, Spyfall 2, was published in 2017. A superhero themed variant, DC Spyfall, was published in 2018. The game has evolved over the years, with new variations and "advanced rules" emerging to keep gameplay fresh and engaging, a captivating social deduction board game, has become a beloved pastime for many. The game's core premise revolves around uncovering the spy hidden among the players. As the game has evolved, new variations and "advanced rules" have emerged, introducing elements like multiple spies to heighten the challenge and create a more chaotic, engaging experience.