Jolly Thinkers PJOL01 Deception: Murder in Hong Kong, Mixed Colours

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As the game master, the Forensic Scientist holds the solution to the crime. They are responsible for assisting the Investigators in identifying the "Key Evidence" and "Means of Murder". If you are the investigator or the witness, you want to catch the murder before the end of the game. You don’t only have to guess which player the murderer is but also what they used as a murder weapon and what they left behind at the scene. There’s also the addition for the witness you have to try not to get killed by the murder and accomplice at the end of the game, while also trying to inconspicuously draw attention toward the murderer. Deception: Murder in Hong Kong is a social deduction game for four-to-twelve players. You are a team of investigators and have arrived at the scene of a murder. There’s just one big problem: the killer is among you, but no one else knows their identity! So when a game comes out and I hear that it’s a Resistance-killer, my ears perk up a bit. I’m skeptical, for sure, but willing to give each challenger a fair shake. Spyfall was one of the early challengers, but I found it far too dependent on the players knowing all of the possible locations and everyone being very good at coming up with questions. It was frequently hilarious as an awkward-conversation creator, but far too inconsistent as a game. Secret Hitler has come the closest to matching the enjoyment of The Resistance, but that’s mostly because it’s essentially a modification of that game, though not for the best. Hybrid Deception: Murder in Hong Kong plays like a combination of a couple games we’ve played before on the show. Like Secret Hitler and One Night Ultimate Werewolf, one or more players is secretly working against the group, while the rest don’t know who they can trust. The game also has a role similar to the ghost in Mysterium, called the Forensic Scientist. This player gives vague clues about the crime (like the location or cause of death) but they are absolutely forbidden from giving any verbal hints or hand signals. Deception: Murder in Hong Kong Polygon

They have no way of knowing which is the Murderer and which is the Accomplice and they do not know how the crime was committed. We’ve played Deception as a family, at Guys Game Night, and over the Labor Day weekend with extended family. And because it’s been such a hit, we can’t seem to stop playing. Deception was a hit at Guys Game Night. To begin, everyone draws a role card, looks at it, and places it face down in front of them. The different role cards in Deception. As long as one of the Investigators correctly identifies both the "Key Evidence" and "Means of Murder", the Murderer is arrested and the Investigators win the game as does the Forensic Scientist. Other than the Forensic Scientist, every player, including the Murderer (and the Accomplice) can make one single attempt to "Solve the Crime" at any time during the game. To try to solve the crime, a player should announce, "Let me Solve the Crime!" That player then points to one Clue card and one Means card in front of another player.The Witness is an optional role when playing with the Accomplice. The Witness is an Investigator who has witnessed the culprits leaving the crime scene. The artwork suits the theme and the card design is simple an effective. My only criticism here is that if trying to play in low light the dark colours can be hard to distinguish between, and the palette can look a little bland. But the pieces are well made and the game has everything it needs.

This continues for three rounds. If the crime has not been solved by the end (see next section), the Murderer wins. Solving The Crime Deception: Murder In Hong Kong, from Tobey Ho and Grey Fox Games, is the newest challenger to the throne (in my house anyways–BGG says it was released in 2014). I put it on my wishlist after seeing the folks at The Dice Tower rave about it and compare it favorably against The Resistance. What I’ve found is that Deception is less a social deduction game and more in what I’m calling the “hindered communication” sub-genre, making it cousins with games like Codenames and Mysterium. The first time I played Deception was with 12 players at SaltCon earlier this year. It was a blast. The amount of cards to consider goes up considerably with more players, but it makes for some fun discussions.If that weren’t enough to tell you how much they enjoyed it, over the weekend I got texts from 4 of the guys asking if they could borrow it. The only problem was that we had taken it with us on our long weekend away with extended family. Find out who among you can cut through deception to find the truth and who is capable of getting away with murder! The Forensic Scientist then sets out the Cause of Death tile in the center of the table and choses one of the 4 Location tiles to also set out. Then he draws 4 random Scene tiles and places them in the center of the table as well. It’s through these 6 tiles that he will give clues to the Investigators. The Forensic Scientist chooses 1 of 4 Location tiles to use. The eight new scene cards also add a whole other avenue of discussion to the base game. Deception: Undercover Allies Unboxing Deception: Murder in Hong Kong Deception: Murder in Hong Kong is a great gateway game for those that have never played social deduction games before. The concept of the genre can be a little confusing and the mechanisms of a few other titles, such as Secret Hitler, can be a little difficult to follow for newbies on the first couple of plays.