Rules for the Three of a Crime Game
Welcome to the Three of a Crime game! Today, I’ll be explaining the rules to help you get started on your crime-solving adventure.
Objective
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to uncover the identity of the guilty suspect and solve the mystery. In this game, three suspects are presented to you, and you must analyze the evidence carefully to determine which one is the criminal.
Game Components
Before we jump into the gameplay, let’s take a quick look at the components you’ll need for the game:
- Three suspect cards
- Three story cards
- Twelve clue cards
- One evidence board
- One solution envelope
Setup
Once you have gathered all the components, it’s time to set up the game. Here’s how:
- Place the evidence board in the center of the playing area.
- Shuffle the suspect cards and story cards separately, then secretly choose one suspect and one story card.
- Insert the chosen suspect and story cards into the solution envelope without revealing their contents to anyone.
- Shuffle the clue cards and deal four of them to each player.
Gameplay
Now that everything is set up, we can dive into the gameplay! Here’s how it works:
- The youngest player starts as the lead investigator and plays first.
- On your turn, you can do one of three things: draw a clue card, play a clue card, or make an accusation.
- If you choose to draw a clue card, simply draw one card from the clue deck and add it to your hand.
- When playing a clue card, you can either keep it for yourself or give it to another player.
- If you believe you have solved the mystery, you can make an accusation by revealing the suspect and story cards from the solution envelope.
- If your accusation is correct, you win! However, if you’re wrong, you’re out of the game.
- Gameplay continues clockwise until either a player makes a correct accusation or all players have made incorrect accusations.
Clue Card Types
There are four different types of clue cards in the game:
- Means: These cards provide information about how the crime was committed.
- Motive: These cards reveal the possible reasons behind the crime.
- Opportunity: These cards indicate the chances the suspect had to commit the crime.
- Alibi: These cards establish the suspect’s whereabouts during the crime.
Solving the Mystery
As you gather clues and analyze the evidence, you’ll start forming a picture of who the criminal might be. Pay close attention to the clues you collect and use deductive reasoning to narrow down the suspects. By process of elimination, you’ll be able to determine the guilty party.
Remember, every clue brings you closer to solving the mystery. So, put on your detective hat, trust your instincts, and immerse yourself in the world of Three of a Crime!
Do you want to use your brainpower to solve a mystery? In this game, you’ll need to think logically and deduce who the three suspects are on the eyewitness’s card. If you’re the first to name them correctly, you’ll win the card. Collect three suspect cards to win the game!
Getting Ready
To set up the game, first shuffle the suspect cards. Then, place the deck face down in the middle of the playing area. Make sure everyone can reach the number tokens by placing them in the game box.
How We Play the Game
So, here’s the deal: we play this game in rounds. Each round, one person gets to be the eyewitness while the rest of us are the detectives. To start off, the lucky person who has been to a police station most recently gets to be the eyewitness for the first round.
Now, as the eyewitness, your job is to pick a card from the suspect deck and look at it. But, shhh, don’t let anyone else see it! This card will be your secret and will reveal the three guilty suspects for this round. Each suspect has a name and a color to help us tell them apart.
Alright, now it’s time for the detectives to step up. The detective sitting on the left of the eyewitness gets to kick off the questioning by taking the next card from the suspect deck. This card is then placed face-up on the playing surface for all detectives to see.
And here’s where it gets real interesting – the eyewitness needs to give us a hint about how many suspects on that card match the ones on her secret card. She does this by placing a token with a number 0, 1, or 2 on the card that was just revealed.
So, here’s the deal: as the eyewitness, you have an important job. You have to place a number token on the suspect cards, but here’s the catch – you can’t say which suspect matches the number. Easy, right? Just make sure the number token doesn’t cover the whole suspect card. Oh, and the order of the suspects doesn’t matter, so keep that in mind too. Good luck!
Example:
When a suspect card is drawn and it matches the eyewitness’s card, the eyewitness places a 1 token on the suspect card. This helps keep track of how many suspects match the eyewitness’s card.
Play continues with the next detective drawing a suspect card and placing it face up. Each time, the eyewitness adds a number token to indicate how many suspects match her card. The more cards that are revealed, the easier it becomes to figure out the guilty suspects.
Accusation
If a detective thinks they have figured out the three guilty suspects, they can make an accusation by stopping the game and saying, “Accusation!” They then point out the three suspects they believe are on the eyewitness’s card.
There are two possible outcomes:
In this detective game, there are two ways a round can end, depending on whether or not the accusation made by the detective is correct. Let me explain the outcomes to you:
1. If the accusation is correct, the eyewitness will confirm it and show their suspect card to everyone. The detective who made the correct accusation wins the card as a reward and keeps it face down in front of them.
2. If the accusation is incorrect, the eyewitness will say that it’s not correct. In this case, the detective who made the accusation is out for the rest of the round. The suspect card of the eyewitness remains a secret, and the other detectives continue playing. They can make additional accusations until either someone makes a correct accusation or all the detectives are eliminated. If all detectives are eliminated, the eyewitness claims the suspect card for themselves.
After a round ends, a new one begins. To start a new round, shuffle the remaining cards and put them back in the middle of the playing area. The player to the left of the previous eyewitness becomes the new eyewitness, and the game continues as explained above.
The game continues like this until all the suspect cards have been claimed by the detectives or until players decide to end the game themselves.
So, here’s how you play the game: we keep playing rounds until one player collects three suspect cards. And get this—the player who does that becomes the master detective and wins the whole game! Oh, but hey, if you want a shorter or longer game, just change the number of suspect cards you need to collect before you start. Easy peasy!
But wait, there’s a twist if you’re playing with just two players!
Alright, so the rules are the same as before, but there’s a cool twist for two players. If the detective doesn’t guess the correct three suspects by the time we have six suspect cards face up, then guess what? The eyewitness actually wins the round and gets the card. Talk about suspense!
Now, here’s a cool variation you can try with just two players:
Okay, so each player gets to draw a card and play both the detective and the eyewitness. It’s like being a super-sleuth! Now, remember to keep your detective and eyewitness roles totally separate, so things don’t get all mixed up. Then, players take turns uncovering cards and placing number tokens. And, the first player to correctly figure out the suspects—boom, they win the game! How awesome is that?