Game night with Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game

They came a few minutes earlier. Chris asks me for a coffee. Tony puts a bottle of wine on the table and asks where I keep glasses. Miriam rushes into my kitchen, grabs some snacks, and goes to the games room laughing. Everybody is excited. It’s a game night. Today we play Detective.

I’m the only one who played Detective before. For the rest of the gang, it’s their first time with the game. They had heard a lot. Thirty nominations and awards including this famous, the German one, spiel the something. Hundreds of thousands of copies sold, dozen of local editions, even a Korean one. It’s all marketing noise. What they really heard is that the game is good. And hard. Chris asks where the donuts are. Miriam brings a pencil and a notepad to the table. Tony pulls out his wallet, shows his ID and says ‘Agent Tony Marino reports for duty!’

You can feel the energy — the game night!

I read the introduction. I am doing some small acting when reading the part of our superior, Richard Delaware. The story slowly unfolds.
‘What was the dead girls name again?’ asks Miriam.
‘No name yet.’ answers Chris. ‘She was found yesterday. Do we know what day is today?’
‘The story starts on Sunday, April 14th.’
‘We don’t know if she was killed, right? You said he was found dead.’
‘Yes,’ I say, ‘Delaware said that the body of young girl was found in the ruins of the house.’
‘And why she was there?’
‘Don’t know. The intro doesn’t say that. We can investigate this path. It’s card 103 if we want.’

***
Miriam makes first notes. Chris writes down numbers of all available cards on a piece of paper in the middle of the table. Tony pours wine.
‘So what are our options?’
‘We can read the medical examiner’s report. We can go examine the crime scene. We can talk to the guy who found the body.’ I say.

All options are tempting. We debate. We laugh when Chris says that we should visit the local police – there will be donuts and he really wants one. Miriam says the medical report is the obvious choice; we need facts and data. I am eager to see the crime scene. Tony agrees with Miriam. After a short discussion, we all agree. Let’s see what the autopsy says.

***
One hour passes. We talked to a dozen suspects. We discovered some dark secrets. It’s fun. It’s what games are designed for – a group of friends talking, laughing, trying to solve the mystery. Another 30 minutes, another few cards, few leads, and clues, and we slowly get the picture of what happened to this young girl. We go to the Final Report phase; we answer three questions. We solved the crime. High fives! Glasses and toast!
‘That was fun!’ says Miriam.
I am happy. I knew they would have a great time.
‘Are there more cases like this?’ ask Chris.
‘You bet.’ says Tony. He shows off his wallet again ‘Agent Tony reports for another case!’

If you haven’t got a chance to play Detective yet, check out the Natural Causes. The case is free to download. You don’t need a base game of Detective to play it. Just grab the files and play. It’s a perfect demo for everybody who wants to discover Detective.

Interested? Order Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game here: https://shopportalgames.com/collections/detective/products/detective-a-modern-crime-board-game