Seriously, 20 Questions might honestly be as old as spoken language for all we know. Game like 20 Questions or Hangman, whose origins are unclear, also fall under the deduction umbrella. Board Game Geek has games that use deduction dating back to the 19th century. However, Clue didn’t spring out of nowhere. All of those ideas run together quite nicely. Sherlock Holmes, deduction, Clue and Sleuth. Every last bit of fat has been stripped away, leaving a game where there is nothing but deduction. As the shrine that I keep to Sid Sackson would imply, one of my personal favorites is the lean, mean Sleuth, which strips the formula of Clue down to two decks of cards. That said, there are plenty of deduction games that have followed in the mammoth tread of Clue, even if they haven’t managed to have the same cultural impact. That would explain why you not only can’t figure out where Mister Body was murdered but also why you can tell the difference between the cause of the death being blunt trauma from a candle stick or getting shot with a pistol) It does have the amusing possibility that you might deduce that you are the murderer yourself.

(I suppose you could try and argue that the lights are out and you are thumping your away around the mansion. The worst of the list is how your detective is limited in their ability to wander around the house by the die roll.

Unfortunately, while Clue does has some nice qualities, it also has some clunky mechanics that get in the way. Mister Body dead! Murdered! And someone’s responsible!

People who would know Catan if one of the sheep bit them in the leg can recognize Clue on sight. Of course, the icon of the Mystery-Deduction game known to all the world is Clue. Why not all games themed around mysteries are deduction games and not all deduction games are themed around mysteries (or even have a theme at all, like Mastermind), the theme and the mechanic go together like the Three Stooges and a house falling down. The recent Sherlock Holmes film, which I enjoyed despite my allegiance to the cannon, has gotten me thinking about mystery games and the deduction genre in general.

Lose your marbles yeah