Bluffing

Deception: Murder in Hong Kong

Deception: Murder in Hong Kong is a game of deduction and deception for 4-12 players that plays in about 20 minutes.

In the game, players take on the roles of investigators attempting to solve a murder case – but there's a twist. The killer is one of the investigators! Each player's role and team are randomly assigned at the start of play and include the unique roles of Forensic Scientist, Witness, Investigator, Murderer, and Accomplice. While the Investigators attempt to deduce the truth, the murderer's team must deceive and mislead. This is a battle of wits!

The Forensic Scientist has the solution but can express the clues only using special scene tiles while the investigators (and the murderer) attempt to interpret the evidence. In order to succeed, the investigators must not only deduce the truth from the clues of the Forensic Scientist, they must also see through the misdirection being injected into the equation by the Murderer and Accomplice!

Find out who among you can cut through deception to find the truth and who is capable of getting away with murder!

Roles

Forensic Scientist x1
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.” When an Investigator does that successfully, the crime is solved and the Forensic Scientist and the Investigators win the game.

During the game, the Forensic Scientist is NOT allowed to hint to the solution with words, gestures, or eyes.

Murderer x1
When the crime takes place, the Murderer chooses 1 Clue card and 1 Means card as the solution to the crime. These will be the “Key Evidence” and “Means of Murder” respectively.

The Murderer tries to hide their role and look for a scapegoat. Even if they are identified, the Murderer still wins the game if no one correctly identifies both the “Key Evidence” and the “Means of Murder”.

Investigators x8
To solve the crime, the Investigators must analyze the hints given by the Forensic Scientist. 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).

Bear in mind that the Murderer (and sometimes Accomplice) is among the Investigators! The innocent Investigators must make a vigorous effort to defend themselves from false accusation.

Accomplice x1
The Accomplice is an optional role for games with six or more players. The Accomplice knows who the Murderer is, as well as the solution to the crime. The Accomplice and Murderer both win if the Murderer gets away with his crime.

Witness x1
The Witness is an optional role when playing with six or more players.* The Witness is an Investigator who has witnessed the culprits leaving the crime scene. 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.

If the Murderer is arrested but can identify the Witness, the Witness is considered to be killed, allowing the Murderer and the Accomplice to get away with murder and win the game.

Detective Club

Detective Club is a board game for players who enjoy party, with simple rules that take just a minute to explain. Intrigue, sudden revelations, limitless creativity, and tons of fun await you in this game! Lead the investigation as a detective, or cover your tracks as the infiltrated conspirator. Discuss, accuse, object and try to convince everyone.

In Detective Club, on each round, one of the players secretly teams up with another — the Conspirator — and tries to make them guess a secret word using just two illustrated cards! Other players are detectives, who also know the word, but don't know the identities of each other. Detectives have to find out who the conspirator is, making sure they don't get accused by their fellow players!

Game of Thrones: Oathbreaker

Who do you trust? If you sit on the Iron Throne, the wisest answer is "no one".

Game of Thrones: Oathbreaker is a game of deception and social deduction. One player assumes the role of King (or Queen), while the others represent the great Lords and Ladies of the Houses of Westeros. Some are loyalists who want order in the realm, others are conspirators who seek to undermine the throne, and all of them have a secret agenda of their own. Who is truly loyal, and who is simply hungry for power, honor, and coin? It's up to the King to figure it out before it's too late.

In more detail, the game lasts seven rounds. In each round, players reveal a number of mission cards, each of which has an associated influence type: crowns, ravens, or swords. Each noble plays influence cards face down to one or more missions and places their House Sigil at the mission where they played the most cards. Then each mission is resolved by shuffling the influence cards there and tallying up successes and failures. If a mission succeeds, Order is generated; otherwise Chaos is generated. Nobles earn rewards (coin, honor, power) based on whether the mission with their House Sigil succeeded or failed.

The King can play decree cards during the game to grant favor to nobles who seem loyal, or cast suspicion on suspected conspirators. Decree cards award Order if the King was correct and Chaos if the King was wrong.

At the end of the game, if Order exceeds Chaos, the King wins and any loyalists who achieved their personal ambitions win. If Chaos has the edge, then any conspirators who achieved their personal ambitions win.

Ravnica: Inquisition

Join the Gatewatch or pledge your loyalty to Nicol Bolas in Ravnica: Inquisition, a social-deduction game set on the Magic: The Gathering plane of Ravnica. Each player takes on the role of a representative of a Ravnican guild that is either loyal to the Gatewatch or an Agent of Bolas.

The Gatewatch loyalists are tasked with discovering who the Agents of Bolas are, while the Agents simply need to survive in order to further the schemes of Nicol Bolas.

Players will elect leaders for each of the five colors, but only players whose guilds’ color pairs contains the color may be voted for. Each color leader has a special power they can use to further their goals, and players must be careful when voting, as Nicol Bolas’s influence may grow. Once all the color leaders have been elected, a vote is held to eliminate one player. Once the dust has settled, players will reveal their roles, and if the Agents of Bolas were eliminated, the Gatewatch wins.

—description from the publisher

Among Thieves

Among Thieves is a game of deception and greed. You will work together to extort information from higher level employees of the largest corporations in the world. However, no one can be trusted. Win by having the most money, but be careful – the player with the least honor is eliminated.

Each round one player is the Heistmaster. They will choose who to take on the heist with them. All of the players can offer whatever they want to go on the heist. The Heistmaster can accept whatever deal they want, but no promises are binding.

Once the team has been chosen, the players will simultaneously choose whether to be honorable or dishonorable. If every chooses honorable, you will flip over one card for each player. Each player on the heist will gain ISK equal to the total shown. If one or more players chose dishonorable, you will flip one card for each honorable player, but only the dishonorable player(s) will gain ISK. They will gain ISK equal to twice the total shown.
Finally, if anyone chose dishonorable, all the dishonorable players will lose 1 honor and all the honorable players will gain 1 honor.

Will you share the ill-gotten gains of your exploits or will you backstab your partners in crime and keep the money for yourself?

—description from the publisher