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

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If you’re the scientist you have to select between a range of options, none of which are good, to give clues that are at best incredibly ambiguous and non-specific given the range of cards in front of each player. The games don’t get richer with repeated plays – they become frayed at the seams and increasingly threadbare. One of the best genres of tabletop games are the ones that involve deception and bluffing—especially when played with close friends. The forensic scientist sets aside the scene tiles that say “location of crime” and “cause of death” on them. 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.

The 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.

Arguing and discussing becomes a lot less entertaining when theories and lies can go unnoticed, and you’re waiting for your turn to speak. By condensing the action into just one round, the game removes the need for either a referee or player elimination, meaning no-one has to miss out on the action. It’s all about persuading your friends that you can deliver them the win, before immediately throwing that trust back in their faces. Deception really puts the ‘deduction’ into social deduction, with every player devising their own theory, leading up to a dramatic moment where they ‘bet their badge’ on an answer, coming away feeling like a fool or a genius, depending on the result.

Throughout the game, the forensic scientist will use the clue tiles to try to help the investigators guess these two things. Even if they are identified, the Murderer still wins the game if no one correctly identifies both the ?

My personal favourite role is the murderer as I naturally thrive when I need to lie, deceive and deflect. When the crime takes place, the Murderer chooses 1 Clue card and 1 Means card as the solution to the crime. After three rounds any investigator who hasn't made an accusation should do so if the murderer along with the means and clue cards have been correctly identified then the investigators win otherwise the murderer wins. At this point the forensic scientist deals out six tiles that represent a series of questions that nobody is asking about a crime nobody committed. While Avalon is superior to the original Resistance, the latter’s Hidden Agenda expansion makes the two games functionally identical by adding the Commander, a re-skinned Merlin.

Well here you don’t necessarily need to be good at lying, you just need to know how to weigh up the evidence in front of you and make a convincing argument for someone else. They also left a nice little card with a friendly handwritten message, along with a discount on other items.The curve of the game is always towards being enjoyable and the style of the puzzle it presents you keeps everything tractable without actually making it any easier.