Ultimately, Detective Club is a fun experience. While comparing it to other games may not be entirely fair, I think there is probably only room for so many similar games in any person’s collection. It just feels a bit more relaxed. If you don’t like the stress of being put on the spot, that can certainly be a good thing. The discussion about why you chose the cards can be hilarious and is really where Detective Club shines. The game ends after each player has been Active Player once (with 6-8 players) or twice (with less than 6 players). Reveal your VP Tokens and add them up to get your final score. Players keep their VP Tokens face down. Once the Scoring Phase is complete, a new round begins: the Active Player passes his marker to the player that sits on his left. The liar is revealed and victory points are given out based on the following – (1) Each detective who placed their voting on the liar’s board gets 3 VP | (2) If there are 0 – 1 markers on the liar’s board, they get 5 VPS and the Informer gets 4 VPS | (3) If there are 2 or more player markers on the liar’s board, they and the informer get no points.

If there are 2 or more Tokens on the Conspirator's Player Marker, then the Conspirator and the Active Player do not score any VP. Detective Club is a social deduction party game featuring beautiful, surreal artwork and intriguing player interactions! Each round, one player secretly writes a word in all but one of the other players’ notebooks. Example: Bill and Dustin were right and score 3 VP each. Jane and Mike do not score any VP for this round. The game is played until everyone has had a chance to be the active player the same number of times (the game suggests twice each if playing with less than 6 players) and whoever has the most points wins. Each player tries to play a card to clue in that they know the hidden word. Game Experience: While the Active Player plays cards on the middle of the table, all other players play their cards in front of them.Make sure than everyone agrees on the chosen topic. You can switch topic after a few rounds if you like, or try to play the whole game with the same topic! Example: Bill and Dustin think that Jane is the Conspirator because she was unable to explain her cards clearly. Bill places her Voting Token next to Jane's Player Marker. She in return, votes against Bill, hoping that Dustin will make a wrong choice. Once all players have laid down two cards in front of them, the clue giver then reveals the theme to the table. After this revelation, each player besides the clue giver takes turns explaining exactly how the cards in front of them fit the theme. This is easily the best part of Detective Club because player success is not necessarily determined by whether they knew the theme or not. Topics can be very specific (for instance Space Opera , USA", "Protagonists"..). or general ("Movies", "Countries", "Literature" ) depending on the level of difficulty you want to play with.

Alternatively, you might be the conspirator and get away with it because you happened to have cards that fit the theme perfectly. Or you're just an amazing liar.

In Detective Club, all players will begin the game with six cards in their hand. These cards are reminiscent of the cards from Dixit or Mysterium—covered in beautiful, but someone nonsensical artwork. Each turn, one player will come up with a single word that they think they can convey with two of the cards in their hand. They will write that word in a notebook for each player. Except for one player’s notebook, who won’t have the word at all. The game ends when each player has been the informer once (6 – 8 players) or twice (under 6 players). See, learning how to play Detective Club is easy. After all players have made their case, players now vote on who they think the liar was. The “informer” does not participate in the vote. Starting with the player to their left, players go one by one putting their magnifying glass on the board of the player they think is the liar The books that the active player will write the word on, are thematic in design. But also a bit of a hassle. I think the game would have benefited from some white boards and marker pens. Instead of small pads of paper. This would help with game speed. When the active player is writing in all the books, and help with shuffling, before passing them out to the players. The rest of the components are great though. With each player having a small wooden magnifying glass, used for voting.

The fun of Detective Club comes from the explanation step of the round. It’s where you, as a person who knew the word but had terrible cards to go with it, have to really sell your friends on why you played their card with a hot air balloon on it when the word was “boat”. (Obviously, the answer was the balloon is someone like a parachute and you can parasail behind a boat.) Player’s vote on who they believe is the conspirator. If the Conspirator is sitting directly to the left of the active player, it’s therefore first to act. They will have a very short period of time to choose their first card. When the word is finally revealed, they will also have a very short period of time to come up with an explanation for why the cards they played match the chosen word. This aspect can let the game down slightly. It can lead to the Conspirator being discovered fairly easily. That said, if you can pull it off as the Conspirator in that position, it does give you a feeling of satisfaction A game of Detective Club plays in several rounds. On each round, players will play two cards. The game ends after each player has been Active Player once (with 6-8 players) or twice (with less than 6 players). Turning Dixit into a social deduction game was an amazing decision. Artistic theory is based on subjectivity; not everyone is going to agree with your opinion on an illustration. Using that as a jumping-off point for a game where people have to talk their way out of suspicion is genius and proves that Dixit-esque titles are always better when given stronger gameplay hooks. Example: Mike is the Active Player. He wants to play with the word "nature". He places the card displaying a red rose to reflect that word.Then the active player will play one of their cards to the center of the table that they believe relates to their chosen word. Every player will go around the table doing the same. Everyone plays a second card and then the active player will announce out loud what the word was. Of course, that is old news to almost everyone. You’ll get a notebook with the chosen word in it… or not. Example: Jane is the Conspirator. There is nothing on her notebook. She tries to analyze the two previous cards and looks for something that could fit in. There is water on both cards - maybe the word is "water "? She chooses a card with a big blue wave. Detective Club” is once again opening its doors to new members. You are also invited, but first you must prove yourself as a real detective. Analyze all the evidence, listen to the witnesses and try to find out who is lying among your group. Only the most observant and the most cunning will be able to succeed and achieve victory. Welcome to to the club! The active player is known as the “informer”. When it is a player’s turn, they look at their hand an come up with a clue (secretly, don’t say) that will correspond to two of the cards in their hand they will play. Whoever has accrued the most victory points throughout the game is the final winner. If there is a tie, then all tied players share the victory.