Honor System

Murder, She Wrote

Paul Lamond Games 1991

OBJECT OF THE GAME

For the Murderer - to silence at least 5 islanders (eg. David King, Victoria Masters etc) and flee the island.

For the Jessica players - to identify and capture the Murderer.

PREPARING THE GAME

1. Separate the component pieces from the cardboard sheets, punching out the holes in the Identity cards and Accuse dial. Assemble the Accuse dial by inserting the rivet through the two sections - the Murderer’s silhouette lies over the coloured segments.

2. Each player takes a pawn, 10 counters and a diecut disk of the same colour. All pawns in play are placed around the Start at the Hotel.

3. Place one ALIVE token over each islander’s name at the nine locations - face down. The remaining ALIVE and all the DEAD tokens are put facedown in the bottom of the box.

4. Select enough Identity cards for the amount of players. (1 Murderer and the rest Jessica. Any spare Jessica cards should be put to one side).

Turn them over and shuffle them. Each player chooses one and discreetly inserts their colour disk into the hole of their Identity card, with the colour and picture on the same side. Everyone keeps their own Identity card safely in their pocket for the next part of the preparations. Each player now secretly knows whether they are playing the role of the Murderer or Jessica.

Setting the scene of the murder

1. All the players must leave the room.

2. Each player is then given less than a minute to enter the room alone and approach the board.

3. If you are the MURDERER choose your first victim from one of the locations and exchange the ALIVE token over his/her name for a DEAD token from the box.

If you are a JESSICA player wait inside the room and do nothing. You are not permitted to sneak a look at any of the tokens and must leave the room after the required time.

4. Once everyone has had their turn, players should take their places around the board to start the game. Everyone must then remove their Identity cards from their pocket and place them face down, along with the Accuse Dial, to one side of the playing area.

TO PLAY

1. Decide who’s going first, play proceeding clockwise.

2. Roll the die and move the full amount in one direction only. You may hop over other players, but not share spaces. If you can’t move, you forfeit your turn.

3. If you land on a “To the ... (eg Church)” space you can either position your pawn anywhere within that location (on a circular space) or ignore it so that you can proceed to your chosen location.

4. “To the other boat dock” spaces are useful for moving your pawn to the other side of the board. You don’t need an exact roll to use them. If you land on one dock space, you can move your pawn to the other dock space and continue your move from there.

Visiting a location

The circular spaces define each location, and you have to be on one to check the status of the islander (see below). You have to leave the boundaries of a location for at least one turn before returning to check whether the islander is dead or alive for the second time. It is important to follow the ‘visiting a location’ procedure in the right stages.

1. LEAVING YOUR CALLING-CARD’ - when you arrive at a location put one of your coloured counters on the LAST IN circle, to show that you were the last person to visit the location.

If other players have been before you, just move their counters down one space so that you are now LAST IN. If you are on a second visit, remove your previous counter, adjust the other players’ positions and put yourself LAST IN.

2. CHECKING THE STATUS OF THE ISLANDER -
a) Discreetly remove the token from the islanders name place, look at it to see whether that person is dead or alive, then place the token in the box face down.

b) Scramble the positions of the tokens within the box.

c) If you are the MURDERER you have the choice of silencing this islander once and for all by replacing the token with a DEAD one from the box, or leaving him/her alive by returning another ALIVE token to the name place. (NB. DEAD tokens cannot be swapped for ALIVE ones - murder is final). You may have to peek at several tokens to find the ‘right’ one.

d) If you are JESSICA you must return an identical token to the name place ie. after scrambling the tokens choose another DEAD token if that’s what you saw, or an ALIVE one if that’s what you saw, and place it face down.

NOTE: Everyone should be going through the same actions, thus providing essential cover for the Murderer’s crimes. You will only discover the murderer’s identity by deduction !

How to identify the Murderer

Visit locations more than once so that you have the opportunity to see whether a murder has been committed since your previous visit. Look at the coloured counters to see who has been visiting the location since you last left.

eg. Roberto Ravelli was alive when you visited the Hotel last time, but now he’s dead and only the blue and yellow players have entered the Hotel after you left. You can therefore deduce that the Murderer is one of two players, so you should stalk them in turn round the board.

NOTE: If you are the Murderer, remember you can pretend to be JESSICA and stalk players too and throw them off the scent!

How to win as JESSiCA

To win as a Jessica player you must identify the Murderer before he/she has a chance to escape. So first you must ACCUSE your suspect...

1. Land or pass over either Accuse spaces.

2. Announce you are going to make an Accusation.

3. Secretly dial the colour of the suspected player (eg. blue) on the Accuse dial, and cover it somehow so that the other players cannot see your Accusation.

4. Carefully look at the Identity cards, again without showing the other players. If the coloured disk in the Murderer card matches the colour dialled on the Accuse dial then you’ve won. Your proof is the Accuse dial which you covered whilst looking at the Murderer’s Identity card.

5. If you are wrong you are out of the game and must not reveal whodunnit.

How to win as the MURDERER

To win as the Murderer you must kill at least five of the islanders (not players!), including the first victim, and land on or pass over one of the red ESCAPE spaces.

Alternative rules for advanced players

1. Before returning to a location which you have already visited, two other players must have entered since your counter was at the LAST IN position. This does not, however, prevent you from passing through a location to move around the board.

2. Instead of leaving the room for the first murder to be committed, take 8 (eight) ALIVE tokens and 1 (one) DEAD token and place them face down on the board. Shuffle them around and let one player slide one into each location. Now even the Murderer does not know where the first murder was done!

Murder, She Wrote

CONTENTS:

OBJECT OF THE GAME

PREPARING THE GAME

TO PLAY

How to identify the Murderer