You have been invited to a dinner at the mysterious Formby Mansion. Looking around, you don’t recognize any of the other guests. An older gentleman at the end of the long dinner table, raises his glass and begins to speak. At that moment, however, the lights flicker out and screams echo through the mansion’s halls. When the lights come back on, three of your fellow dinner guests lay dead in the room. Accusations begin to fly between the surviving guests over the sounds of police sirens rapidly approaching.
Now, the police have each of you locked in a room and are asking you what happened. Spin a tale for the police, placing the blame for the murders on your fellow survivors. Tell them what you saw and how the other guests had the motive, means, and opportunity to commit the murders, while avoiding implicating yourself in the crimes!
Three Dead Strangers is a card game utilizing domino-shaped cards each representing a character’s motive, means, or opportunity to have committed a murder, played in an overlapping manner, creating a simple-to-understand yet surprisingly deep-to-play game. With an average gameplay time of 15 to 20 minutes, it is an amuse-bouche of a game, intended to be an appetizer to your main course of an evening of gaming.
Three Dead Strangers is a game for 2-4 players in which you play as one of four survivors, either the intrepid Shelby Sinclair, the aristocratic Thomas Blauden, the cut-throat Vernon St. Oakes, or the mysterious Dowager Duchess.
Your goal is simple: gather evidence that the three murders were committed by one or more of your fellow survivors while cleverly keeping your opponents from accusing you of the same. You must get evidence of your opponent’s motive, means, and opportunity for having committed a murder and then successfully accuse them of committing that murder by correctly matching that player with their character.
Your identity is a secret, so play smart to keep them guessing. The longer you can keep your opponents guessing at your identity, the safer you are from their false accusations and the more suspicion you can direct towards others!
Setup
Players are randomly dealt one of the four character cards, which they should keep secret from the other players. The three Victim Cards—the titular Three Dead Strangers—are placed on the table with the draw pile between them. Make sure there is plenty of room in front of the Victim Cards!
Each player is dealt three cards, and the player who most recently broke the law or stretched the truth goes first. That’s it! You’re ready to play!
Playing the Game
The starting player draws a card from the draw pile and then plays a card from their hand before any victim. This will implicate up to two players with either their motive, means, or opportunity to have committed the murder. This card may be played either parallel or perpendicular to the victim card as shown below.
Play then passes to the next player, who draws a card to begin their turn. That player then plays a card from their hand in front of any Victim whose murder has not yet been solved. If the card is played in front of a Victim who already contains at least one other card in front of them, then the new card must be played so as to cover up HALF of any prior played card.
The new card must be played so as to cover up exactly HALF of any prior played card. It may not be played next to another card or over an entire card. Nor may a card ever be played so as to go next to or above the victim card it is being played on.
Play continues this way, with players drawing cards and playing them in front of any Victim whose murder hasn’t been solved. Sometimes, the card you play contains either one or two “Dead Ends.” Play may not continue off of any half of a card which contains a Dead End.
Note: Dead End cards may not be played in such a way as to close off play under a Victim. For this reason, the double Dead End card may not be the first card played on a Victim.
Making an Accusation
When any Victim has a Motive, Means, and Opportunity Card for the same Character played under them, on their next turn a Player may play an Accusation Card to accuse the implicated Character of the murder, and try to guess which player they believe is playing as that Character.
In the above example, there are Motive, Means, and Opportunity cards showing for The Duchess (Yellow). Another player, on their turn, may play an Accusation Card and attempt to guess which of the other players is playing as The Duchess and accuse them of the murder of that Victim.
To make an accusation, a Player would take an Accusation Card, place it on top of the pile of played cards (pointing at who they think the murderer is) and say something along the lines of “I think you’re the Duchess and you did it!” If the accusation is correct, then that player would flip over their character card to reveal the Duchess and that player would “lose” the game. (However, they continue playing as normal, trying to implicate other players!)
If the accusation was incorrect, the accusing player puts the Accusation Card into the middle of the draw pile, and play passes to the next player.
One player may be accused of committing one, two, or even all three of the murders.
End of Game
The game ends when either (1) the murder of all Victims have been solved, (2) all cards have been played, or (3) no legal plays remain for any players.
Winning
All players who finish the game without being accused of a murder are innocent and declared the winners!