Clue, anyone?

I've never been one who particularly enjoyed board games. My favorite board games are trivia or word games like Trivial Pursuit or Balderdash. If I was going to have a favorite board game, though, given my obsession with murder mysteries, you'd think Clue would rank right up there. Hmmm, I've played it a couple of times, but wasn't much impressed. It just seemed so... I don't know. Miss Scarlet in the library with a candlestick? I can come up with a better plot than that!

Murder Mystery Board Games

However, it appears that there is a whole new world of Clue games out there from Hasbro. 'Cluedo', as it was first called when it was invented in 1949 by Anthony E. Pratt, now has a DVD version, a card game, a Harry Potter and a 'The Office' version (I wonder if Michael Scott is the victim?). Other than that there are also a whole variety of games out there to help you host a murder mystery party. I've never been to one, but have any of you? I would love to hear first hand from someone who had been to a murder mystery evening.


Murder Mystery Jigsaw Puzzles

Have you heard of these? I've actually done one, and for someone with the boredom threshold of an antsy three-year-old (me!) when it comes to board games and jigsaw puzzles, it was cool! To me there were three levels of interest: first, I kind of like jigsaw puzzles anyway, second, the picture on the box cover is NOT what you'll be putting together (Yippee!) and then you are actually solving a mystery at the same time! Great fun! Find a complete set of Alphabet murder mystery puzzles (Not connected to Sue Grafton's 'Alphabet' series of murder mysteries) at Mystery Game Central.

Computer Murder Mystery Games

I'm not much of computer gamer, but I have been tempted by the CSI Computer Games. I have to admit, though, as much as I looove CSI New York (Gary Sinise is so believable as an investigator/cop!) I cannot stand the gruesome elements, and I'm deathly afraid the computer game would expect me to get upcloseandpersonal with someone's bullet-riddled esophagus, or something. Yuck!!

So for a lily-liver, some of the best interpretations of mystery to computer is the Nancy Drew series (the Hardy Boys have a computer game series, too) and the Agatha Christie games are also very good! Except... I can't solve them. Again, that three-year-old's short attention span. By the way, this 'ants in my pants' feeling only seems to apply to games. I can read or write for hours on end and not get antsy.

Anyway, Mystery Game Central has a wonderful rundown of these computer mystery games as well! Have any of you played them?


Online Mystery Games

A world that is new/foreign to me is the online gaming community. Oh, I've known it existed, but who knew there were mystery games out there? There seem to be many, but one that is intriguing to me is Sleuth. According (again) to Mystery Game Central, it is an "open-ended online detective game where you solve mysteries by searching for clues, questioning suspects and interviewing witnesses." Sounds like fun!



Gifts Galore

I suppose I wrote this in response to my realization that Christmas is coming. Do you have mystery lover on your gift list for Christmas, Hanukkah or Kwanzaa? A teenager? A pre-teen? If the 'giftee' of your choice won't sit still to read, how about a mystery game of some sort?

For a great rundown of all kinds of murder mystery games see (wait for it...): Mystery Game Central

So... have you ever tried any of these types of mystery games? If you have, chime in and tell me about it!