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Cluedo, known as Clue in North America, is a murder mystery game for three to six players that was devised in 1943 by Anthony E. Pratt from Birmingham, England. The game was first manufactured by Waddingtons in the UK in 1949. Since then, it has been relaunched and updated several times, and it is currently owned and published by the American game and toy company Hasbro.
The object of the game is to determine who murdered the game's victim, where the crime took place, and which weapon was used.
Each player assumes the role of one of the six suspects and attempts to deduce the correct answer by strategically moving around a game board representing the rooms of a mansion and collecting clues about the circumstances of the murder from the other players.
Numerous games, books, a film, television series, and a musical have been released as part of the Cluedo franchise. Several spinoffs have been released featuring various extra characters, weapons and rooms, or different game play. The original game is marketed as the Classic Detective Game, and the various spinoffs are all distinguished by different slogans.
In 2008, Cluedo: Discover the Secrets was created (with changes to board, gameplay and characters) as a modern spinoff, but it was criticised in the media and by fans of the original game. Cluedo: The Classic Mystery Game was then introduced in 2012, returning to Pratt's classic formula but also adding several variations.
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In 1944, Anthony E. Pratt, an English musician, applied for a patent of his invention of a murder/mystery-themed game, originally named Murder!. Shortly thereafter, Pratt and his wife, Elva Pratt (1913–1990), who had helped in designing the game, presented it to Waddingtons' executive, Norman Watson, who immediately purchased it and provided its trademark name of Cluedo, a play on clue and ludo; ludo is Latin for I play, and a common British term for the game Parcheesi.
Although the patent was granted in 1947, due to postwar shortages in the UK the game was not officially launched by Waddingtons until 1949. It was simultaneously licensed to Parker Brothers in the US for publication, where it was renamed Clue along with other minor changes.
There were several differences between the original game concept and the one initially published in 1949. In particular, Pratt's original design calls for ten characters, one of whom was to be designated the victim by random drawing prior to the start of the game. These ten included the eliminated Mr. Brown, Mr. Gold, Miss Grey, and Mrs. Silver. The characters of Nurse White and Colonel Yellow were renamed Mrs. White and Colonel Mustard for the actual release. The game allowed for play of up to eight remaining characters, providing for nine suspects in total.
Originally there were eleven rooms, including the eliminated gun room and cellar. In addition there were nine weapons including the unused bomb, syringe, shillelagh (walking stick/cudgel), fireplace poker, and the later used axe and poison. Some of these unused weapons and characters appeared later in spin-off versions of the game.
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Some gameplay aspects were different as well. Notably, the remaining playing cards were distributed into the rooms to be retrieved, rather than dealt directly to the players.
Players also had to land on another player in order to make suggestions about that player's character through the use of special counter-tokens, and once exhausted, a player could no longer make suggestions. There were other minor differences, all of which were later updated by the game's initial release and remain essentially unchanged in the standard Classic Detective Game editions of the game.
The methodology used in the early versions of Cluedo is remarkably similar to a traditional, if little known, American card game, The King of Hearts Has Five Sons. However, Pratt himself said his inspiration was a murder mystery parlour game he used to play with friends where youngsters would congregate in each other's homes for parties at weekends. We'd play a stupid game called Murder, where guests crept up on each other in corridors and the victim would shriek and fall on the floor.
The Country house mystery was a popular subgenre of cosy English detective fiction in the 1920s and 1930s; set in a residence of the gentry isolated by a snowstorm or similar and the suspects at a weekend house party.
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The game box also includes several coloured playing pieces to represent characters, miniature murder weapon props, two six-sided dice, three sets of cards (describing the aforementioned rooms, characters or weapons), Solution Cards envelope to contain one card from each set of cards, and a Detective's Notes pad on which are printed lists of rooms, weapons and characters, so players can keep detailed notes during the game.
At the beginning of play, three cards -one suspect, one room, and one weapon- are chosen at random and put into a special envelope, so that no one can see them. These cards represent the solution. The remainder of the cards are distributed among the players.
Players are instructed to assume the token/suspect nearest them. In older versions, play begins with Miss Scarlett and proceeds clockwise. In modern versions, all players roll the die/dice and the highest total starts the game, with play again proceeding clockwise. Players roll the die/dice and move along the board's corridor spaces, or into the rooms accordingly.
The objective of the game is to deduce the details of the murder, i.e. the cards in the envelope. There are six characters, six murder weapons and nine rooms, leaving the players with 324 possibilities. As soon as a player enters a room, they may make a suggestion as to the details, naming a suspect, the room they are in, and weapon. For example: I suspect Professor Plum, in the Dining Room, with the candlestick.
The player's accusations must include the room they are currently in and may not be made in the corridors. The tokens for the suggested suspect and weapon are immediately moved into that room, if they are not both already present. Suggesting an opponent's token is a legitimate board strategy; likewise the weapon icons, though esoteric. A player may even accuse himself or herself as the murderer and may include cards in their own hand.
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Once a player makes a suggestion, the others are called upon to disprove it. If the player to their left holds any of the three named cards, that player must privately show one (and only one) of the cards to them. Otherwise, the process continues clockwise around the table until either one player disproves the accusation, or no one can do so. A player's turn normally ends once their suggestion is completed.
A player who believes they have determined the correct elements may make an accusation on their turn. The suggestion can include any room, not necessarily the one occupied by the player (if any), and may be made immediately following a suggestion. The accusing player privately checks the three cards in the envelope. If they match the accusation, the player shows them to everyone and wins; if not, they return them to the envelope and may not move nor make suggestions/accusations for the remainder of the game; in effect, losing.
However, other players can move their token into rooms when making suggestions and they must continue to privately show cards in order to disprove suggestions. A player who makes a false accusation while blocking the door to a room must move into that room so others can enter and leave. If all players except for one player have made an incorrect accusation, the remaining player automatically wins.
If a player's suggestion has brought another player's token into a room, the second player may make their own suggestion in the room when their turn comes up, if desired. If not, they may move out of the room, and if able to reach another room, make a suggestion therein, as usual.
In the American version, players are not allowed to make suggestions repeatedly by remaining in one room; if they wish to make a second suggestion, they must first spend a turn out of the room.
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