CLUE Dungeons & Dragons

CLUE has always been one of my favorite board games. I enjoy trying to solve mysteries through the process of elimination. I especially enjoy trying to solve them before my opponents while accusing them of murder in the process! I have also had a fascination with the medieval/fantasy era of knights, wizards, and thieves, like the popular tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. Now I can have my cake and eat it to!

Wizards of the Coast introduced the Dungeons & Dragons CLUE game where all the basics of the original game still apply and there are still six characters, six weapons, nine rooms, and a hidden murderer amongst you. However, the setting is now in a medieval style and all of the characters in the game are iconic characters from the D&D Player’s Handbook taking the roles of the classic Clue characters.

According to Wizards of the Coast, Lidda is Mrs. Peacock, Regdar as Mr. Green, Ember as Mrs. White, Nebin as Professor Plum, Mialee as Miss Scarlet, and Tordek as Colonel Mustard, any one of whom might be the doppelganger.

Instead of a wrench, rope, dagger, lead pipe, candlestick or revolver, the murderer may have used a ring of magic missiles, vorpal sword, scroll of fireball, staff of power, flaming battle axe, or mace of disruption.

The mansion is now a castle, and you’ll be exploring rooms such as the Magical Armory, the Dragon’s Lair, the Chamber of Trick and Traps or the Lost Crypt.

he was murdered by a doppelganger

In the introduction, there are six Dungeons & Dragons characters that have been summoned to the castle of the Archmage Korinon where their skills and talents will be tested, and their true selves will be revealed. You are one of these heroes. In the middle of the night, the heroes are awakened by a scream and a ghostly form of the archmage appears before each of them. He explains that he was murdered by a doppelganger that’s taken the form of one within the party and the castle has been magically sealed and will remain that way until the evil shape shifter has been captured.

As per the original game, you must first shuffle the cards and take one of each item to place in the hidden card holder that will not be revealed to anyone. Each player will then receive a set number of cards and a list divided by room, character, and weapons. Without showing your cards to your opponents, you will begin to eliminate the clues starting with your own cards and marking them off the list.

The greatest twist to this game is that during a move, a player may land on a Monster Challenge square. These squares are scattered around the game board represented by deep-grooved claw marks. When you move onto one of these, you draw a card from the Monster deck. Follow the instruction on the Monster card and then roll the die. The outcome will determine whether or not you’ve defeated the beast that you’ve encountered. If you get the short end of the stick, you run away and get lost in the Maze at the center of the castle. You’re stuck there until you can roll a 5 or 6 on your turn.

However, if you win the battle, you get a little treasure for your trouble, which may include a set of boots of striding and springing that will let you roll the die twice (giving you a double move for one turn), or you could be so lucky as to pick up an amulet of seeing that lets you take a peek at one of the cards in the Scroll Case (giving you inside knowledge of one of the three parts of the mystery that you need to know to win).

As the game progresses, the players will begin to make “assumptions” about who they think the murderer could be, in what room, and with what weapon. However, in order to make an assumption, the accuser will have to call the the one being accused into the specific room and you must be in the room you intend to make an assumption about. Calling another player into said room will also allow you to move that player further from a room that you really think the murder took place so that it buys you some time to get there.

If the items a player makes an assumption about are in another player’s possession, each player must show one of those cards to the accusing player, starting with the player to the left of him/her, and stopping at the player who has the first card.

if you are wrong, you are out of the game

Once you have made your eliminations, and are certain that you know who the murderer is, what room, and with what weapon, then your ending move must be to call the character to the room with the weapon. You can then make your final accusation and if you are right, you win the game, but if you are wrong, you are out of the game and it continues until all players are eliminated or someone accurately solves the mystery!

CLUE Dungeons & Dragons is a great way to spend some family time with the older kids or adults. My Autistic teens had a lower attention span, so the game wasn’t as thrilling for them and they both had a hard time understanding the process of elimination. However, my teen sons, my husband and I enjoyed the game, and although I always loose because I take too long trying to make sure I have all the areas covered, I look forward to playing it again soon.

Have you played CLUE Dungeons & Dragons? What did you think?