Jolly Thinkers PJOL01 Deception: Murder in Hong Kong, Mixed Colours

Product Information

Deception: Murder In Hong Kong, from Tobey Ho and Grey Fox Games, is the newest challenger to the throne (in my house anyways–BGG says it was released in 2014). This bite-sized variant features less bloodthirsty lycanthropes than the original, as the werewolves’ aim is simply to win by lying low. The setup is familiar to anyone that’s played a social deduction game – each player gets dealt out a secret role and it’s the job of the table to ferret out the miscreants.

Just like in real life investigations, the person who gets the Forensic Scientist role knows all of the details, but can’t tell the investigator players the answer. Except, of course, you don’t have the necessary clues to do that and so everything you end up doing will likely make things worse. The game uses a unique mechanic where the leader of the resistance rotates to a new player each turn. who wins if everybody else fails to solve this case, though for all extents and purposes the murderer will appear to be playing the game like a normal police officer. Instead it converges upon an energetic metagame that ensures the game retains a solid core of electricity.Below, through the window, underneath the guttural moans that permeated the walls, I could hear the traffic, horns blaring in the distance, I pushed back my fedora and sighed… it was going to be a long night. From then on, you can only discuss your ideas in the general setting, and can no longer present, or take another guess. Every turn a player must perform an action, which can be as simple as taking a coin from the treasury, to forcing another player, through card play, to reveal one of their influence cards. How much fun you will find in the box is entirely dependant on the group you play with, the more creative the better. But with a name like “Deception: Murder in Hong Kong” and brooding, maroon box that includes a handful of plastic bullets, you might assume that this, at last, is a serious game about law enforcement.

One player acts as the forensic scientist giving clues using a series of scene tiles, and investigators must try to interpret them. I hate to compare again, but it’s hard to overstate how much Codenames and Mysterium open up the potential for creativity and truly puzzling clues when the clue-sets are the entirety of the English language and maddeningly opaque surrealist art, respectively. It takes emotion out of the equation, and allows people to make wild accusations with no feelings being hurt. The FS will then place one bullet token onto a word on each of the tiles that best points to the cards that the murderer chose.I suppose it forces people to contribute, which might help bring shy players more into the game, but it seems rather arbitrary and ends up creating more awkwardness rather than less. Each turn, a group is sent out on a quest, but some of them are secretly traitors with the power to sabotage the mission. Whether it’s for better marketing or they are just naturally friendly, it’s a pleasant surprise that seems very genuine. At any point a player can try and solve the crime by holding their badge up and stating “let me solve the crime” (this is also the only way you can interrupt a players pitch) If they guess correctly then the game is over.