Murder Mystery Party: A Whodunit For The Ages

If you’re a fan of whodunits, then chances are you’ve heard of Murder Mystery Party. The series of board games has been turning average citizens into armchair detectives since the first entry in 1984. From Murder Mystery Party: Lethal Luau to Murder Mystery Party: A Taste for Wine and Murder, this board game series has been a source of fun and intrigue that places a delightful spin on the classic murder mystery genre. Get into costume, learn your lines, and send out the invitation to your closest friends as you try to solve a murder.

Murder Mystery Party: A Taste For Wine And Murder

Murder Mystery Party: A Taste for Wine and Murder is one of the most popular editions of the series, offering you the classic setup with a backdrop of California Wine Country. Among these peaceful vineyards and picturesque wineries hides a plotting murderer. At the annual wine-tasting festival the attendees are shocked to discover the body of Barry Underwood, the local vineyard owner, beneath his wine cellar. Players will have to figure out who among them is responsible for this dastardly deed.

In this edition of Murder Mystery Party, the suspects are Otton von Schnapps, Marilyn Merlot, Tiny Bubbles, Ralph Rottingrape, Pape Vito, and Hedy Shablee. There are also two more optional characters for games of eight players. Each player (suspect) will get a Character Booklet that includes their roles and background information. The game also comes with a party planner with recipes and a menu as well as tips on music and decorating. It even comes with eight party invitations and envelopes to send to your unsuspecting guests.

Players will use eight place cards to mark their spot at the table, as well as six secret clues that can help point to the killer. A cassette tape (or CD in recent versions) will provide an introduction, summary of events, and the solution to the crime. The host will direct the players alongside the CD to act out their parts and read certain dialogue (while hamming it up as best they can). Once the game is over, everyone will make their accusations until the CD reveals the actual murderer.

The fun of the game comes from acting your part, as character booklets provide you with interesting character traits that can be fun to play around with. You can even try out an accent to impress (or annoy) your fellow players–it’s all up to you! All the important parts are scripted, so the essential parts of the game will all be kept intact. With this particular edition of Murder Mystery Party, the roles are delightfully campy and all in good fun.

More Murder Mystery Party

There are many other editions of Murder Mystery Party that have been released through the years. Murder Mystery Party Case Files: Fire in Adlerstein was released in 2018 with a shorter playing time and the ability to be played by 1-5 players. This edition comes with both physical and digital parts to be used for investigation. Players can either play in cooperative mode or competition mode to find the criminal. The game is designed to be like a realistic criminal case, making you feel like a real police officer as you conduct your investigation.

If you’re a disco fan, then you’ll love Murder Mystery Party: Stayin’ Alive. This edition is set in trendy Studio Manhattan, where dance sensation Jackie Fever has just been murdered. With hilarious characters such as disco champ John Revolting and martial arts expert Bruce Leap, you’ll have a blast you won’t soon forget.

Throw Yourself A Murder Mystery Party

Murder Mystery Party is usually playable by 6-8 players, so it’s a good game for a dinner party for small groups. Playing time is about three hours, so you should definitely plan to make an evening of it. Ages 16 and up can play most editions of Murder Mystery Party, which makes it a good choice for adult friend groups of most ages. Murder Mystery Party comes in so many varieties that you’ll be sure to find something to your liking. Buy Murder Mystery Party today and enjoy the thrill of the chase!

 

Coup: All’s Fair In The Quest For Power

Abuse of power runs rampant in the corrupt world of Coup, in which each player is the head of a family in an Italian city-state. In the game of Coup, your goal is to successfully manipulate and bluff your way to power by destroying the influence of your rival families. This card game pits players against each other by forcing them to lie, cheat, and steal while fighting to be the last one standing. If ruthless competition and backstabbing sounds like your idea of a fun time, then Coup is the card game for you.

Make Your Move

Each player beings Coup with two coins and two character cards, which are also known as influence. The game goes in turns, with each turn giving you three distinct options. Your first option is called taking Income, which allows you to take one coin from the treasury. 

The second option is called taking Foreign Aid, which allows you to take two coins from the treasury. However, Foreign Aid can be blocked by the Duke character, so it’s important to make sure there are no Dukes on the board before risking being blocked.

The final option is to launch a coup against one of your opponents, which costs seven coins. This forces that player to give up one of their influence, shedding whichever character card they choose. There is no defense against a coup, so it pays to make friends rather than enemies and avoid becoming the target of anyone’s wrath.

Get To Know The Characters

The card game comes with a card deck of fifteen different cards, which consists of three copies of five distinct characters. Each character has their own special powers or defenses that can help you take down the other players or protect from deadly assassinations.

The Duke is one of the most powerful cards in the game. He has the special ability to take three coins from the treasury at a time as well as block other players from taking foreign aid. The Assassin, on the other hand, is another powerful player in that they can attempt to assassinate another player’s character for only three coins.

While having an Assassin card may seem like a sure fire way to win the game, the Contessa character can save a player from assassination by blocking it. The Captain character is another powerful choice that can both take two coins from another character as well as block any attempts by other players to steal their coins. Lastly, the Ambassador can both block people from stealing and allow you to swap out one or both of your character cards for another.

Bluff, Bluff, Bluff

The real luck of this card game comes from your ability to bluff. All of your character cards are hidden, which allows you to perform pretty much any action you want if you’re willing to back it up. Other players are allowed to challenge you, however, forcing you to reveal your character card. 

If you don’t have the card, you will lose one of your character cards. If you do, then the challenger loses one of theirs. A challenge can still hurt you, though, as you will be forced to put the card you reveal back in the deck to be shuffled and redrawn. The last player to still have one remaining character card wins Coup!

Coup: Rebellion G54

There is a sequel card game to Coup called Coup: Rebellion G54 that has similar rules but many more cards. This card game has a much larger deck with 25 characters, five of which you choose to play each game with. This can allow for much more variety with each game, giving you countless advantages and strategies to navigate on your path to victory.

Bluff Your Way To The Top With Coup

Coup is playable by 2-6 players, which makes it the perfect card game for parties or as an icebreaker. It’s also suitable for ages 13 and up, as its mechanics are simple enough for most kids to understand. Playing time lasts around 15 minutes, but you’ll definitely want to play multiple rounds as you get used to the way the game works. Coup is a delightfully competitive and tense card game that offers plenty of opportunity for fun. Practice your poker face and buy Coup today!

 

One Night Ultimate: Werewolves, Vampires, And Aliens

While most card games involve hours of play time and dozens of cards to manage, One Night Ultimate gives you a fast-paced game you can play in only 10 minutes. Pick your card and take on a secret role to figure out who your friends are and who you’ll need to eliminate in order to win the game. Whether you go for the Werewolves, the Vampires, or the Aliens, One Night Ultimate is sure to have you pulling out the cards at every gathering to liven things up.

Werewolves

Each of the One Night Ultimate games can either be played on its own or added to each other for a fast-paced game of fun. One Night Ultimate Werewolf is the first game in the series, providing you with a ten-minute game full of horror and paranoia. In One Night Ultimate Werewolf, you take the classic tale of a wolf haunting the villagers and you set it all in one terrifying night. Each player gets their own unique role at the beginning of the game, which will then have major consequences once you reach the night phase.

Whether you’re the Troublemaker, the Seer, or one of the evil Werewolves, you’ll find that horrific things have happened in the middle of the night that the whole village is going to have to reckon with. You may even find that, although you started out an evil Werewolf, overnight you became one of the innocent villagers! When everyone wakes you in the morning, each player is tasked with figuring out who they are and who the Werewolves are so that they can stop them before they kill again.\

The twist of the game comes from the switching of the roles that leaves you unsure of where your loyalties lie. Unlike most role-playing games where you’re fully aware of which team you’re one, One Night Ultimate Werewolf keeps you guessing at all times.

Vampires And Aliens

One Night Ultimate Vampire is the next edition of the One Night Ultimate Games, which introduces a brand new “Mark” system. While players begin with a plain mark at the beginning of the game, you may wake up to find you’ve become bitten and are forced to endure immortality as a Vampire. One Night Ultimate Vampire raises the stakes of One Night Ultimate Werewolf by adding deeper levels of deduction and complexity.

One Night Ultimate Alien is the next game in the One Night Ultimate lineup that is very similar to One Night Ultimate Vampire. This game features less role switching but introduces two bungling aliens who have to fight to be the last one left surviving. Figuring out everyone’s motivation for why they want certain people dead can help you piece together the clues to their identities and win the game.

Werewolf Daybreak Expansion

While One Night Ultimate Werewolf can be combined with either the Vampire or the Alien edition, there’s a special expansion called One Night Ultimate Werewolf Daybreak that takes the original Werewolf game and allows you to play up to 10 players. There are no more basic villagers—each of the 11 new roles has a secret hidden ability that can make this fast-paced game even more of a wild ride!

Take Your Pick Of Monster With One Night Ultimate

One Night Ultimate Werewolf is playable by 3-7 players, although some of the other editions and expansions allow you to fit up to 10 players. This game is absolutely perfect for parties of all sizes, and you don’t have to worry about choosing a moderator or having anyone get eliminated. With a playing time of 10 minutes, you can easily fit a game in before dinner or drinks as a fun icebreaker.

One Night Ultimate Werewolf is also suitable for ages 8 and up, so younger kids can join in on the fun without getting confused by complex rules or adult themes. Still, One Night Ultimate games are all fun and interesting enough that adults will be able to enjoy the deeper strategy of the game. One Night Ultimate is the perfect game for anyone who loves monsters and using their skills of deduction.

Grab your flashlight and put on your thinking cap for an adventure tonight!

 

Bang!: Sheriffs, Outlaws, and the Wild, Wild West

Have you always had a thing for good old-fashioned spaghetti westerns?  Does the thought of throwing on a pair of cowboy boots and trying out your best John Wayne impression sound like a good time to you?  Check out “Bang!”, the card game that pits Sheriffs, Deputies, Outlaws, and Renegades against each other to see who will be the last one standing.  With secret roles, hilarious characters, and mixed alliances, “Bang!” is an exciting card game that will add a bit of flair to your game night.

Role Cards

“Bang!” is a card game that assigns each player one of four roles.  Each role comes with its own hidden objective that the player needs to achieve if they want to win the game.  As a good upstanding citizen, the Sheriff needs to kill all the Outlaws as well as the Renegade.  The Deputy is his humble sidekick who’s tasked with protecting the Sheriff and killing any Outlaws.  The dangerous Outlaw wants to kill the Sheriff, and the Renegade wants to kill everybody.

Character Cards

Once you learn your role, you keep that information hidden for the rest of the game as you try to work your secret agenda.  Character cards, on the other hand, will be laid bare on the table for everyone to see.  The hilarious cards add a bit of humor and intrigue to the game by imbuing everyone with a strength and special ability.

Many character cards are inspired by famous people, with cards such as Bart Cassidy (named after Butch Cassidy) or Jesse Jones (named after Jesse James) some of the most entertaining choices of the bunch.  These cards will give you special abilities such as the ability to discard cards for life points or play an unlimited number of “Bang!” cards.

Who’s The Winner?

Gameplay is divided into turns in clockwise order starting with the Sheriff.  You start by drawing two cards before playing however many cards you choose to either help yourself or hurt the other players.  You can then get rid of whatever cards you don’t want to use.  “Bang!” cards are the real explosive elements of the game, as these allow you to fire on other players in the style of a real western shootout.

As players draw their weapons and the number of people in the game dwindles, things tend to become a lot more heated.  Once the Sheriff is killed, the game ends for everyone.  Because nobody knows who anyone is except for the Sheriff, this leaves plenty of time for sabotage and surprise attacks.  Most of the fun of “Bang!” comes from double-crossing the other players!

Expansions Of Bang!

“Bang!” comes with quite a few expansions that are inspired by different Westerns and make gameplay even more exciting.  The High Noon expansion adds different scenarios to the game that help or hinder certain players, while the Dodge City expansion adds comical new characters and dynamic new play cards.

A Fistful Of Cards comes with many new scenarios that can be mixed with the High Noon expansion, allowing you to play “Bang!” countless times without it ever being the same.  Or, if you’d like something a little more modern, you can play “Bang!: The Walking Dead” to take on murderous zombies instead of Outlaws and Renegades.

Bang! Be The Last One Standing

Although “Bang!” deals with stick-em-ups and shootouts, the game is simple and appropriate enough for ages 10 and up.  It also works for 4-7 players, which means that bigger families can get everyone involved in the fun.  Game time lasts between around 20-40 minutes, although the later expansion packs can make the game last longer and fit more players.

All in all, “Bang!” is a comical and stylized card game that capitalizes off of the fun of spaghetti westerns and the competitive spirit.  The luck of the draw means that you never know who’s your ally and who’s your enemy, which makes the game a lot more interesting as everyone is forced to fend for themselves.  If you’re looking to raise the stakes and add a little competition to game night, try “Bang!” for a bit of good old-fashioned fun.

 

 

How to Play Bang

Secret Hitler: The Most Addictive Game Ever

Ah, politics. A game in itself. We never know who to trust or whether the players even have a clue about what’s going on. Throw in Hitler and the 1930s pre-WW2 Reichstag and suddenly we’ve got ourselves a party card game.

Grab a whiskey and take your seat, because it’s about to get German in here.

Secret Hitler is a Hidden Role Game that uses secrecy and trust, and Fascists and Liberals. Players compete to enact laws to win the game. And figure out who is secretly Hitler. Two teams are quietly separated into the two political parties; Liberals are unaware of who is on their team (who can they actually trust?) and the Fascists, of course, are aware and in cahoots to overthrow the Liberals at all times. Can the Liberals stop the nation from reaching the brink of war, or will the Fascists elect Hitler and create chaos around the world?

Each round, a President and Chancellor are chosen, unknowing if they are even in the same party, to pass either a Liberal or Fascist law. The objective to win the game is for the Liberal team to either pass 5 Liberal laws or assassinate Hitler, while the Fascists attempt to win by passing six Fascist laws or electing Hitler as Chancellor.

It’s not just about your title, it’s about what you do with it.

As most modern politicians will agree, only the communists and a rare few other leaders can set themselves in the line of one political doctrine. It’s tempting to make decisions in favor of our enemies if it’s a means to an end; Liberals are often influenced in the game to pass Fascist laws in hopes that it will aid them in their quest to assassinate Hitler.

The most intriguing part of the game? Hitler is unknown to anyone (except maybe the Fascists) in the game aside themself, so electing him as Chancellor could be an accidental mistake by the Liberal team as the Hitler player will actually be making every attempt to gain Liberal trust. On the bright side, this time around, if Hitler gets elected Chancellor, there isn’t a prohibition keeping us from drinking to forget.

It’s more than just a card game; it’s chaos.

Other features begin to come into play while the game progresses, creating chaos and testing the boundaries of trust among players. If played by dedicated gamers with a knack for strategy, Secret Hitler can become an intense interaction between parties trying to overthrow each other, play sides to earn trust and make us all feel a little sinful in our decisions.

Secret Hitler is a highly addictive game that encourages foul mouth and foul play, can potentially ruin relationships, and will result in round upon round of “all in good fun” that might end in the death of our least beloved political leader. And tastefully the worst inside jokes ever.

Haven’t had the chance to test the political waters in your group of friends or coworkers? Secret Hitler is a perfect opportunity to get the party rolling. Or it can be played befittingly during your office lunch break; get your boss who’s had a few Dictatorial tendencies of their own to play as well.

This sounds like a great game, right? Well, buy it today!

 

Bang!: Bring Back The Wild West

If you love a good spaghetti western shoot-out, you’ll love Bang!  This card game is a blast from the past that pits the Outlaws against the Sheriff and the Renegade against everybody.  Use your skills of deduction and bluffing to conquer the Wild West once and for all.

Everyone gets a secret role card at the beginning, of which there are four roles: the Sheriff, the Deputy, the Outlaw, and the Renegade.  Pull cards like the BANG! card to shoot at people within range, or the MISSED! card to dodge the bullet.  There are even fun cards to pull such as beer to restore health (typical for a cowboy, right?)  Let fate decide who makes it out alive and who’s slow on the draw!

If you like playing stick em up games with cards instead of toy guns, you’ll love Bang!  It’s super fun to use strategy and luck to try and take down your fellow players.  And if you’ve got a good poker face, you’ll ace this game.  Bluffing your way through it is the best way to shoot the Sheriff without him seeing you coming.

Bang! is a fun card game for people nostalgic for the American West.  However, anyone can enjoy the competitive spirit of Bang!  If you’re looking for a family game that can handle big families, this is the game for you.  It can handle 4-7 players, so everyone gets a chance to take part in the fun.

Head over to our store and buy it… You know you want to.

 

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