The Curious Case of the Disappeared Decktet card
Designed by Roger Meertens
Players 3-6
Length 30 minutes
Extra Material pen and paper for all players

HELP! One of the cards from the original decktet has been stolen. You are on the case, like the good detective you are. The rich reward and eternal glory certainly are good motivations. Unfortunately you are not the only detective who's after the card. This makes the investigation difficult at least. The answers you get from your fellow detectives are ambiguous and enigmatic. So… it's up to you to find the missing card first.

Setup

Take out “The Excuse” card and the twenty-four “2” through “9” cards. All other cards are removed from play. Place “The Excuse” in the middle of the table. Shuffle the 2-9 deck well and take out one card without looking at it. Place it under “The Excuse” in the middle of the table. Deal out the remaining 23 cards evenly among the players. These cards should remain unknown to the other players. Left over cards are placed face up in the middle of the table.

Game play

Nature of the cards:
The cards in play all show at least 4 characteristics. These characteristics are one rank (2-9), two suits (a combination of moon, sun, waves, leaves, wyrms, knots) and (at least) one type (location, personality or event; in this game there are two cards that have two characteristics: origin and market). Your investigation will be by way of combinations of characteristics in order to identify the missing card (under “The Excuse”).

Turns:
On your turn you interrogate your fellow detectives and optionally declare the missing card. When you have finished interrogating, the detective on your left will continue with his/her search.

Interrogating your fellow detectives:
When it's your turn, choose two characteristics you would like to know more about. Ask the other players how many times these characteristics appear on their cards. If both characteristics appear on the same card(s), they naturally should be counted separately. Any combination of the four aforementioned characteristics is possible: rank & suit; suit & event; location & personality; etc.

Declaring the Missing Card (optional):
On your turn, whenever you think you have solved the case of the disappeared decktetcard, you are allowed to declare the missing card. Just tell your fellow detectives that you solved the mystery. Declaring the Disappeared Card is done by writing it down. You then get to take a careful look at the card under the “The Excuse” (do not show it to the other players!). If you were right, the game is over: show the card and your note to your fellow detectives and eternal glory will be yours. If you were mistaken, play continues. You are no longer allowed to ask questions, but you are still under interrogation.

The extended deck

You never use the extended deck for this game. Just use the 2-9 cards and "The Excuse".

Variants

None so far.

Credits

Links

Comments

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License