The Investigation

In this phase of the game, we’ll take turns writing chapters to narrate the detective’s investigation of the murder. Place the Investigation reference board at the top of the journal. Shuffle the deck and place it on the board.

Place the sleuth on a question next to the suspect that found the victim. We will resume turn order to write more chapters. Each chapter leads to an answer. The investigation ends when once again a full house is in the tableau, revealing the suspect occupied by the killer as the culprit.

Steps of a Turn

1. Draw a card and add it to the tableau. If you now have a full house, move to the Summation phase. Otherwise, move the killer following the same rules as before. Add peril and resolve any relevant plots following those rules. If a plot is enacted, incorporate the results into the chapter you write.

2. Then, move the Sleuth to a new question in the journal. Write a chapter where the detective turns the landed-on question into an answer, taking into account the color of the drawn card. Red cards lead us to an answer about the rot, while black cards lead us to an answer on the murder.

3. Once the answer is recorded, the next player takes a turn.

Designer Note

Keep in mind that we as players don’t need to know what specifically the “answer” to the question is. It’s enough to make a connection between the suspect and clue and flesh out some narrative details. We know that our brilliant detective is synthesizing all of these answers in their mind and will reveal all to us during the summation.