They continue to participate as normal and may still present during all Presentation phases but may not make another attempt to solve the crime. So when a game comes out and I hear that it’s a Resistance-killer, my ears perk up a bit. I’m skeptical, for sure, but willing to give each challenger a fair shake. Spyfall was one of the early challengers, but I found it far too dependent on the players knowing all of the possible locations and everyone being very good at coming up with questions. It was frequently hilarious as an awkward-conversation creator, but far too inconsistent as a game. Secret Hitler has come the closest to matching the enjoyment of The Resistance, but that’s mostly because it’s essentially a modification of that game, though not for the best. Hybrid In your first game, it is recommended to assign the role of the "Forensic Scientist" to the most expressive player. 3. Badge Tokens

We’ll assign the Forensic Scientist card then randomize the rest. And in our subsequent play (because we know there will be another game) that role will move one player to the left with the other roles still being randomized.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). I put it on my wishlist after seeing the folks at The Dice Tower rave about it and compare it favorably against The Resistance. What I’ve found is that Deception is less a social deduction game and more in what I’m calling the “hindered communication” sub-genre, making it cousins with games like Codenames and Mysterium.

We love the unique game play of deducing a pair of cards from vague clues given by the Forensic Scientist. Deception: Murder in Hong Kong might sound like a hard-boiled detective mystery movie, because that’s exactly the mood this board game hopes to set. Although if it’s being played by the likes of our Overboard crew, Polygon’s card and board game show, the tone ends up a lot closer to Who Framed Roger Rabbit than Infernal Affairs. Either way, it’s still a whole lot of fun to slam your badge down on the table and accuse your friend ... of murder! If you are the investigator or the witness, you want to catch the murder before the end of the game. You don’t only have to guess which player the murderer is but also what they used as a murder weapon and what they left behind at the scene. There’s also the addition for the witness you have to try not to get killed by the murder and accomplice at the end of the game, while also trying to inconspicuously draw attention toward the murderer. In Deception: Murder in Hong Kong, each player first receives a secret role: Forensic Scientist, Witness, Investigator, Murderer, or Accomplice. Everyone then closes their eyes except for the forensic scientist, who instructs the murderer to open his eyes. The murderer does so, revealing himself to the scientist, and he points to one of the five murder weapons in front of them and one of their five pieces of evidence. [8] The Protective Detail knows who the Witness is at the start of the game and can help distract the Murderer and Accomplice from who the real Witness is.

Though a team switch is rare, it can happen and the investigators should remain vigilant to detect any changes in the Forensic Scientist's behavior. What matters when it comes to the game is how it facilitates and regulates this, and Deception: Murder in Hong Kong gets this down to a tee. A crime scene is a location where a crime has been committed. It is usually the place where the body is found, or where the crime took place. It can also be the place where the suspect was found or where the suspect was last seen. Yes, the premise is that someone has been murdered and we’re investigating how it occurred. But the method of investigation is so engaging that she was hooked right away.