DEDUCE OR DIE

OBJECTIVE OF DEDUCE OR DIE: The objective of Deduce or Die is to be the first player to determine which player is the murderer.

NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 3 to 6 Players

MATERIALS: 3 Standard 52 Card Decks, Pencils, and a Deduction Sheet

TYPE OF GAME:  Deduction Card Game

AUDIENCE: Adults

OVERVIEW OF DEDUCE OR DIE

You and some of your lawyer friends have decided to take a cruise and let loose! A terrible storm hits in the middle of the night, and you are now stuck on an island. As if things could not get any worse, you wake up to find one of your teammate’s dead, murdered by someone on the island!

Through trial and error, you all must try to determine who the murderer is! After all, you are trial lawyers! Lawyer up!

SETUP

First, create the deck by using the aces through nines of Clubs, Spades, and Hearts. This should create a 27 card deck, making up the Motive deck. The deck should then be shuffled and place two of the cards to the side facing down. These will be the Evidence cards.

To each player, deal their cards. The number depends on the number of players there are. With three players, each gets eight cards, four players get six cards, five players get five cards, and six players get four cards.

From the other two decks, remove the same twenty-seven cards from the decks. These are then shuffled and placed in the middle of the playing area, creating the Interrogation deck. The first player is randomly chosen, and the game is ready to begin.

GAMEPLAY

The murderer is decided by the two Evidence Cards. When these cards are known, then, and only then, is it easy to identify the third card. This card is the Murder card, and it is how the murderer can be accused. The rank of the Murder card is equal to the sum of the two Evidence cards. If the Evidence cards have the same suit, then the Murder card will match, but if neither card matches, then the Murder card will be of the other suit.

If the Murder card is the exposed card, then the player with a card that was one rank higher becomes the Murderer. Their goal is to accuse an innocent person.

The game begins with each player confronting each other with a simple statement. Players will then go around the group and announce which suit they have the least of in their hand. Afterwards, the first player will then draw three cards from the Interrogation deck, revealing them to the group.

The player will then choose the lowest card and highest card of the range she wants to interrogate the other players for. If they are of the same suit, the cards must fall within the same suit. If they are of a different suit, then it covers all suits. If the cards are the same suit and rank, then the player may decide to interrogate all cards in that rank or all cards in that suit.

They will then choose a player to interrogate. That player must tell them how many cards they have in their hand that falls within the range set by the player. They must be truthful when answering. All players can keep up with answers however they see fit. The player to the left of the interrogator will continue the same way.

After exposing the interrogation cards, the player may choose to not continue with an interrogation if they see fit. Players may also choose to have a Secret Interrogation. These may only occur once per player per game. Players will announce this, discard the interrogation cards, and write a range of cards themselves.

Gameplay continues in this manner until a player chooses the correct murderer. If a player chooses incorrectly, they remove themselves from the game and lose.

END OF GAME

The game comes to an end when someone makes a correct accusation. The player must write down who they think the murderer is and what they believe the Evidence Cards are. They will then confirm the Evidence cards by looking at them secretly. Then, they will ask the accused for their cards. If correct, the player shows their answer, reveals the cards, and wins the game!

Nakoa Davis
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