Clue game

Clue Rules

Clue is a game that puts you in the shoes of a detective who has to solve a murder. 

Clue boargame

Game Contents and Goal

The players are a group of guests in a mansion. During the evening, one of the guests, Mr. Boddy, gets murdered 😮. The suspect can only be one of the other guests. It’s up to you to investigate and find the culprit!

Part of Clue is therefore to use your intelligence to find the method of the murder. 

A Clue game includes: 

  • 6 tokens: each token represents one of the characters in the game. You can play as Colonel Mustard (Yellow), Mr. Green (Green), Professor Plum (Purple), Mrs. Peacock (Blue), Miss Scarlett (Red), Mrs. White (White).
  • 6 weapons: the knife, the candlestick, the lead pipe, the revolver, the rope and the wrench
  • 21 cards: 6 cards representing the suspects (players), 6 weapon cards, and 9 cards representing the rooms of the mansion.
  • 1 classified envelope: where the results of the investigation will be hidden.
  • 1 notebook. You can use white sheets if necessary. 
  • 1 game board 
  • 2 dice.

However, depending on the versions of the game, the number of tokens and cards may vary.

Before Starting the Game

Here are the preparatory steps before starting your game of Clue: 

  • Start by putting all the character tokens on the starting space that corresponds to them. It doesn’t matter if there are fewer players than there are tokens, place them all. 
  • Next, take the sets of weapons, rooms, and player cards. Shuffle them individually, then place the first card of each set in the classified envelope, face down. These are the cards that the players will have to guess.
  • Each player then chooses a token, regardless of the cards they have in their hand. This token represents their character throughout the game. 
  • Finally, take turns rolling the dice. The one with the highest number deals the other remaining cards from each deck of cards, one at a time, to each player. Don’t worry if some have fewer cards than others. 

How to Move in Clue

The answer is simple: use the dice 😅. Each player in turn rolls the dice and can advance as many spaces as the result of their roll.

  • The player can thus move forward and enter a room in the mansion if their roll allows it. But once they enter it, they can only get out on their next turn. 
  • You cannot stop on a square already occupied by an opponent. However, multiple players can end up in the same room.
  • It is forbidden to pass over another player’s token; you have to bypass it.
  • You can’t move diagonally (cheat gang 😛).
  • To enter a room, you can only use either the door (makes sense 😆) or the secret passages. 

Course of the Game

You have started your game, you arrive in a room. Now you can start being serious!

In the corridor, you can only move. But once in a room, you can start collecting clues! How? It’s simple: make suggestions!

Try to figure out the hidden cards in the puzzle case. Your suggestions are used to eliminate cards in other players’ hands in order to find the 3 hidden cards

Suggestions:

  • You can only make suggestions while in a room. 
  • Each suggestion designates a character, a weapon and a location. 
  • Once you have formulated your suggestion, you must ask each player, one by one, if they can deny your suggestion. To do this, they must show you a card that you’ve included in your suggestion, if they have it.
  • If you designate a card (for example the weapon “revolver”) in your suggestion, and it is held by a player, the latter has the obligation to show it to you, but in secret. 
  • If a player has several cards mentioned in a suggestion, they do not have to show ALL of them to the person who formulated the suggestion. However, they must show at least one.
  • Nothing prevents you from making suggestions that you know are false or trap suggestions. 😉
  • Once your suggestion has been made and the cards revealed, you can take note in your notebook and make your deduction. 
  • Your turn ends once you have made your suggestion. You are only allowed one suggestion per turn. 

The Accusation

Apart from the suggestions, your turn also gives you the right, if you wish, to make an accusation. Do you think you know the truth of this case? Make an accusation.

If you do so, be aware that to make an accusation: 

  • you must first be in the room where the murder took place according to your accusation.
  • you must read your accusation out loud by saying “I accuse” then by quoting the cards you think were used in the crime (for example: I accuse Professor Plum of having committed the crime in the Bathroom with the Gun!).
  • you can check your accusation by discreetly looking inside the classified envelope.

Two cases arise if you make an accusation:

  • If your accusation is correct 😍: the cards you announced correspond exactly to the cards in the classified envelope. You can reveal them and thus show others that you have solved the mystery! Congratulations, you won the game 🎁!
  • If your accusation is false 😟: the cards you announced do not fully match the cards in the envelope. In this case, discreetly put the cards back in the envelope, then put it back in its place. You are then eliminated from the game: you can no longer make suggestions or make an accusation (of course, since you have just seen the answers 😛). However, you don’t leave the game, because the other players will need you to be able to disprove their suggestions with the cards in your hand… Nice try anyway. 

End of the Game

The game ends when a player solves the mystery by guessing the cards hidden in the classified envelope. 

Official rules in PDF

Explore the official Clue Rule in PDF.