I had picked this up at a local con this past weekend. I had heard the name before, but was previously unaware of the Cheapass Games version. My comments are aimed primarily at the boxed set version, as some comments I've read seem to indicate that there may be variations in the rules.

Contents of the box include a deck of cards, a very nicely illustrated board showing Dr. Lucky's mansion, a pile of painted wooden discs (spite tokens) and playing pieces, a large pawn style wooden piece to represent the good Doctor, and an assortment of smaller ones in different colors for the players.

Thoughts on components: Nice, but a little spare. The board is very nicely drawn, much nicer than the pics I've seen of the Cheapass version (which, at an SRP of $35 for this one, it should be). I am a little disapointed in the playing pieces - maybe I'm just spoiled by all of the nicely sculpted pieces available in many games these days. The cards are nice stock and should hold up well.

Thoughts on the game itself: Fun and simple. I'll just offer a very quick summay of the game play:

All of the players start in the entry-way of the Doctor's mansion, the Doctor starts in a randomly selected room. During each player's turn they can do the following:

They can make one "free" move into an adjoining room or corridor.
They can play movement cards on either themselves, or the Doctor (these vary from "move X number of spaces" to "move to a specific room").
They can make a murder attempt on the Doctor, (must be in the same room and in a room that no other player is occupying, or can see into). A murder attempt can either be made with a murder card, which have varying strength values, or without one which has a strength value of 1.
They can search the room to draw a card. This last option can only be done if no other cards were played and no murder attempts were made.

After each player's move, the Doctor moves. He moves from room to room of his mansion on a predetermined path.

There are also "Spite Tokens". After every unsuccessful murder attempt, the player gains a Spite Token. The player gains an automatic +1 to every murder attempt for each Spite Token they own.

When a murder attempt is in progress, the other players have the chance to cancel it. This can be done with Failure Cards. Each has a Failure Number associated with it and they can be combined from multiple players to thwart the murder attempt. Spite Tokens can also be traded in here - each Spite Token used in this way has a Failure Value of 1. This is definitely a last resort option, however, as the player attempting the murder gets to add all of these tokens to his pool.

There is a fair amount of luck involved and I won't say that this is an especially deep game, though there is some strategy. I've found that most player's turns will revolve around one of two focuses: Preparing/setting up for a murder attempt, moving/drawing cards to set up for a future murder attempt, or actually getting into position and making one.

It seems like most turns (3/4 or 4/5) will be the former. I don't find this a huge problem as these turns go by quite quickly and the overall pace of the game is pretty quick. In games with more players (I played with 4), there may be more time dedicated to this as with more players on the board it will be more difficult to find an unobserved corner in which to make a murder attempt.

Overall Thoughts: As I said, a simple and fun game. Strictly beer & pretzels. I was a little disapointed in the cost of the boxed set ($35 SRP). The components are nice but not exceptional and the gameplay itself, while fun, does not make for a really deep game. For the cost I'd expect a little more. This disapointment would have been non-existent if I'd bought the Cheapass version as it's strictly relative to cost.

If you're in the market for a fun and simple game, that can be fast playing this is worth a look. If the cheap version is at all available though, I'd recommend that over the boxed set version unless you absolutely have to have the nice looking full color board, or if you can get it for a better price than I did.