Game: Fraud Squad

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thorndor — 2008-04-16T04:29:05+00:00

Sample location card

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thorndor — 2008-04-16T04:26:39+00:00

back of box

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thorndor — 2008-04-16T04:24:05+00:00

sample employee card

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thorndor — 2008-04-16T04:18:27+00:00

The game overview card

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ZiggyZambo — 2007-12-06T15:14:14+00:00

Cards

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ZiggyZambo — 2007-12-05T23:17:17+00:00

Cardbacks

Thread: Re: Review: Fraud Squad

Chad_Ellis — 2007-11-29T20:58:35+00:00

Yeah, I hope that comes across to anyone reading it -- my negativity is more about how this game is for me rather than how it is for what it's trying to do.

Any time you want to hear about my own mistakes with MY first game, just ask!

Thread: Re: Review: Fraud Squad

dietevil — 2007-11-29T19:52:03+00:00

Hi Chad,

Sorry the game wasn't your cup of tea but thanks for writing a thoughtful and informative review regardless.

You are correct in that gamers weren't really the target audience for the game - it was primarily intended to poke fun at all the fraud that was happening at the time and provide game play that was a little more interesting than traditional Clue but still familiar enough to be accessible to its non-gamer target audience.

Since it was my first published game, I made a lot of mistakes in the production, which I would like to think were improved in subsequent releases. I also gave up on trying to be both a designer and a publisher and focused on publishing.

But now I am not actively publishing anymore either and am just focusing on being a gamer "for fun". I gave Aldie my overstock and left it up to him how he wanted to distribute it, and bagstuffers seemed as good an approach as any

Thread: Review: Fraud Squad

Chad_Ellis — 2007-11-29T15:25:47+00:00

A meandering review that takes three paragraphs just to tell you how and why I tried Fraud Squad out in the first place. For those without excessive free time, here is my summary:

Fraud Squad is a solid enough take on the Clue mechanic, especially when enhanced with the free aids on offer at the publisher's website. It scores points for portability and ease of learning, but takes a bit too long to qualify as a filler. I suspect that (like Clue and most games of its family) it's a much better game for kids than for adults, but as with most games with a humorous theme there will be some groups that find it laugh-out-loud funny (even if I didn't). It feels a bit pricey to me at $12 but you can probably get it for much less, in which case if you like this sort of game it's just the sort of game you like.

It's not uncommon to find a small game in your bag at a convention, but it is uncommon for those games to be any good. As often as not you're getting copies that have been sitting in the company warehouse unsold for years in the hope that they'll generate some attention...and as often as not there's a good reason they've been sitting unsold in a warehouse.

With that in mind, you can imagine how excited I wasn't to find a thin deck-of-cards game with mediocre art and a 2002 copyright mark in my bag at BGG.CON '07. I'm also not a big fan of companies that praise their own games excessively, so box text that announced that the game is "hilarious" didn't add to my anticipation. (Nor, for that matter, did the fact that four out of five sentences on the box summary ended in exclamation points. Hey, we all have our pet peeves.)

So why did I open it at all? Most likely because once you self-publish games you have a bond with other small game publishers. I was curious to know whether Diet Evil Games still existed (it does, albeit under the new name Dancing Eggplant) and who they were. A quick glance at the publisher's profile on BGG showed me that I knew (or at least had met, spoken with and demoed one of my own games to) the author, Anye Sellers/dietevil.

Overview and Summary of Play

At a basic level, Fraud Squad adopts the Clue mechanic with four variables (employee, company, technique and location) rather than three.

There are three primary differences between Fraud Squad and Clue in terms of play (other than not having a board to move around in...I've never played the Clue card game so I can't compare them). First, not all of the cards start the game in player's hands. In Clue it's often the best play to say, "I suspect Colonel Mustard did it in the Library with the Candlestick" when you hold the Library and Candlestick cards in your hand since you get just as much information (one card, and you've chosen the category to work on) if it wasn't Colonel Mustard and solve 1/3 of the crime if it was. In Fraud Squad you can't do that in the early game because some clue cards remain in a deck to be drawn.

The second difference is that your action on a turn varies and is determined by a roll of the dice (in the basic version) or by the spending of action points (in the advanced version provided on the publisher's website). The basic actions are "Collaborate" (essentially "I suspect" from Clue), "Eavesdrop" (take a random card from another player or draw a card from the top of the deck). In the advanced version there is bit more flexibility, and even for kids and casual gamers I would suggest replacing the die roll with "Choose eavesdrop or collaborate."

The third difference is that some of the cards aren't clues but special action cards. These can prevent other players from gathering information from you (e.g. play "Out Sick" when someone tries to collaborate or eavesdrop on you). Others mess with people who are trying to avoid giving you information (e.g. "I have your pager number" counters "Out Sick" and "The Boss is your next-door neighbor" counters it and requires the player to show you all relevant cards they have if you're collaborating. You can also get a free turn or else compel

The obvious question is whether these differences improve the game or not. That's going to be very subjective; for me it was a mixed bag. You can definitely apply probability and strategy in Fraud Squad in ways that don't exist in Clue (Anye has put up a solid list of strategic tips on the game's page). I also didn't miss the board, as I think the element of moving to rooms is outweighed by the dead turns spent in hallways and potential frustration of low die rolls. That said, I found other aspects of the differences frustrating.

One of the things I like about Clue is that unless you make a mistake (e.g. announce a suspicion that includes a card someone has already shown you), you consistently gain information about the crime. In Fraud Squad this is not the case.

Let's say you're taking your first turn and are collaborating. There are (depending on the number of players) from 16-19 cards in the deck, waiting to be drawn. You just decide to get some information, so you pick four cards that aren't in your own hand.

The first person plays "Out Sick" and doesn't show you her hand. The other player(s) say, "Nope." What have you learned? Well, there's a good chance that the first player has at least one of the cards you named and you know that no one else does, but they are each still more likely to be in the deck than the actual culprits. You've gained information about the hand of one player and some about the hand of the other, but you haven't actually learned anything specific about the crime.

Ultimately Fraud Squad felt to me like filler-level strategy put into a full-length game. The decisions simply aren't rich enough for serious gamers to justify a major time investment. To be fair, however, Fraud Squad isn't really aimed at serious gamers. It's meant to be a fun party game where the humor and theme are as important as the gameplay. That brings us to...

Humor and Theme

If we didn't steal it, someone else would.

Love makes the world go round, but greed makes us rich.

Spending profits so you don't get to.

Humor is purely subjective so it's probably more useful to see samples than read a review about it. I often tell people to read the back of the Succession box -- if they laugh at the premise, they'll probably laugh a lot more when they play the game. If they groan, not so much. If those corporate slogans make you laugh, you might like Fraud Squad.

Most of the jokes didn't do much for me. Bucha & Theves, LLC doesn't really stack up with Car Talk's law firm Dewey, Cheatham and Howe. (As an aside, there is an actual office for that firm in Harvard Square.) Spendron is a cute pun on Enron but why on earth didn't they get the corporate slogan given Pseudocorp ("Pretending to do business for over 20 years") rather than the one about spending profits?

More fundamentally, there just aren't that many jokes for a game that's supposed to be "hilarious". The employees are mundane (Secretary to the CEO, the IT guy) with no added humor, the crimes are commonplace (insider trading, shell company, bribing the stock analyst) and so are most of the locations (the gym, corporate washroom, movie theatre). There was plenty of room for taglines on these cards as well and I would have liked to see that taken advantage of.

Components

The cards are solid and have a nice feel to them. Some of the deck is taken up by rules, cardlists, etc.; the actual gameplay uses 32 clue cards and 14 specials. The art is mediocre (I suspect clip-art), but the layout is clear and easy to read. DietEvil/DancingEggplant made a sensible small-company tradeoff by leaving out clue tracking sheets but making a quite detailed one available online.

Fraud Squad didn't really work for me, so my review probably gives it a harder time than it deserves. It does what it sets out to do, and the real question is whether you're the sort of person who enjoys this kind of game. I'm not, but I could easily see bringing this on a family trip in a few years when my girls are older (they're currently 3.5 and 1.5 years old) for the same reasons my family played Clue with me when I was young.

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Colin Parker — 2005-02-03T20:58:02+00:00

Suspect.....I mean, Employee cards, Locations, methods, etc.

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Colin Parker — 2005-02-03T20:58:02+00:00

Rule and special cards

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Colin Parker — 2005-02-03T20:58:02+00:00

Nice scan of the cover (just a pack of cards)

Thread: Re:User Review

heli — 2003-12-19T10:26:02+00:00

kgnunn (#6177) wrote:
>The designer of stated recently that she is in the process of creating an alternate FraudSquad rules set

Does this designer have a name?

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dietevil — 2003-05-19T17:40:01+00:00

Thread: Strategy Tips

dietevil — 2003-03-31T07:14:17+00:00

1. The sooner all the Evidence has been collected, the sooner you can win. When you have a choice, always draw from the pile.
2. While there are still Evidence cards in the deck, concentrate on seeing as many different evidence cards as you can, rather than trying to pinpoint a "guilty" card.
3. Keep track of which cards you've shown your opponents; sometimes they "goof" and ask you for the same card twice. Don't show them more than you have to.
4. Avoid playing "Out Sick" when you have more than one card requested. If your opponent then plays "The Boss is your Next-Door Neighbor", you will have to show all of these cards.
5. Pick a category to be guarded as much as possible. When given a choice of showing a card from that category or another, always select the other. This makes it easier to keep evidence hidden.
6. Avoid changing only one card between collaborations; it makes it obvious to your opponents what you were shown the last time.
7. Steal from the player who has shown you the fewest cards. You will be more likely to get useful information.
8. Collaborate with the player who has the fewest cards first.
9. Keep track of which of your cards were stolen by whom, but don't forget that the card may move again.

Thread: Errata: from DEG Website

dietevil — 2003-03-31T07:14:12+00:00

1. The "Tackle Paperwork Backlog" card is played at the beginning of your opponent's turn to prevent his taking a turn, not on your turn.
2. Playing a "Guard Dog" or "Security Guard" card only protects YOU from Eavesdropping; other players may still be Eavesdropped upon.
3. If an Opponent plays "Out Sick" to avoid Collaboration or Eavesdropping, the Player may choose another Opponent to Collaborate with or Eavesdrop on.
4. The "GlobeCon" motto should read "Deceiving the world, one customer at a time."

Thread: User Review

kgnunn — 2003-02-12T23:42:59+00:00

FraudSquad is a card game in the Clue family from the fledgling company Diet Evil Games. In it, each player is cast as a member of an SEC investigative committee, who receive a stream of anonymous tips (the game's cards) about a corporate crime which the each player must investigate.

From the cards you receive and by questioning other players, your task is to determine which four cards have been pulled from the deck--(1) who did it, (2) what they did, (3) where they did it or (4) which company they work for.

Each player begins the game with a limited hand of about six cards--varying with the number of players-- which includes clues and may also include special cards. On your turn, roll a die to determine which actions are available to you. You may be able to suggest to the other players the particulars of the crime, draw another card, or steal another card. Rolling a "1" lets you suggest the crime and roll again. Rolling a "6" loses you your turn.

If I had any major issue with this game, the die rolling at the beginning of the turn was it. I've grown spoiled, I suppose, by games that let each player decide for themselves which actions they'll take during the turn and I didn't care for having a die tell me what I could do. Although it almost never happened to me, I was particularly bothered that rolling a "6" subjects the player to missing a turn. The designer tells me that FraudSquad plays best as a party game and for that reason, I can understand why such wild swings of luck would be desirable, but they just don't sit well with me.

To add a little more excitement to the game, players may also play special cards. Some cards exempt you from questioning, some cards force a player to show you every card they hold that’s relevant to your suggestion. Some cards steal a card from every other player. Some cards counter each of the above effects. No matter the effect, special cards are discarded once they are played, and since the draw deck does not recycle, used special cards will not return to play.

It can be difficult to keep track of all the clues in the game. Diet Evil Games doesn't include anything to compensate for this in FraudSquad's slim box, but they do offer a free Evidence Tracking Sheet in pdf format at their website. That this was not included in the box should not be surprising, since Diet Evil is a young company and including these sheets would have raised the production costs significantly.

Sooner or later, you'll believe you've got it all worked out. At that time, make your accusation and check the solution cards. If you're right, you've won. If you're wrong, you've lost and the rest of the players get to keep playing without you.

Obvious comparisons must be drawn to Clue, the Card Game and that's not unfair. Those of you that already own a copy of Clue TCG may rightly wonder if there's a good reason to add FraudSquad to your shelf. With this in mind, there are a few differences worth considering. Firstly, this game is a bit lighter in spirit than Clue TCG, with several wild twists. Secondly, whereas in Clue TCG all save the missing clues begin the game in play, at the beginning of FraudSquad, most of the clues--about forty of them--are still in the draw deck at the beginning of the game and so it takes a bit more time to properly prepare your accusation.

So what did I think? Understanding that this is only a first impressions review and that more plays may cause me to revise my opinion, I think FraudSquad is an enjoyable game, but not great. I would have preferred that player actions be chosen from a list, rather than rolled off of a list. I would have enjoyed rules for real player collaboration for a shared victory. I would have liked the option to snatch special cards from the discard pile. I would have liked to see many more special cards, probably about twice as many (although, again, I know from the designer that production costs were a factor in deck size). In short, FraudSquad falls into that category of games I'll play when someone else suggests them.

However, your mileage may vary. If you enjoy logic games in the Clue family, then this will be just your thing. If you like the imagery of SEC investigators simultaneously working together to solve a crime while also surreptitiously working to thwart one another, you will like this game. If you enjoy lighter games which combine strategy with luck, you too will like this game.

A Brief Update:
The designer of stated recently that she is in the process of creating an alternate FraudSquad rules set, more suited to the serious gamer and that this rules set will be available from their website. Under these alternate rules, die-rolling will be eliminated in favor of allowing players to choose their actions each turn. Special 2-player rules are also in the works.