Game: Mr. Jack Extension

Thread: Re: Is Holmes necessary?

jouslare — 2008-05-10T11:22:09+00:00

Luke the Flaming wrote:
Holmes is always included because while his skill may not serve at times (being a luck-dependant draw) the hidden info (even when it is has no usefulness) adds to the psycological aspect of the game.

Depending who is playing the inspector role, we will often leave Holmes as an alternate -- the other 3 are mandatory, but we add Holmes to the characters we choose from. It weights the game a little more in favour of Mr. Jack. It does not seem to detract from the game, but the Inspector player rarely wins in these situations...

Thread: Re: Is Holmes necessary?

finnianp — 2008-05-09T04:32:20+00:00

Thanks guys

Thread: Re: Is Holmes necessary?

Luke the Flaming — 2008-05-08T10:22:08+00:00

mgamer72 wrote:
e.g. 2 suspects left, and as the Inspector, I have the alibi card for one of them. I know the other one is the killer, but I don't let Jack know that I know. To understand this mechanic brings loads of tension to the table and is quite fun.

Granted, usually only a few alibi cards are pulled. But that data, along with all other presented info, seems to be an important factor in the game.
Patrick is saying that you could as well draw Alibis of characters that you (the Inspector) already know are innocent (e.g. one of the others 6 in your example).
Holmes MAY help, but is far from granted to do so (thus Patrick was questioning his "indispensability" to have in the mix of characters in play; while Bert/Smith/Lestrade are necessary as they interact with manholes/lampions/policemen).

I think Patrick also answered correctly his own doubt: Holmes is always included because while his skill may not serve at times (being a luck-dependant draw) the hidden info (even when it is has no usefulness) adds to the psycological aspect of the game.

Have fun! :meeple:

Thread: Re: Is Holmes necessary?

mgamer72 — 2008-05-08T09:56:43+00:00

I'm a little confused on that last paragraph.

At the beginning of the game, one of the alibi cards is drawn by Jack - this is the real killer (whom Jack player needs to keep hidden, and whom the Investigator needs to determine). Only Jack knows who this is.

The other alibi cards are set aside. The Investigator can choose Holmes to pull a card from this deck, thus eliminating that character from his list of suspects. And Jack can also choose to pull from this deck to make things more vague for the Inspector. Since what is pulled from the alibi deck is kept secret from each other, this can be used as part of deduction and misdirection.

So all throughout the game, characters are getting flipped up as they are eliminated as suspects.

But now you have this extra mechanic of alibi pulling that can help both the Investigator and Jack. You don't want the other player to know what you pulled to help you as much as possible.

e.g. 2 suspects left, and as the Inspector, I have the alibi card for one of them. I know the other one is the killer, but I don't let Jack know that I know. To understand this mechanic brings loads of tension to the table and is quite fun.

Granted, usually only a few alibi cards are pulled. But that data, along with all other presented info, seems to be an important factor in the game.

Thread: Re: Is Holmes necessary?

finnianp — 2008-05-08T09:17:39+00:00

I am pretty new to the game, so maybe I don't have the experience. It just seems to me that it is cool, but not significant.

I have had quite a few games where I keep drawing characters that are already deemed innocent. Maybe I need to play up the fact that Jack doesn't know whether I drew someone on the board or not.

Thread: Re: Is Holmes necessary?

mgamer72 — 2008-05-08T08:09:09+00:00

I'm guessing the idea is without him, you'd never be able to pull alibi's from the stack, eliminating a significant function of deduction and deception for both players.

Thread: Re: Available at Asmodee website...

mgamer72 — 2008-05-08T08:04:36+00:00

About a week and a half for me. Just the paypal notice with no shipping/tracking info. I got concerned and emailed them but that same day it showed up on my doorstep (in California).

I would agree that it feels a bit pricey but the extension plus the carriage rules breathes more replay opportunities, fun, and playtime for us with Mr. Jack. All of the new bits fit in the original box, are well done and fits well with the original (no obvious difference on card backs, e.g.).

Mr. Jack finally got his first escape with all of the new stuff. But we don't expect that to be a normal occurrence once we get used to the new characters/carriage.

Thread: Is Holmes necessary?

finnianp — 2008-05-08T08:00:59+00:00

For the alternate setup rules, it says to always include Sherlock. I definitely understand that the other 3 need to be there, but do you think that Sherlock is integral? I feel like his ability is cool, but adding him to the number of variable characters wouldn't negatively effect the game.

Any opinions?

Thread: Re: Available at Asmodee website...

finnianp — 2008-05-08T07:45:13+00:00

I ordered it and got it in about a week. I did receive a confirmation email rather shortly after the paypal went through.