Game: Murder City

Thread: Re: Session I : First Contract

Theoloc — 2008-11-26T20:16:12+00:00

Excellent storytelling o the game session Matt.
I admire the feeling and the narrative spirit.
So, was the game really worth it?
Be sure to post another session report should you wish.

Thread: Re: Obsessed Board Gamers - Video Introduction and Review of Murder City

lordunborn — 2008-11-25T19:31:19+00:00

I agree with you on the Graphic Design of this game. The Graphic Designer should be shot. I think that game has potential with the Role Playing crowd.

Enjoyed your review.

Thread: Re: Session I : First Contract

Narlgoth — 2008-11-10T11:08:28+00:00

Yeah you're right- you may only take one case to court per round. My Bad.

Thread: Re: Session I : First Contract

mattriceten — 2008-11-06T14:34:45+00:00

Actually, thinking about it, if you have TWO full cases, you get to choose which one you take, no?

My copy of the game is not to hand currently, but can't you only take one case to court each turn?

So, in the case of my report, maybe I had the groovy case ready to go, got slammed with the Agg.Assault card before the Evidence placing time was up and decided to burn the Agg.Assault card up with the case I threw together at the last moment....

Mmmm, if only I had my Data-slate to remind me....

Thread: Re: Session I : First Contract

Narlgoth — 2008-11-06T10:47:53+00:00

Just once so far, hence I pointed out the thing about having to go to court as soon as you have three evidence cards down on a case (in the session report you made after this one)- was confirming this rule to myself as well as to you!

We didn't really consider bribes, although to be fair we were getting to grips with the rules before we started pulling moves on each other. You've definately given me a few ideas... and my friend could do with reading this post too- it might improve his terrible story telling skills!

Thread: Re: Session I : First Contract

mattriceten — 2008-11-05T17:54:54+00:00

Cheers, Brad!

(Have you played?)

Thread: Re: Murder City: An after session chat...

mattriceten — 2008-11-05T17:53:58+00:00

Hi Brad,

Yep. As soon as the third card goes down, off to court you go.

I think in the case I reffered to, what I meant to say was I had three cards that COULD have gone down! (ie, they were in my sweaty hand!)

I was about to whack them down when I got dinged with the Agg assault card....

Many thanks for pointing out the descrepency!

Thread: Re: Session I : First Contract

Narlgoth — 2008-11-04T11:04:42+00:00

Awesome report!

Thread: Re: Murder City: An after session chat...

Narlgoth — 2008-11-04T10:53:43+00:00

Some nice points, but don't you have to take a case to court once it's got three evidence cards on it? (Unless one of them is the wrong type of evidence of course!)

Thread: Re: Nice filler with a strong Sci-Fi theme

Narlgoth — 2008-11-03T11:27:57+00:00

If a case gets challenged in court then we flip the chosen evidence card, otherwise we just shuffle them into the discards without revealing them- we don't mind playing that part with a bit of trust, we haven't got any cheaters! The game just needs a bit of confidentiality when it comes to disposing of evidence. After all, I don't want opponents to know that the last two cases of mine that they rubber stamped were totally spun from lies!

Thread: Re: Obsessed Board Gamers - Video Introduction and Review of Murder City

Boards of Games — 2008-08-08T00:26:29+00:00

skrebs wrote:
I stayed away from your video reviews when I first noticed them because of "PimpMC" and whoever that bald guy is on your avatar.

Honestly, the same thing happened to me but then I read this comment so I gave it a go

What can I say guys, excellent presentation!

Thread: Re: Just Another Gamer Uploading A Review

Quemaqua — 2008-07-31T07:41:47+00:00

Glad to see a more positive review. I haven't yet had the pleasure of getting a game of Murder City together, but every review I've read has struck me as being very much negative due to preference, not so much bad design on the part of the developer. After reading a number of more informed reviews, like this one, I think this game simply appeals to a certain niche which can deal with a few of the more quirky elements. Most definitely not a game for everyone, but I think the rules are extremely well thought out and creatively put together. I was impressed, and while the concept sounded somewhat simple to me initially, I realized it was actually far deeper, and much closer to what I'd really hoped it would be (but wasn't sure it would live up to).

Very cool concept on the whole. I definitely wouldn't mind seeing a sequel or more support for it.

Thread: Re: Nice filler with a strong Sci-Fi theme

Narlgoth — 2008-04-12T10:51:59+00:00

A nicely detailed and good review, thanks! Now I have a basic idea about how the game works, just need to hear a couple more reviews.

Thread: Re: Best # of players?

mattriceten — 2008-04-08T10:40:03+00:00

I don't think this game 'moves' well with just two players playing (unless they're both Cyber-Punk/Bladerunner freaks!), but three is good and I wouldn't be surprised if four or five is even better... The more players there are shifting cards around, the more chances you have of constructing 'believable' cases (ie. not necessarily cases that are 100% factual, but cases you have a better chance at bluffing with...)

Thread: Murder City: An after session chat...

mattriceten — 2008-04-06T23:21:43+00:00

Subject: A quick after session look at Murder City
Here are a few notes I made after our last game of Murder City;

- 2 players is fine, but 3 to 5 players is best... The more players, the greater the chances of interaction (wheeling and dealing, card exchanges, etc) and the more the cards are 'moved' within the system of the game.

- Putting cards down = cash
Cash = Victory Points
Conclusion: Put those cards down whenever possible!

- After trying twice now to follow the 'Road of Honesty', it's clear that this is no way to win the game!

- Watching your friends place their evidence down is important... A player who places down six cards in one investigation phase is probably fabricating something somewhere! With this in mind, strategic card placement is often required... (holding back one or two false evidence cards for a later turn, perhaps...)

- There seems to be enough 'choice making' potential in the game, and again, the need for strategic placement in some cases highlights this.
For example, in the last game, I found myself with a Hardship card that restricted my maximum conviction to Aggressive Assault. So much so, the murder case I was wanting to bring to court that turn (a possible 7 dicer with all three pieces of evidence matching: a very possible Murder One) had to be shelved for the following turn. However, the only way I could do this was to promote another three-piece evidence case, so I falsified another case and sacrificed it to clear the Hardship card, thereby setting me up for the following turn's court case (where I eventually got that Murder One!).

- Legwork cards are worth it. One player used his willingly incurred Hardship card to 'buy' himself 2 legwork cards each turn. He was then able to stump the rest of us during the investigation and court phases (and, indeed, in one or two memorable cases, was able to threaten one of us), thereby eventually winning the game.

- I found the use of Hardship cards useful in gathering extra evidence and/or going through the discard piles, especially if I wanted to be as honest as possible, but also using them to jump in as someone elses auditor was often well worth the sacrifice, especially if that person was promising a strong case (or a weak case when I knew I'd pick up some credits for challenging their bogus stories!)

All in all, and after only five or so games, I'm pretty damn well pleased with this game...

Thread: Re: Session I : First Contract

mattriceten — 2008-04-06T14:01:51+00:00

Incidently, the scores for this game came to;

Me - 26 credits
Seth - 27 credits
Ms. Q - 20 credits

Thread: Session I : First Contract

mattriceten — 2008-04-05T21:41:05+00:00

Characters

Smith, the Hardboiled Detective (Me)
Seth, the Analytical Alien Investigator
Ms. Q, the Corporate Liaison

(I will be Seth’s auditor and Ms. Q is mine.)

This being our first game, I wasn’t interested in pushing for the Hardship cards if I could help it, wanting to concentrate on the basic mechanics before venturing deeper…

Turn 1
Investigation Phase

My contract with the archeology begins today and I am awoken by the beep of my info pad. I have three murders to investigate; a dead Triad Boss, a dead Pimp and a dead Athlete. Kicking my way through the detritus of my one room bed-sit, I open my data-slate and examine what clues, if any, I can match with these three crimes.

Swigging back my morning draft of bourbon, I see I can cover two of these murders, both with weapon evidence. The Triad boss had had his head smashed in with a piece of bent bathroom piping whilst sitting in his Jacuzzi and the pimp had met his end, wide-brimmed hat and all, barbequed by his murderer after being doused with gasoline.

My credits stack up as I pull on a near-fresh t-shirt, throw on my long coat and go out into the never ending rain of Murder City…

After a little investigation, I am able to locate the car the third suspect, an irate Cyber-Walk fan, had used to ram the Athlete with…

All three pieces of evidence match their crimes and I spend a celebratory half-day in my local, ‘The Chromed Monkey’, before stumbling home to bed…

Court Phase

I over sleep, but that’s fine. My cases are far from complete. I role back over and dream of a city without rain, without pain, without murder…

Turn 2
Investigation Phase

I return from the precinct after a little ‘chat’ with Pete ‘The Knife’ Maconey, the suspect to the Triad murder. I’m pretty sure I now have a watertight case on the murder of ‘Mr. Lee’, although I’m only carrying two pieces of evidence for the case; the murder weapon and the interrogation write-up.

Court Phase

I dial up Ms. Q on the Vid-Link and put the case to her;

“‘Mr. Lee’, the self acclaimed crime boss for the Sector V Gangs was found earlier yesterday, bludgeoned to death in his Jacuzzi. The murder weapon, a piece of bathroom piping, was found at the scene of the crime. The suspect, Pete ‘The Knife’ Maconey, caved in to interrogation earlier today and admitted to the whole thing…”

Ms. Q, seemingly more interested in a holo-soap playing in the background, waves me to silence and rubber-stamps the case.

Tomorrow, court!

Conviction: Pete goes down for Aggravated Assault – not the best charge (and I only get a few credits for my time) – but better than nothing.

I take a swig from the bottle and muse on the wisdom of taking the case to court with only two pieces of evidence…

I receive no call from Seth to audit any of his cases…

Turn 3
Investigation Phase

Hoping to take up another case to replace the one just taken to court, I find I’m stymied by an overbooked schedule, my son’s Amateur Dramatics society are putting on ‘Reservoir Dogs’…

The evidence roles in, but none of it's relevant. I’m tempted – only just, mind – to pull a fast one and set-up the freakish ‘fan’ – the killer of the Cyber-Run Athlete - but instead I hit the streets. The trouble is, I become so involved with clue hunting I lose track of time and I miss Little Joey’s performance… The ensuing argument with my ex leaves me precious time to prepare for my second case, that of the Murdered Pimp. However, my digging around did turn up a Cop, Officer Campbell of the Arson division, who will testify in the case if it ever gets to court…

Court Phase

Again, a Vid-Link with Ms. Q;

“My second case, the murder of Daddy D, the East-side Pimp. Burnt to death by ‘K’ Schmo last Thursday night. The empty fuel can was found in Schmo’s apartment and I have an Officer Campbell of the Arson Division to back me up on the traces of fuel in Schmo’s clothes…”

“Again, only two pieces of evidence, Mr. Smith?” Ms. Q asks.

“Yep.”

Knowing of my stressful week, what with my ex breathing down my neck and Joey acting up because I missed his performance as Mr. Pink, Ms. Q decides to challenge Officer Campbell’s testimony. I feel a sense of cold satisfaction when she realizes the evidence is 100% pure gold…

The case goes to court.

Conviction: the judge throws the case out on the grounds of not enough evidence. The lawyer screwed up Campbell’s testimony and ‘K’ walks free…

Ms. Q calls to commiserate but I ignore her incoming message…

I next get a call from my alien colleague, Seth, who has me as his auditor.

“Greetings, Smith. A pleasure as always.” Seth's silky alien tones fill my dingy apartment.
“Get on with it…”
“Very well. I have here a case which includes a dead house wife, a Mrs. Langdon. The suspect is her husband, Jeff. On Wednesday last, upon discovering his wife’s infidelity, Jeff killed his wife with the fountain pen he had been writing his suicide note with…”
“He was going to commit suicide?”
“Apparently so, yes. Either way, I have some surveillance footage of the whole ghastly mess…”
“You wouldn’t be trying to pull one over on me, would you, Seth?” I ask.
“Smith! I would never presume…”
“Yeah, yeah… So you’ve got a pretty strong case on this one, right?” I asked. “I tell you what. Give me a couple of credits and I’ll endorse the case.”
“Done…”

I disconnected and watched the creds roll in. If Jeff Langdon was to go down for Murder One, I’d be swimming in dosh…

Conviction: Langdon went down for Aggravated Assault… but only just My reputation could have been severely tarnished if Seth had messed up any further. So much for his miracle touch on murder weapon evidence!

I ignore his calls for commiseration as well….

I barely pay any notice to Ms. Q’s case, as it's Seth who does the auditing and the bourbon is well and truly flowing by 18:00 hours. If I can recall, it was something to do with a dead AI programmer, a rival AI creator and a nail file, but I could have been mistaken… I was half watching a Brazilian holo-soap at the same time.

Turn 4
Investigation Phase

At last, I draw a new case, but I have no evidence for it and I realize that if I’m not careful I won’t make the head-lines by the time the contract runs out.

I hit the streets, my head raging with the usual hangover and I get nothing. This is truly beginning to look desperate. I think I’m going to have to stitch up the Athlete killer.

It was sad to hear of Ms. Q’s apartment fire. I hope the evidence that was lost wasn’t important.
Additionally, I also found myself having to cancel one of Seth’s completed cases through the assessment of his Jovan badge. It looked like a real juicy case, too, but such is life. He really should have been more careful with that aggravated assault case of his…

Court Phase

Hoping not to have to scam the Athlete killer, I let the court phase pass…

I receive a refreshing call from my alien chum, Seth…

“Greetings, Smith…” Again with tat alien smile.
“Get on with it…” I mutter from around my bottle.
“My case… Yet another dead wife, this time done in by her jealous lover. Shot three times with an automatic pistol. Not only was the suspect seen shooting the woman by a nosey neighbor apparently ‘bird watching’, the suspect is left-handed and the forensics prove the killer shot the woman with his left hand…”
I was still a little miffed that Seth had nearly ruined my reputation in his last case. Added to that, there was something a little off with his whole story…
“Sorry, Seth, but I think I’m going to have to call you on this one,” I said.
“But, Smith… I would never…”
“Yeah, yeah… Let’s have a look at the murder weapon evidence.”
“But of course, Smith. Whatever you desire…”

Damn it. Seth hadn’t been lying about the gun. The evidence was good. An automatic pistol with a silencer. If it wasn’t the gun, perhaps it was the witness… whatever it was, something didn’t fit… perhaps it was the way Seth had told the story…

Conviction:
The jealous lover got Aggravated Assault. In the end, it turned out Seth's Forensic evidence was hokey. He'd never contacted the labs, fishing around instead in his database and fixing the suspect up good and proper on false evidence. I was dinged a credit for missing this 'obvious' falsehood.

Damn Seth and his alien eyes…

Ms. Q’s dead brother/son went straight to court, the evidence all a little creaky in my opinion, (especially that nurses ‘professional opinion’…) but Seth let it through. She earned 3 credits for an Aggravated Assault. Bully for her…

God, the bourbon bottle looks more and more like my life every time I drink from it…

Turn 5
Investigation Phase

I receive a new case. An arcology attorney has wound up in the local Police morgue… Not surprisingly, I have absolutely nothing on it.

I decide to concentrate on the Forensics data-base… and end up shifting and sliding the evidence around. None of this fits… but I need to get a case convicted of something more than an Aggravated Assault charge...

Although it’s three in the morning I leave my flat to walk the darkened alleyways of the sector, concentrating on the dead attorney but hoping for more evidence in the case of the dead Cyber-Walker… I scrape something together, a highly suspect eye-witness to the attorney case that will never stand up, and return home, only to find I’m being sued by that little shite ‘K’ Schmo, the creep who walked when the dead pimp case was thrown out. In fact, not only am I being sued, but I find my data-slate has been hacked, some of my data having been lifted… Why do I see a smiling alien every time I close my eyes to take a swig…?

Court Phase

OK. I’m not proud but I’m ready to stitch up the suspect in the dead athlete case.

The only piece of true evidence I have is the dented auto fender. Simon Goodfellow, the Cyber-Walker, was killed by this car whilst out practicing for the forth coming Cyber-Walk championships. The fact that the suspect, Jezz Pleeb was nowhere near the scene of the crime is irrelevant. Jezz is a nutter and it would be a good thing to get him off the streets as soon as possible, for whatever reason… Or at least that’s what I keep telling myself.

I had a robot cleaning unit’s visual cortex ‘tampered’ with to show Jeez climbing into the car, accelerating and hitting the unfortunate athlete. I was also able to secure a trace of Jeez’s sweat on the steering wheel of the car thanks to some bogus forensic evidence…

I linked up with Ms. Q;

“Jeez Pleeb was frustrated at never receiving replies to his avid fan mail to Goodfellow and, some when last week, completely snapped. After stalking Goodfellow for a few days, Pleeb sat in his car and waited for his idol to appear. As the athlete crossed the street, Pleeb accelerated and bounced the athlete off the hood of his car. After ensuring Goodfellow was dead, Pleeb ran the car into a lamp post, abandoned it and made a run for it…”

Once again, I was lucky to find Ms. Q distracted by her holo-viewer and she rubber stamped the case without further ado.

Conviction;
I keep reminding myself, between drafts of pure bourbon, Pleeb is a nut and should be taken off the streets… An aggravated assault charge will be enough… But clearly not enough for the jury. Jeez Pleeb is charged with Murder One.

My bank balance is suddenly looking a lot better…

I get a call from Seth congratulating me and requesting that I audit his dead Musician case.

“Happy Jo, the famous acapelo artiste, was found dead in his bed three nights ago…”
“He’ll be sorely missed, I’m sure,” I mutter. I can’t stand acapelo…
“Indeed, Smith. The stim dealer who killed him murdered him with acid laced acid, would you believe. The hotel AI can back this up, along with the collapse of the stim dealers alibi…”
“Oh, I’m feeling generous, Seth. How about I rubber stamp this one for old time’s sake?”
“Thank you, Smith, thank you…”
“And a credit…”

Seth gets an aggravated assault. It turned out that Seth had manufactured every piece of the evidence. Whoever killed Happy Jo is still at large and blissfully acapelo free...

Turn 6
Investigation Phase

We’re coming to the end of our contract with the arcology.

My new case arrives, a dead employee, and the evidence just falls into place. I’m almost believing I’ll be able to end on a three piece and rack up my second Murder One…

But then I run into the ‘Bikers’, a bunch of stimmed nut-jobs who take offence at me using one of their employers as an eyewitness to the murder. When it comes to the crunch I have to ask myself, are my knees so really important?

The answer is of course, yes. I back down and go to court once again with only two pieces of evidence.

Court Phase

Ms. Q watches me like a hawk as I begin my tale;

“Casey Phillips was found dead in his cubicle, a paper knife in his back. The suspect, Phillips’s boss, had been under a lot of stress – a merger hadn’t gone so well – A co-worker, Susan Lewis, can testify to the pressure her boss was under…”
“Good luck with this one, Smithy,” smiled Ms. Q before rubber stamping it and rudely disconnecting.

Conviction:
The judge threw it out without further consideration. Again, not enough evidence. Susan Lewis’ professional opinion didn’t seem to matter a jot… If only I’d been able to bring my eyewitness to the stand… But then again, I like my knees where they are…

Seth had about as much success as me with his case and Ms. Q was challenged on hers, every piece of evidence fabricated, earning Seth a nice sum. The last thing I heard Ms. Q was suffering from irritable bowel syndrome...

I returned home after court and threw myself onto the bed. Counting up the creds I realized I wouldn’t be making the top Jovan this time around. I opened up a new bottle of bourbon and toasted the alien Seth…

That lucky son of a bi……………………

Thread: Re: Obsessed Board Gamers - Video Introduction and Review of Murder City

adel10 — 2008-04-02T07:27:01+00:00

great work and thanks , i'm agree with you
alain

Thread: Re: Not Woth the Time and Effort..

adel10 — 2008-03-29T06:36:30+00:00

you totally right it's a story telling game , but even for this point it's a bad game in my opinion
you don't had to tell story for playing ( nothing vforce you ) and even when you play story you can say everything you want, speak about a jesica fletcher murder for exemple ,

in fact it's just a bluff game, if you are enough lucky to get all the good evidence color, you win , otherwise you had just to convince your oponent that you have the good card,
one of my worst game experience
have a nice day
alain

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cnidius — 2008-03-27T06:49:54+00:00

investigator's dataslate

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cnidius — 2008-03-27T06:49:10+00:00

investigator's dataslate

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cnidius — 2008-03-27T06:42:22+00:00

investigator's dataslates

Thread: Re: Obsessed Board Gamers - Video Introduction and Review of Murder City

dohjoe — 2008-02-28T19:23:04+00:00

Thanks for the well done review. I found it pretty funny that as you were describing the components in the introduction I was thinking to myself 'man those are some small cards that all look the same'. I was very happy to see a negative review of a game, and especially since you included all your thoughts on what was wrong with it. Great job, and please keep them coming.

Thread: Re: Obsessed Board Gamers - Video Introduction and Review of Murder City

Yokiboy — 2008-02-28T01:22:25+00:00

Great review as always. Your videos are top notch. I was pleased to actually see a negative review, just so I know that you don't love every game you play.

Keep it up!

Thread: Re: Obsessed Board Gamers - Video Introduction and Review of Murder City

Doc_Adam — 2008-02-27T08:02:36+00:00

Thanks for the review. Great to see something I've never heard of and probably wouldn't have even considered looking at without your review. The theme of it looks really fun and I think I will look further into this one.

Its good to hear the negative opinions too, helps to make a balanced view.

Good review

Keep 'em coming!

AB

Thread: Re: Obsessed Board Gamers - Video Introduction and Review of Murder City

skrebs — 2008-02-27T07:01:57+00:00

I'm entertained and went back and watched your reviews of Pandemic (looks great), Mall of Horror, and For Sale (already own it and like it but wanted to see what you had to say). Honestly, showing my shallowness, I stayed away from your video reviews when I first noticed them because of "PimpMC" and whoever that bald guy is on your avatar. But I've subscribed in iTunes. I like your humor and you do a great job of breaking down the game and your likes/dislikes. Keep them coming.

Thread: Re: Obsessed Board Gamers - Video Introduction and Review of Murder City

PimpMC — 2008-02-27T02:56:36+00:00

Lots of people watching it, but no comments. Hopefully everyone is entertained.

Thread: Obsessed Board Gamers - Video Introduction and Review of Murder City

PimpMC — 2008-02-26T15:42:07+00:00

Here is our video introduction and review for Murder City.

You can stream it in flash from here (low quality):

http://www.podshow.com/shows/?mode=detail&episode_id=100999

You can download it here (high quality):

http://m.podshow.com/media/15871/episodes/100999/obsessedboa...

or you can find us on Itunes under Obsessed Board Gamers.

Feedback always enjoyed and appreciated.

Thread: Best # of players?

jason718 — 2008-01-30T19:34:10+00:00

I've been thinking of picking this up, as I like the concept and theme. My one worry is that it won't get played if it's the type of game that's best with 4 or more as I don't think I'll be able to convince to many folks to give this a shot. Whats the general conscensus?

Thread: Re: Did you say Murder?.......I am on the Case!

gobion — 2008-01-23T17:14:28+00:00

Yeah that review pretty much sums up the game.

I really enjoyed the bluffing elements of the case auditing part. The whole storytelling drive was fun and we got into character.

I must admit that the designs on the cards didn't really appeal (the backs of the cards are a little too similar, though having played the game that now makes sense) and the rule book is quite dauntingly laid out, but the rules are simple enough and the game ticks along at a good pace.

So far I have only played it two player, but we really enjoyed the courtroom phase. I am looking forward to playing it with more than two people.

I especially recommend it after having just watched Blade Runner: The Final Cut (which the game is soooo heavily influence by).

If you are looking for a cyberpunk-themed story telling game with lots of bluffing, then do check it out.

If you are looking for a more mechanistic game, then this probably isn't for you, as the strategy is in your approach, rather than the mechanics.

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Urtur — 2008-01-11T15:22:18+00:00

Box back.

Thread: Re: Not Woth the Time and Effort..

gf_ripper — 2008-01-07T21:05:52+00:00

roberious wrote:
I just picked up the game myself and will go through the rules. I am glad that you gave it a review and this may have cause for me to return it (I'll leave everything wrapped up of course) but my wife really likes detective type games and maybe with a FAQ and rules update it could clear things up. If I do keep it and try it I'll post my thoughts here too.

Roberious

Don't return it, based on only 1 review. If you like storytelling and strategy games then give it a try, if you don't then it is not worth it. I didn't have any problems with the rules, except that they aren't organized in a way that you can simply look it up.

Also I thought that not being able to easily tell if someone is using false colors for their evidence was an important part of the strategy, I mean there is no way you could know in real life until it went to trial and if you did know, then there would be no point in ever using the wrong color evidence.

Thread: Re: Any information regarding this?

gf_ripper — 2008-01-07T21:02:46+00:00

skandall wrote:
Probably the most important thing to know is that game isn't about solving a mystery. The game is more about the player interaction of trading evidence and creating a story based on the evidence cards you've used. I've submitted a review of the game as well. I strongly disagree that it is a waste of money, but I also strongly caution anyone about to buy it that it does involve a role-playing element and is more focused on bluffing and strategy than mystery solving. Provided that kind of game play sounds good to you, then it will likely have been worth the purchase. It certainly is for me. However, if you're looking for an edgy scf-fi version of 221b Baker Street then this is totally not the game you think it is and will likely be disappointing.

This game seems to suffer from what I call "The Big Hit Big misunderstanding." The movie "The Big Hit" was portrayed as a serious Hong Kong style action movie. People that went to see it often walked out of it because in fact it was an over-the-top comedy that happened to have some cool Hong Kong style action. You go into the theater thinking the film is serious action only to see something comical, you're bound to hate it (well, I certainly didn't). If you know ahead of time that, despite what the trailer shows, it's really a comedy, then you're much more likely to actually enjoy the movie. Seriously, rent it. It's a riot. Anyway, same thing is true of Murder City. It looks like a mystery game with some edgy style, but that's not quite the case. Despite the fact that the box clearly says that it's a Strategy game, the presence of the word Detective seems to be causing a misunderstanding.

If you like to BS your friends, make up stories, cheat and try to get away with it then this should be fun. Remember, it's about strategy not mystery.

Best Regards,
Craig

Couldn't agree more with you.

Thread: Did you say Murder?.......I am on the Case!

gf_ripper — 2008-01-07T20:59:58+00:00

Murder is in the air. Robots are murdering and raping humans. The world is a dark and scary place. The police or overworked and most are corrupt. But a group of Independent police known to the world as Jovans are on the case. Welcome to Murder City where crimes are solved for Money. Whether or not you get the right guy or gal doesn't matter because every one is guilty for something.

Theme:

I really like the theme of this game. It is a cyberpunk noir theme. There are not many games that use this theme, which is shame because it is a really cool one. The over all look and feel of the game matches the theme well. The gameplay also nicely match the theme. I will get into more details about these in a bit.

Bits:

The game comes with 5 cardboard player sheets, 25 Murder cards, 50 Legwork cards, 25 hardship cards and 165( I think I don't have the rules infront of me) of Evidence cards. The evidence cards are about 6 different decks ( think it was 5) which are Murder Weapon, Foresnics, Professional opinion (Which is spelled wrong on the back of the cards as Professional AOpinion but correctly spelled everywhere else), Eyewithness and interrogation. It also comes with 5 Metallic Colored Dice and a bunch of cards representing 1, 3 and 5 credits

Over all the cards in the game are pretty good. They are glossy with a nice feel to them. They don't feel very cheap and Shuffle nicely. Unfortunately, they are a bit too glossy and slide around alot causing it to get messy easily. The evidence and legwork cards are very small, and that can make them hard to shuffle especially if you don't have small hands like me. The Murder Cards and Hardship cards are of normal size and shuffle really well. The art on the Evidence cards are pretty much exactly the same on all the cards of the same type of evidence. There isn't much are and not a whole of text on the evidence, but it is fitting enough. The evidence cards also have different colors (with in the same deck) that match the colors of murder cards. I think that they could have put more unique art on each card but that would have most likely drawn up the cost of the game and you don't really pay much attention to the art since the cards only give you a little information.

The legwork cards and Hardships have no art on them and a lot of text to read. Some people might have problems with this, I for one don't and they text is also fun to read, especially the hardship ones. The back all the cards have a gritty, metal look to them and it fits nicely with the overall theme of the game.

The Murder cards do have some art on the front (mainly a victim) and text that tells you who was murdered, who the suspects are and what you need evidence wise to build a case. It is also color coded.

The overall art on the cards though minimal are effective and really feel like a gritty, futuristic Sci-fi, cyberpunk game or movie.

The player mats are made of cardboard and feel like nice heavy stock. The art on them are really good and they show your specific character. It also has slots for your murder and evidence cards, hardship cards and credits. The mat is pretty big and has text on it that talks about your character, their strengths, weaknesses and special abilities. The text (as another reviewer pointed out) can be a bit hard to read but non of use had too many problems.

Lastly the dice feel really light and cheap. The metallic look to them is quite nice but once you pick them up, you realize they are not that great, there is also not enough dice since you can be rolling up to 11 dice, not often mind you but you can end up rolling that many. The dice are the weakest part of the components. But I am sure like me, most gamers have lots of d6s that they can use instead.

Rules:

I want to quickly talk about the rules. The rule book is very heavily themed and not very well organized, so it seems daunting at first. But it is still fun to read. The flavor and themed text make it quite enjoyable to read and there are a lot of examples that help you fully understand how to play the game. Overall it is a better then average rule book but not great.

Mechanics

The Goal of the game is to have the most credits after 6 turns. There is no turn marker to help you keep track of how many turns you have done, which in my opinion was mistake on White Wolfs part. But it doesn't ruin the game, since there are many ways you can keep track of the turns (using a die, write it down, etc). You get credits by performing different actions during 2 phases, investigation and court. Every starts out with the same amount of credits and 3 evidence cards from specific decks based on your character and 3 murders. The murders are placed face up on your player mat while the evidence cards are held in your hand and are secret.

The first thing you do is determine turn order by rolling the dice, to see who goes first. Then you draw a legwork card at the begging of your turn. The legwork card are cards that help you or hinder your opponents, which you keep and use at the appropriate time. Within legwork cards there are setback cards that get played immediately and effect everyone. These are usually events that hurt everyone. If you get one, read the text out loud apply the effects and keep drawing from the legwork deck until you get a legwork card.

Once you get that the Investigation phase begins. At the beginning of this phase you draw 2 evidence cards from any deck that you want. Don't forget to check you weakness and pay 1 credit if you take a card from that deck. You can draw two face down cards or one face down and one from the discard of an evidence deck that your strength allows (or one that a legwork card allows you to do). You can also take a hardship card to draw an additional card from a deck. Hardship cards are usually bad and effect only you, these can prevent you from being able to participate in phase to doing an action you are drawing it for. There few other actions you draw a hardship card for like to get 2 legwork cards, to audit someones cases (will explain this during court phase) and a few others. These represent spending too much time working and not enough living life, and really fit well with the theme of the game. You can only ever get 1 so if you are about to do an action that will give you another, you don't get one, nor can you willing try to take one do an action (such as draw 2 legwork cards) if you already drew one willingly or as a result of a card.

During the investigation phase you can barter for cards, you say what you want and the other players can trade with you for cards, money or favors, such as endorsing their case at a later turn. You always have to tell the truth about a card but don't have to reveal how many dice are involved (will explain this more in court phase). Then you place the cards you have face down onto the murders that require those cards, you don't have to match the colors of the evidence cards with the murder cards to put them down on it, but (unless you are willing to take a hardship you can't rearrange the evidence cards). Why the colors matter I will explain in court phase. Your hands size doesn't matter but if you have more then 5 evidence cards in hand you can't take a case to court. If you don't have more then 5 evidence cards and you have a case that has 3 evidence cards face down on it, it has to be brought to court otherwise if it has less then 3 pieces of evidence it is optional to take a case to court. Also if you have evidence that is not listed on a murder or you have one that is a duplicate of another evidence type on the same murder (2 murder weapons) you can't take it to court either. But since you can only take one case to court per a turn this is actually a good rule that prevents players from waiting to take 3 cases to court or from forgetting to take a case and therefore screwing themselves over. When that is done you get 1 credit for each piece of evidence you placed on a murder.

The player to the current players left begins their turn and investigation phase. Once everyone has had a turn, the court phase begins. At this point the first player declares what case, if any, they are taking to court. The player to their left (or someone who has taken hardship) is their auditor, if they can't audit the case then it automatically gets taken to court. As an auditor you get paid 1 credit right away for auditing the case. The players whose turn it is, explains the case (yes you tell a story) about who did it, using the flavor text off their evidence cards, but do not reveal the evidence cards. You have to use the text into your story, so if it says the weapon was a knife, add a knife to your story. Once the case has been heard the auditor has 3 options, challenge, endorse or allow. If you challenge, you pick a piece of evidence if it is not the same color of the murder card, the case is thrown out completely (and I think the auditor gets 2 addition credits for doing a good job). If it matches, the auditor has to play 1 credit for each piece of evidence that was a different color in that case. If they allow it to go through, then nothing happens to the auditor. If the auditor endorses the case, the player gets to take his case to trial and gets an extra die. If the crime gets murder one, the auditor gets an additional 2 credits but if it fails to get any conviction, then the auditor must take a hardship if they haven't already earlier.

The auditoring (not sure this is a word) of cases is the meat and potatoes of the game. This is where the game can be really fun and where the players try their best to bluff their opponents. I really like this mechanic and it really adds a lot to the game based on the stories that get told.

If it makes it to trial, you flip over the cards and look at the number at the bottom of the evidence cards, it ranges from 1 to 3, you add up those numbers and take that many dice, you also add any extra dice you got from a special ability, endorsements or legwork card and roll the dice. Check the number on the murder card with what you rolled, the number to the left of the / indicates the roll amount that it needs to be equal to or great than and the number to the right is how many credits for that conviction you get. If you fail to even match the Aggravated assault roll then you failed to gain a conviction. Once you are done you discard your murder card and all the evidence attached to it. You can't draw a new murder card until the investigation phase of your next turn. Now it goes to the player on your left and once all players have had a chance to take cases to trail, the new turn begins. And you beginning again with the first turn die roll until you have had 6 turns. Then at the end of the game you count up credits and the player with the highest wins.

Conclusion:
Overall I really enjoyed this game. It is a light and simple game that has a lot of strategy. When you draw evidence cards, if you wait till you get all of the same color, you will most likely not be able to take a case to trial for a while or at all. Auditing the cases and bluffing your way to and endorsement is a huge part of the game and the most challenging. There are may times you pick the 1 piece of evidence (when challenging a case) that is the correct one and then have to pay 2 credits for the ones you didn't pick. This makes it really hard to challenge cases and you end up endorsing more cases. Also building a strong case (or getting one with a lot of dice) can be very tricky and hard. But these are all realistic situations, especially within the theme of the game. It is also a good idea to change up your strategy, always bring good cases to court or bad ones makes you predictable and allowing other players to gain money from you rather then lose money. If you like Cyberpunk themes and like bluffing and/or storytelling games this game is for you. If you don't like to tell stories or the theme stay away. Also remember this is a strategy game not a dice rolling/regular card game. It is all about bluffing and taking risks in challenging cases. If you can challenge a case successfully, it allows you to profit and your opponent to lose out on a potentially big payoff. The game is about getting a conviction by any means necessary, so if you play the game with that in mind you will enjoy it a lot.

Over all I give it a 9/10 a simple and fun game that involves telling stories and I love storytelling games.

Thread: Re: Any information regarding this?

skandall — 2008-01-02T00:53:06+00:00

Probably the most important thing to know is that game isn't about solving a mystery. The game is more about the player interaction of trading evidence and creating a story based on the evidence cards you've used. I've submitted a review of the game as well. I strongly disagree that it is a waste of money, but I also strongly caution anyone about to buy it that it does involve a role-playing element and is more focused on bluffing and strategy than mystery solving. Provided that kind of game play sounds good to you, then it will likely have been worth the purchase. It certainly is for me. However, if you're looking for an edgy scf-fi version of 221b Baker Street then this is totally not the game you think it is and will likely be disappointing.

This game seems to suffer from what I call "The Big Hit Big misunderstanding." The movie "The Big Hit" was portrayed as a serious Hong Kong style action movie. People that went to see it often walked out of it because in fact it was an over-the-top comedy that happened to have some cool Hong Kong style action. You go into the theater thinking the film is serious action only to see something comical, you're bound to hate it (well, I certainly didn't). If you know ahead of time that, despite what the trailer shows, it's really a comedy, then you're much more likely to actually enjoy the movie. Seriously, rent it. It's a riot. Anyway, same thing is true of Murder City. It looks like a mystery game with some edgy style, but that's not quite the case. Despite the fact that the box clearly says that it's a Strategy game, the presence of the word Detective seems to be causing a misunderstanding.

If you like to BS your friends, make up stories, cheat and try to get away with it then this should be fun. Remember, it's about strategy not mystery.

Best Regards,
Craig

Thread: Re: Mystery Game?

skandall — 2008-01-01T07:56:51+00:00

In all honesty, it's not so much a mystery game as it is a bluffing strategy card game with a dash of role-playing for flavor. Even the box cover says that it's a strategy game. This game does have a collection of murder mysteries like you would find in 221 Baker St. (i.e., once you solve a mystery then you know the answer and there's no point using that mystery again). But this isn't really a bad thing, as far as I'm concerned, because it ensures the game has replay value.

Murder cards list the evidence that is needed to take the case to trial. The details of the case are left to the player and this is where the role-playing comes in. The evidence cards you played helps you make up the details of the case. It is then up to the player "auditing" your case before trial to determine if any of the evidence was falsified.

I find this to be a fresh take on murder mystery games.

Thread: Just Another Gamer Uploading A Review

skandall — 2008-01-01T00:28:48+00:00

1. Art and Style
The game has a ton of style, but not a lot of art. I would have liked to see different art for each evidence and murder card, but such is not the case. Still, they get the job done so to speak and really, I think the intent was for the player to create the scene with their own imagination. Having an image on the cards may have caused players to subconsciously feel constrained to that image rather than making up their own descriptions.

The game is very Cyberpunk and I think it does that rather well. Everything about the game is dark and gloomy, as it should be.

2. Game Bits
The worst part is trying to unwrap all of the tiny decks of cards. The cards themselves are typical in quality. The dice are a bit cheap looking, but hey, they're Chrome so it's all good. Well, not really chrome of course, but they look the part and since the Cyberpunk motto is Style over Substance, it works for me.

5. Mechanical Bits
Here's where I review the rules.

5.1 Rule Book
Pretty basic book. Just black and white standard paper, folded with some staples. Not glossy paper and no colour.

As is typical of White Wolf, story is important in everything and is thus mixed in with the rules. It's not always a great thing, but I do personally like the style as it helps you to get into the setting (an RPG called Agone did this as well). There are some cases where it might have been nice if some of the examples or pertinent rules were set apart from the main text.

5.2 Learning Curve
It's a pretty straight forward game that isn't difficult to learn. What can make it difficult is trying to play the game after only skimming over the rulebook. It's really best to just read the rules cover to cover and then play.

5.3 Luck Factor
With so many decks of cards, luck is bound to be a factor. You're trying to draw cards that are the same colour as your murders. It just isn't likely to always go in your favor which is where the other bit of luck comes into play; presenting your case. Since you have to create a story on the spot based on your cards (sort of like Once Upon A Time), the other players can get lucky and guess when you're totally bluffing.

5.4 Player Interaction
There's just tones of it. Players are constantly interacting by trading evidence, presenting the story of their case, playing leg work cards on each other, and so forth. This game really shines as you bring in more players. A player could take hardships to be auditor all the time and then accept bribes to rubber stamp your cases. Players could work together to build valid cases, trading evidence as needed, and then serving as each others auditors.

While I'm glad that 2 player is an option, this is certainly a game that is more fun and interesting with 3 to 5 players.

5.5 Are You Done Yet?
Waiting really isn't much of a factor. You won't be spending your time wandering off to the kitchen while your opponent spends hours debating all of their possible actions. For the most part, players can act at the same time. When one player is presenting a case, the other players can listen to their interesting tale.

6. Shall we play a game?
No doubt that I enjoyed playing the game and I look forward to playing again with more people. Clearly this game isn't for everyone. If you find that you like to run role-playing games, then I expect that you'll be more likely to enjoy this game. If you hate being a GM, then you're less likely to enjoy it because of the need to present your case as a story.

Keep in mind that the game isn't flawless. There are some quirks that could have been handled better, but none of them are so bad or impossible to get around as to make the game unplayable. It can be difficult to determine what evidence to challenge, but my wife was pretty good at nailing me almost every time I brought a case to trial with false evidence.

I would have preferred to pay a few dollars less than I did, but I certainly do not regret the purchase. I am curious to see if there will be any additions to the game.

Thread: Re: Nice filler with a strong Sci-Fi theme

zephyrwolf — 2007-12-31T12:30:05+00:00

I actually like the game despite the critisism I have below.

I found the rules a little confusing. I have to agree with the other reviewer on that.

The quick reference sheet makes the rules bearable.

The rules want you to rely on an "honor system" and not lie. The rules state you do not have to show your cards, not even after a trial.

I feel the "honor system" just doesn't work in competetive play.
We ignore the rule about not showing your cards. we show are cards when we'd need to roll the dice or after the case has been challenged.

Image

sbilbey — 2007-12-31T10:10:20+00:00

Example Legwork Cards

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sbilbey — 2007-12-31T10:09:45+00:00

Example Evidence Cards

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sbilbey — 2007-12-31T10:09:11+00:00

Example Murder Cards

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sbilbey — 2007-12-31T10:08:08+00:00

Investigator's Dataslate

Thread: Re: Nice filler with a strong Sci-Fi theme

wolfgray — 2007-12-29T16:10:43+00:00

I'll agree here. It's about opinion.

I just hate games that don't give enough information to make a good decision.

If you can find someone who has the game before you buy and give it a try.

Thread: Re: Nice filler with a strong Sci-Fi theme

sbilbey — 2007-12-29T10:49:44+00:00

I think this is an each-to-his-own situation. We liked it, wolfgray didn't. We are pretty positive about a lot of games and can usually see good in most things. I can understand what wolfgray didn't like about it. Murder City is a bit of a cross-over game and won't appeal to everyone.

Thread: Re: Nice filler with a strong Sci-Fi theme

roberious — 2007-12-28T23:40:23+00:00

Your review seems a lot more postive and I am still deciding on wether I should keep the game.
We'll see.

Roberious

Thread: Re: Not Woth the Time and Effort..

roberious — 2007-12-28T23:38:03+00:00

I just picked up the game myself and will go through the rules. I am glad that you gave it a review and this may have cause for me to return it (I'll leave everything wrapped up of course) but my wife really likes detective type games and maybe with a FAQ and rules update it could clear things up. If I do keep it and try it I'll post my thoughts here too.

Roberious

Thread: Re: Any information regarding this?

wolfgray — 2007-12-28T19:47:17+00:00

I just submitted a review for the game.

I go into full detail in the review, but in summary. Save your money.

Thread: Not Woth the Time and Effort..

wolfgray — 2007-12-28T19:44:20+00:00

I recently got Murder City and in summary it isn't worth the time and the effort.

Okay now to put details to this opinion.

Art and Theme:
The game is amazingly themed and the art is very nice. This I've come to expect from a white wolf board game.

The art and theme do cause their own problems. I'll get to how the theme causes a problem when I get to the rule book. The art can cause problems reading the cardboard pads (your character sheet). In a game we tried last night we had a player who has having to always move his card into the light to try to read what the green on black text said. This only appears to hurt that one character card though. The others are in colors that contrast well with the black.

Rulebook:
The rulebook is overall confusing due to the heavy theme that is put into the rules. Story is interwoven through the rulebook and rationale for why mechanics work ('You gain a hardship card because of the professional humiliation of messing up a case') make the rulebook hard to skim and get the important rules.

Ontop of that the examples are in the text of the paragraphs rather than offset and italicized. Again most of the time in our sample game I was searching through fluff to try to find the rule we needed the most.

The Mechanics:
Overall these are a mixed bag. The goal is to have the most credits after 6 turns.

The basic idea is to draw cards and play types of evidence on cases that need that evidence. You can either play cards of the same color (good evidence) or of a different color (false evidence). Then you take a case to trial and try to roll dice (number based on evidence cards)to beat a threshold number on the case. Success means you get credits failure means you get nothing.

After everyone has played cards players can take a case to trial and have the case audited by another players. This is where the rules fall apart. The detective gives a ingame description of what happened (I like this as I love good RP in a game) using the cards for evidence. This RP has no effect on mechanics of game play whatsoever. Then the auditor decides to 1) Challenge the chase, 2) Ruberstamp it, or 3) Endorse it.

Lets look at these options and I'll point out the problems.
1) To Challenge the case the auditor is trying to pick the evidence card that doesn't match the case color. If the auditor succeed the challenge the detective's case is thrown out and the gains a hardship card (negative effect) and the auditor gets 2 credits. If the auditor fails to draw a piece of false evidence he looses credits based on how much false evidence the case has on it.

The problem is the game supplies no way to discover if the detective has used false evidence and what cards it may be. Observation of drawing from discard deck may provide this but overall it only happened once in the 6 turns in our 2 player test game.

2) No plus or minus here. The auditor gets a single credit.

3) The auditor endorses the case giving the detective an extra dice to roll on trying to charge the murder.

The problem here is their is no way for the auditor to know how strong your evidence is.(How many dice a piece supplies). And if the case fails the auditor is penalized by having to draw a hardship card.

Finally the game does have various 'instant' effect cards to allow you to steal credits, bribe an auditor, stop people from drawing cards etc. But I couldn't find a card that compensated for the lack of information problem I point out above.

In summary this game is not worth the effort. While it's a cool idea the auditor part of the game suffers as their is no way for an auditor to make an informed decision on the case. He has no way of knowing if false evidence was played or how strong the evidence on the case is.

Save your money on this one. If you want a better white wolf board game get Monster Mayhem. Simple, Fun, and lacks many of the problems this one does.

Thread: Nice filler with a strong Sci-Fi theme

sbilbey — 2007-12-28T17:55:26+00:00

Overview
In Murder City, players take the part of freelance investigators in a futuristic setting. Each player or ‘jovan’ is assigned a series of murder cases and spend their time gathering evidence to match each case and attempt to build a picture of the crime and bring the case to trial. Their efforts can be hampered by previous failings and by other players. Players win money (‘credits’) for successful cases, and credits are spent along the way. At the end of the game, the wealthiest or most successful jovan is the winner.

Components
The compact box contains a player card (or jovan dataslate) for up to 5 players, a number of card decks that provide the murder cases, evidence and other elements and some dice. The dataslate provides details of the player’s character, and marked spaces for laying out the cards for up to three murder cases. The characters provided are:
Hard-Boiled Detective
Corporate Liason
Analytical Alien Investigator
Altered Human Data Processor
Special Government Agent

Each character has strengths that help them gather certain types of evidence, and weaknesses that make it more difficult to obtain other types. Character development and role-playing is encouraged, but not essential.

The Murder cards are standard playing-card size, but the Evidence cards are quite small (half playing-card size). This could be to facilitate the deck layout as there are quite a number of decks and discard piles to manage. The Evidence cards are divided into five types: Eyewitness, Forensics, Interrogation, Murder Weapon and Professional Opinion. Murder cards and Evidence cards are colour-coded (more on this later). We found the yellow and brown cards difficult to tell apart. There are also Legwork and Hardship cards that help and hinder the investigators.

All the artwork maintains the Bladerunner-esque style shown on the box cover and, coupled with the back-story elements in the rules booklet bring atmosphere to the game. Evidence cards have the appearance of a ‘computer screen image’.

The ooooh factor arrived with the appearance of the five metallic d6’s from the box. These are a nice touch.

The rules booklet runs to over 20 pages and is very detailed. This gives some idea of the depth of the game. The rules are spelt out very carefully and try to cover every eventuality. There is quite a lot of repetition, but this is actually quite helpful. The Quick Reference Sheet covers 2 sides of an A5 sheet. Although only 2/3rds of each side is covered; the text is closely spaced. This also gives some idea of the game complexity.

Game Play
Each player takes a character dataslate and starts with 3 Murders to investigate, and a number of Evidence cards, which they keep in their hand. The game is played over an agreed number of rounds (six is suggested). Each round has two phases:

Investigation Phase: Players draw evidence cards into their hand and assign them to the Murders that they are working on. One credit is earned for each piece of evidence added to a case. Each Murder case requires up to three types of evidence to obtain a conviction. Murder and Evidence cards are colour-coded to link each murder type with appropriate evidence. Ideally, a case should be built with a complete set of matching evidence cards, but this is quite difficult to achieve, so the hard-pressed investigator will usually slip an evidence card of another colour into the case. This is possible, as Evidence cards are played face down. Selling or trading Evidence cards or other commodities is possible; indeed almost anything can be sold or traded (even favours), although such bargains do not need to be honoured.

Court Phase: Murder City might look like a set-collecting game up until now, but it is the Court Phase that the brings an element of story-telling to the game. An investigator wishing to take a case to court must present their case to an auditor (another player). The prosecuting investigator must recount the events of the crime in a plausible story that must weave in the details shown on the Murder and Evidence cards. The Evidence cards are always played face down; the investigator may have used evidence from a different case, and will have to be inventive with his story. The auditor can challenge the case (check that one of the Evidence cards is of the correct colour), rubber-stamp the case or endorse it. Each decision comes with rewards and penalties, depending on the case outcome.

Once a case reaches the court, the outcome is decided by rolling a number of d6’s. The actual number is decided by the Evidence cards and other factors (the investigator has a bonus on certain evidence type; the auditor chose to endorse the case, etc.). The dice results are totalled and the case outcome decided: Murder One / Manslaughter / Aggravated Assault / No Conviction. Each result has its reward (or penalty) and the investigator is paid (or penalised). The auditor, too, may receive payment if they supported the case.

First Play(s)
After reading through the rules in detail, we played a couple of two-player games without having to refer back to the rules much (only the section on auditing a case before trial). We found we could each only get three or four cases to trial in the six turns. It is difficult to assemble a complete case of colour-matched Evidence cards, so risking a substitute card is necessary. The real challenge comes in inventing the case story and in auditing a case. The games were enjoyable and certainly tested our powers of invention when presenting a case.

We found that the characters could not use their special abilities to search through the discard pile of one type of evidence, simply because there weren’t many cards being discards. We later tried a three-player game and things definitely be improved: the discard piles were larger and there was more trading done. It is also harder to keep track of cards that had been traded with other players (useful when you are the auditor).

Summary
Murder City is a combination of hand-management and story-telling, with a strong dose of poker-style bluffing thrown in. It works well as a light-to-medium filler; some thought is required when playing, but it’s not too taxing and a game lasts about 30-45 minutes. The game is balanced and the theme works well; inventing case storylines requires players to think within the context of the theme. This game will have particular appeal to fans of sci-fi as there are plenty of familiar elements.

Thread: Re: Mystery Game?

liberor13 — 2007-12-27T13:34:23+00:00

Thanks for the info, I look forward to hearing more about this game!

Thread: Re: Any information regarding this?

gf_ripper — 2007-12-26T19:49:19+00:00

I recently picked this up, not sure when I will get a chance to play it but if nothing is up about by the time I do, I will put up a review and possibly some pictures.

Thread: Re: Mystery Game?

avyssaleos — 2007-12-26T08:11:59+00:00

Thanks for the info. If you could take some pictures it would be great!

Thread: Re: Mystery Game?

steamrunner — 2007-12-26T06:53:22+00:00

I saw this in the FLGS last week and bought it. The art and description on the box sounded like fun. I just opened it and have NOT read rules yet.

What's inside: Player boards and decks of cards, rules and some gunmetal colored (metallic looking) dice. Each player's board is mounted on heavy cardboard and represents the different type of players characters. The Deckard / Ford character is the veteran detective, and there are 6 chars I think. Each board is about A4 size or around 8.5x11 in. (little smaller I think). This is a card driven game but as stated I didn't read the rules. Look like it might be interesting. Will update later..

Thread: Any information regarding this?

avyssaleos — 2007-12-24T10:00:09+00:00

Does anyone have any information or images from this game? There doesn't seem to be anything on the net apart from a vague description of the game and the cover image.

If anyone has any comments about this game please post them. The theme seems really nice but I don't want to buy it blindly without knowing ANYTHING about it...

Thank you all in advance

Thread: Re: Mystery Game?

roberious — 2007-12-22T23:21:01+00:00

Here is a link to the White Wolf forum but not a whole lot here yet:
http://forums.white-wolf.com/viewtopic.php?t=68031

Roberious

Thread: Re: Mystery Game?

Ghool — 2007-12-22T00:34:20+00:00

It's intriguing. But, even the box description itself really doesn't say much at all. It looks like a Bladerunner-esque detective game. I just wish there was at least something about it....somewhere....anywhere....

Thread: Re: Mystery Game?

TwentySides — 2007-12-22T00:03:22+00:00

I saw it at my local game store and tried to find reviews or discussion on it online, but there is nothing. Such is the fate of a WW game not based on a pre-existing property, I suppose. It looks promising, but since I can't find anything about it yet I'll wait.

Thread: Re: Mystery Game?

nyhotep — 2007-12-19T12:05:13+00:00

Even the White Wolf site has no other details.

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Revenant — 2007-11-08T08:55:55+00:00

Murder City Box Cover Preview