Amanda and I completed a test playthrough for the first time tonight of a game quite like a shaken-up adaptation of Clue: Mystery of the Abbey. We’d been looking at it for some time, especially liking the theme of the game and the supposed changes it made to the standard “murder mystery” gametype, so this afternoon I gave it a buy and decided to see what it was all about.

Due to the deductive mechanics of the game, Mystery of the Abbey requires at least three players to function, so for our test run we decided to each take the place of two players and see how the game ran with four. I doubt we will try this methodology again, as it was quite confusing to keep track of which hand (left or right) knew what, and to not conflate the knowledge of the two sides for an unfair advantage.

As it was, I ended up making an incorrect guess at the end of the game, and Amanda made a correct one. She would have won the game anyway, as I had been barking up the wrong tree for most of the game and didn’t even have the right suspect.

Mystery of the Abbey is played much like Clue. The basic premise is the same: the titular abbey is a waystation for pilgrims on their journey, and one of the brothers has been found murdered. It’s your job to find out which one of the other brothers committed the heinous deed, while making sure you attend the Hours (here always called Mass) and asking questions of your fellow monks.

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