An instantly replayable Halloween whodunnit team challenge with a different solution every time.

The Game

Witch Warty-One's black cat, Spook, has been petrified. The now "turned to stone" cat has been hidden somewhere in the witch's castle. Witch Warty-One wants to know which of her castle inhabitants enchanted the cat, what magical artifact they used to perform the spell and in which room of the castle they have hidden her cat. And she has hired four teams of investigators to solve the puzzle.

Taking turns each of four teams guesses a castle inhabitant, a magical artifact and a castle room. The team making the guess are secretly told how many items they got right. The other teams are secretly told one item in the guess that was wrong. Play continues until, using the information they have gleaned, one team is able to correctly guess the solution. A seemingly simple game that leads to an incredible amount of head scratching!

The game can be repeated as many times as you like with the Party Host setting a different solution each time.

Full Details

Set Up

Guests will be split into four teams (red, blue, green and yellow). Each team will be given a sheet listing 8 castle inhabitants, 8 magical artifacts and 8 castle rooms. For the introductory game only the first 6 of each will be used. The others can be added in for later games if the teams fancy more of a challenge.

Each team is also given a deduction notes sheet where they can record the information they learn during the game. Finally they are given an information card. Each team's information card is different. This card is how the game host is able to secretly give them information without the other teams overhearing it.

The game host secretly selects a castle inhabitant, a magical artifact and a castle room from the potential items. This will be the solution to the puzzle.

Game Play

The first team (red) now make an accusation, naming one inhabitant, one artifact and one room. We will assume they don't get the exact solution on their first guess!

The game host has a response card. Using this and by identifying how accurate the red team were in their accusation they are able to announce a response to the accusation. This response will be a number and it is heard by all four teams.

All the teams now find this number on their information card and secretly look at the information beside it.

The red team, who made the accusation, will discover how many of their three items were correct. The information card will therefore tell them "0 out of 3", "1 out of 3" or "2 out of 3". In our example they would be told "0 out of 3". Had they actually got one of the items right they would be told "1 out of 3" but they would not be told which item was correct.

The information cards of the blue, green and yellow teams will tell them one item that the red team got wrong. In our example, where the red team got everything wrong, the blue team might learn that the castle inhabitant was wrong, the green team might learn that the magical artifact was wrong and the yellow team might learn that the castle room was wrong. Obviously they keep this information to themselves.

The blue team now make an accusation and the process is repeated. Then it is the green team's turn and so on. Each turn all teams learn some information but it is always different information to what the other teams are learning.

Eventually, through elimination, deduction and carefully formulated accusations, one team will make an accusation that matches the castle inhabitant, magical artifact and castle room selected by the game host. This team are the winners.

"Arrest or Lose" Cards

At the start of the game each team is given an "Arrest or Lose" card. They can play this card to interrupt the team who is currently making an accusation and instead make an accusation of their own. If it is correct they win. However if it is incorrect they are eliminated from the game and the remaining teams continue playing.

Suspects, Weapons and Locations

To help you get an idea of the theme for the game, the suspects, weapons and locations are:

Castle Inhabitants

• Bathsheba (Banshee)
• Fang (Werewolf)
• Count Japes (Vampire)
• Argent-Ra (Mummy)
• Gruesome Gertie (Hag)
• Droop (Dragon)
• Dr Stein (Mad Scientist)
• Impio (Lamp Genie)

Magical Artifacts

• Stiffening Sword
• Tempering Trident
• Lapidifying Wand
• Fossilising Staff
• Paralysing Potion
• Calcifying Crossbow
• Marbleising Sceptre
• Numbing Nunchaku

Castle Rooms

• Bats' Ballroom
• Potion Cellar
• Broom Room
• Spellbook Library
• Poison Pantry
• Creepy Kitchen
• Cannibals' Dining Room
• Spooks' Attic