Clue is the traditional “whodunit” game. I know we played that game a lot when I was growing up, and I still have our old beat up copy. At some point, though, you might feel like you’ve outgrown Clue. You still like the concept, but the execution has become boring. Enter Alibi.
Alibi: The Whodunit Card Game is more complex than Clue. Not only do you have to figure out who, what, and where, but you also need to determine when and why (the motive). Each player gets a score sheet which you want to keep hidden from other players. The first time we played this game, we used other game boxes to build little forts around our score sheets, but a piece of paper over the top is sufficient (Editor’s note: though not as interesting). The score sheets help you to keep track of the clues and eliminate options. Despite this, determining the who, what, when, where, and why is still challenging.
Players receive a hand of cards. The first round you pass 1 card, second round 2 cards, and so on. You can score points for collecting sets of cards (all 3 Studio cards or all 3 Poison cards for example), so it can get tricky trying to decide which cards to pass. If you have 2 Rage cards, you might be trying to hold out for the third. One thing that can help is that each player gets to ask one other player a question each turn. It has to be a question with a number for an answer, so you could ask “How many Rage cards have you seen?” in order to try to determine if you should hold onto those Rage cards, or maybe the motive was Rage. Another thing to keep in mind is that when you reveal a set of cards, you’re also letting the other players know what you know.
Play continues in this way until someone decides to make an Accusation. You announce that you want to make an Accusation, and then all other players get to make guesses on their score sheets. Wrong answers mean negative points just like the SAT, so if you aren’t sure if Slim Slant is the killer, you should probably just leave it blank.
The Accusation ends the game, and points are totaled for sets played and right and wrong answers.
This is a fun game especially for larger groups. There’s a lot of player interaction, and you really have to pay attention to what’s going on even when it’s not your turn.