Originally, I was going to write about games I hate. As I outlined the blog, I realized the reason I dislike some games are because they are very unbalanced. I have decided to talk about unbalanced games, instead.

What makes a game unbalanced?

While looking up games other people consider unbalanced, some people define an unbalanced game by how often a player wins. When a player wins too often or not often enough, they consider the game unbalanced. I don’t entirely agree with that. One person might win a game often, because they are very skilled at the game, while another player who doesn’t win much may still be a novice. This does not necessarily mean the game itself is unbalanced, only the players.

For me, unbalanced games either lack skill, or have rules that favor a player. To help explain these two unbalanced game mechanics, I will explain why I really dislike two particular games, and ways I suggest the game might be improved. Discussing both games, the blog got a little long, so I have divided the blog into two parts.

Games, like Chess, eventually reach a stage in the game where one player can have a greater advantage over the other. Even when one player has fewer pieces, players can still rely on skill over luck allowing a fighting chance.

Clue

I appreciate the concept of Clue, where players use logic to solve the mystery. It’s clever. It is why I enjoy games like Hits and Blows or Worlde.

Much of my dislike of Clue can be traced back to a design fraught with human error. The game has three types of cards: suspects, weapons, and rooms. Pick one of each and place them in the envelope. Sounds simple enough. Except, when the game set is missing cards. Or, the wrong kinds of cards are placed in the envelope. One game I played had two weapons, a room, and no suspects! Sometimes, it is a lack of understanding the rules of who sees what cards when. Let’s say the set up is accurate and they understand the rules, but a player doesn’t take very good notes, and incorrectly guesses. There is no room for bad guesses in the game. As I said…Human errors. That’s not the game being unbalanced. Again, that’s the players.

I find this game unbalanced because of the dice roll and how far apart the rooms are. Some players roll well, and begin collecting clues quicker than others all based on high or low dice rolls. There’s no skill in limping or sprinting to the rooms to look for clues. The dice roll should not be s limiting factor in a game of deduction. Once a player enters certain rooms, they can use a shortcut to jump to another room. The game is unbalanced in that it now favors the player who was lucky enough to roll high enough numbers. Luck is not a skill.

On a side note, one of my gripes is the game comes with little murder weapon figurines in which players have no idea what to do with. That’s not necessarily an unbalancing, but it is confusing.

How would I balance out Clue?

First, I would solve the movement issue by redesigning the layout of the murder mansion. The new layout would consist of a main hall surrounded by the rooms in a U-shape. Pairs of neighboring rooms connect both to the main hall and adjacent rooms. As for movement, each turn a player may either move twice (into different rooms) or move once and look for clues (more on this in a moment). Players start in the main hall.

The clues are the next thing I would fix. Give each type of card a different color and pattern of backing so they are easily identifiable (even for color blind players). For  the set up, with each type of card, deal one to each room, starting with the main hall. Then, if the game must have figurines, use a figurine of the victim. Maybe a chalk outline? This is placed ontop of the cards in the main hall, eliminating the need for the envelope. The cards are still clues players collect to try to deduce what happened. With the different colors, it is easier to see if an error has been made (Two weapons and a room? Really?).

Players look for clues by moving into the other rooms and picking one of the three cards, playing it face down in front of them. A player may only keep one face down card of each type. Whenever two or more players share a room, they may “look for clues” by asking to see one of other player’s cards. When players meet up in the main hall, the player looking for clues exposes another player’s card to the entire table by turning it face up. This adds a bit of strategy of trying to avoid other players, especially in the main hall, but can help others (even players who are behind) with learning the clues.

One final fix…The guess! First, no one may make a guess until all the clues are found, which means all cards are taken out of the surrounding rooms. With fewer players, this may mean there are more cards exposed to the entire group. Once all the cards are claimed from the rooms, the game boils down to catching up with the other players withholding evidence. To make a guess, the player enters the main hall and pronounces their guess to the group. For any wrong elements of the guess, these wrong elements are placed face up for all to see. The player who guessed poorly loses their next turn and must stay in the main hall. This makes them vulnerable to having their concealed clues exposed. Any other player moving into the main hall may force them to expose one of the clues. Maybe the poor guess forces another player to expose a clue, but with a penalty. More strategy! In the unlikely event the guesser is wrong but not proven wrong by another player, the game ends in a forfeit.

That is how I would recalibrate Clue to be better balanced. Next time, I will discuss the unbalanced game of Rummy.