FOUL PLAY
The Murder Mystery Card Game
The Manor House Murder
A game for 2 – 5 players | Age 14 +
Welcome to Edwardian England. The Lord of the Manor is dead! The servants are our lead suspects and it's up to you to unearth the evidence, seek out the suspects and catch the culprit in order to scupper the other sleuths, and win this game of murder!
There's more than one way to catch a killer though. So what's it gonna be? Good Cop or Bad Cop? These two game versions come with their own set of rules and tactics to crack the case and finger your suspect, but will you use fair play or FOUL PLAY?
The Game is Afoot! Playing as detective, you’ll need to find the three evidence cards that point to a specific suspect in order to catch a killer in this crazy criminal caper. Will you uncover them in the crime scene? Could the other detectives be willing to collaborate and share their findings? Or will you resort to more tricky tactics, and plunder the proof you need to solve this crime?
I'm delighted to be taking part in a different sort of blog tour today. When Emma Welton from damppebbles blog tours asked if I'd like to review a murder mystery card game, I jumped at the chance. I have three daughters, aged 21, 18 and 13, and we enjoy playing Cluedo, 221B Baker Street and various card games so we were all keen to see what Foul Play was all about. Many thanks to Emma and to After Dark for the blog tour invitation and for sending me the game.
There are two different ways to play Foul Play, using either the Good Cop or Bad Cop rules. We decided Good Cop looked easiest so decided to try that first. I must admit we initially found the rules a little confusing, and after a fairly successful first attempt, our second game didn't quite work as well. However, by re-reading the instructions and tweaking a few things we eventually managed to figure out how to play properly (I think!)
It's not a difficult game to play but I know I tend to pick up card games more quickly by playing with somebody who knows what they're doing and of course, we were all novices here but the website helped. I think an instructional video might also be a useful extra in the future; we'd definitely not have made some of the silly mistakes if we'd watched an explanation of how to play.
Learning what to do was all part of the fun, however, and after we'd got to grips with the gameplay, we tried playing the Bad Cop version. My eldest daughter and I preferred these rules whilst the others liked Good Cop more (not sure what that says about us...?!)
Foul Play comes with a 14+ age guide but that's only due to the subject of the game being murder and because some of the characters on the cards are depicted as smoking. I certainly had no qualms about my thirteen-year-old playing and would think that even primary school children could play with adult support. The character cards are fun to look at and all distinct so I'm sure in time we'll get to know them better - I loved the amusing extra information given on the website about the servants suspected of killing the Lord of the Manor. Our games have all been good-tempered so far but there's undoubtedly potential for a few tense moments - particularly when the Block or Foul Play cards are used at the right (or worst) moment!
I'm sure we'll play the entertaining Foul Play several times over Christmas and as every game will be different, there are likely to be some hotly contested races to be the first to declare who did it. The ideal stocking filler or Secret Santa gift for anybody who wishes to exercise their own little grey cells!
Whodunnit?
Foul Play can be purchased here. Don't miss the rest of the blog tour, details are below.
History of Foul Play
What’s a Murder Mystery Events Company to do?
With a pandemic sweeping the nation and no sign of being able to perform their confounding criminal cabarets or incredible interactive investigations any time soon, they needed to come up with a plan, another way to provide mystery to the masses (and provide income to keep themselves afloat)!
Well, lockdown does strange things to people, especially actors who can't go out and perform. So one fateful evening, Ben & Lee Cooper-Muir decided to come up with a whole new way to murder people. Keeping their cards close to their chests they plotted and schemed until Foul Play : The Murder Mystery Card Game was born. So, what to do next? This is where After Dark enters the picture. After all, Ben and Lee were two of the operators of the infamous murder mystery company. Maybe they could collaborate to bring the game to the masses. When Lockdown restrictions were eased a top-secret meeting was held with the other criminal masterminds behind After Dark, Helen Burrows, Sophie Webster & Tom Fisher and a pact was made. The game would be launched and licensed under the After Dark banner. In true After Dark style, the team burst into action and then began the beta testing, design updates, promotional planning, character changes, proofing, proofing and more proofing until finally all the kinks were ironed out, mysteries solved, and FOUL PLAY came to life!
We hope you enjoy playing it, and although we all hope to be back performing soon, WATCH THIS SPACE! Now we know we can create and produce games we've got a lot more fun things planned for the future!
Thanks for being part of the blog tour x
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