Petits Meurtres & Faits Divers
Petits Meurtres & Faits Divers Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
The Game
A crime has been committed. The inspector must discover the culprit.
The Players
4 to 6 players / 13 years and up
Goal of the Game
The goal is to win points, but above all to have fun!
The inspector must find the culprit thanks to the words hidden in the suspects' statements. All the innocent suspects have the same series of words to say, while the culprit has different ones.
Preparing a Round
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Each player chooses a token and places it on the "Petits Meurtres" space of the score board.
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During each round, a different player plays the role of inspector, the player to their left is the clerk, and the other players are the suspects.
Each round is a case:
On their sheet, the inspector discovers the description of the crime, as well as the name of and a clue about each suspect.
On their own sheet, each suspect discovers the name of the character they are playing, as well as two series of three words, which they must work into their statement during the inspector's two rounds of questioning. The guilty player knows they are guilty, thanks to an indication in their agenda.
On their sheet, the clerk discovers the identities of the characters and the required words. They watch over the proper conduct of the round.
Playing a Round
During each round of questioning, the inspector calls on a player and asks them a question. The player has 90 seconds to answer the inspector while slipping the required words into their statement.
The clerk, for their part, watches over the proper conduct of the round. They time the statements and check that the innocents and the culprit do say the required words. If this is not respected, they may increase the suspect's speaking time.
End of a Round = Verdict of the Investigation
At the end of the two rounds of questioning, the suspect players vote. Each one, with a card, must bet on whether the inspector will be able to identify the culprit (white card) or not (doubt).
Then, the inspector must order the arrest of the culprit they believe they have identified.
The inspector's decision is a great moment of suspense in the game. Depending on this decision, players win or lose points, tracked on the score board:
If the culprit is found:
- The inspector wins 1 point
- The culprit loses 1 point
- The other suspects win or lose 1 point, depending on whether they correctly bet on the inspector's perceptiveness or not.
If the culprit is not unmasked:
- The inspector loses 1 point
- The culprit wins 1 point
- The innocent who was accused wins 1 point
- The other suspects win or lose 1 point, depending on whether they correctly bet on the inspector's perceptiveness or not.
Suspect Strategy
Since the goal of each player is to win the game, an innocent has every interest in the inspector losing points by arresting the wrong culprit, and in winning points themselves by betting on a mistake by the inspector.
In practice, the innocents make the inspector's task harder by slipping their words into wild, detail-rich statements, by repeating the other suspects' odd words, and even, cleverest of all, by spotting the culprit and trying to detect and repeat their words.
The culprit, for their part, if they are lucky enough to give their statement after the innocents, must spot the others' words in order to pass themselves off as not guilty.