Golden Girls Clue, has one big difference from the regular version.  You are no longer solving a murder, you are trying to find out who finished the last piece of Cheesecake.  Quite the mystery indeed.  You’ll need to figure out who did it, what evidence they left and where they ate the cheesecake.  If you are a fan of the Golden Girls and or Clue this is obviously very appealing.

I should start by saying I love collecting games based on tv shows and movies.  Normally I stay away from classic game versions.  It’s nothing against these games, I just feel i would end up with way more versions of Monopoly than I would ever play.  Every now and then I make an exception, this is one of those times.  If you were having friends over to watch old episodes this would be a fun game to pull out and play.  This is good for ages 8 and up, but I assume kids who’ve never seen the show wouldn’t be interested.

With that in mind, lets start the set up.  To set up the game, place all 6 items and movers in the middle of the board.  It doesn’t matter how many players you have, still place them all in.  Each player will get a personality card, mover and clue sheet.  After each player has their character,  shuffle the cards into 4 decks.  Suspects, items, locations and distraction cards.  Place the distraction cards face down on the table.  With the remaining decks face down, pick one card from the item, location and suspect decks and place them in the envelope without looking.  These are the answers to the game.

Once the answer cards are in the envelope you can shuffle the suspect, item and location decks together and deal them evenly to all players.  Any odd cards left can be placed in a pile face up on the side of the table.

The Suspects:

• Dorothy
• Sophia
• Blanche
• Rose
• Stan
• Miles

The Evidence:

• Bathrobe
• Whipped Cream
• Rattan Chair
• Lipstick
• Feathered Slipper
• Sophia’s Purse

The Locations:

• The Kitchen
• Blanche’s Bedroom
• The Lanai
• Rose’s Bedroom
• The Bathroom
• The Garage
• Sophia’s Bedroom
• Dorothy’s Bedroom
• Front Yard

Players can then cross off their cards on their clue sheet.  You can now start the game.  I think at some point or another most of us have played Clue so the rules should be pretty familiar. 

Highest roller of the dice goes first.  These rules are for 3 to 6 players, there are alternate rules to make it work for 2 players.

A player will roll the dice to start their turn.  The player will move around the board to enter different locations. Please keep in mind you cannot move diagonally.  An exact roll isn’t necessary, you can stop moving once you’ve entered a room.  Also if you were moved into a room by another player on their turn you can choose to stay for your turn and ask a question.

If you either land on a question mark, roll a question mark or are brought to a room to be questioned you may choose to take a distraction card. Be careful, there are two types of distraction cards. Minor and Major. A minor distraction is a reward and works as a bonus. The major distractions are a lot more problematic. Most don’t do anything except one card in the deck could cause you to automatically lose the game. So there could be a good payoff for taking a card from this deck, but it’s also a risk.

When you get in the location to ask a question you will bring the suspect and item you are asking about with you.  The player on your left must answer.  If they have one of those cards they will show you, if they do not they will say they don’t know and the player to their left will answer.  it will go around the players until a card has been shown.  Cross off the card you were shown from your clue sheet.  Your turn is now over.  This continues until a player thinks they have solved the mystery.  If you want to keep people off your scent you can bluff when you ask your question by guessing one of your own cards.  Just to ensure no one knows all the same answers as you.

To win the game, once you have solved the mystery take your player piece back to the living room.  Once there you can make your final accusation.  Say your answers out loud and then check the envelope.  If you are right, you have won the game.

If you were wrong, put the cards in the envelope back, you lost the game but will stay to answer questions.

I think when you play this you have to keep in mind that this is a version of Clue.  The game itself, isn’t something I’d recommend on it’s own. Board games have come a long way and there’s a lot of better ones out there. However, if you are a fan of the Golden Girls and looking for a keepsake, I would obviously recommend it.  It’s cute, themed well and it doesn’t hurt that it’s a playable game.

If you like playing Clue try:

Mysterium Park