Cluedo & Clue Standard Boardgames

Original Cluedo / Clue:

Where it all started - the original board game was created in 1946 by Anthony E. Pratt and some of his friends, and submitted to Waddingtons Games in Leeds, Great Britain. The idea was to create a game of deduction and elimination, where the players played detective in a murder hunt. Over the years since it's release, Cluedo has become a classic game that no respectable house shouldn't have in its hall cupboard.

The idea is quite simple - Dr. Black has been murdered in his home of Tudor Close, and was found at the bottom of the cellar stairs by one of his guests - Miss. Scarlet. Miss. Scarlet, along with the other five guest staying at his house that weekend (namely Mrs. Peacock, Mrs. White, Colonel Mustard, Professor Plum and Reverend Green) are the chief suspects in the crime. There are nine possible rooms he could have been killed in and six possible weapons that could have been used (the lead piping, spanner, rope, revolver, candlestick or dagger). Players take on the character of one of the six suspects, and move their playing piece around the board (a plan of Tudor Close) and into the rooms. By asking other players, questions about the cards that they have in their hand, each player must discover Whodunit, with what and where.

In Britain, the rooms in the original game have always just been outlines on the board - unlike most other countries where they have the furniture etc. drawn in. Finally, the 1996 version of the game has put this right. See the map  for what it now looks like. Unfortunately (in my opinion) they made a few other changes. The stylised "cone and sphere" playing pieces have been changed with plastic figures, and the traditional drawings of the characters and weapons that we all grew up with, have been changed into newspaper reports with the characters looking like complete psychopaths and the weapons looking like a child of five drew them ! The rooms on the other hand, do look quite impressive; and it was a nice idea to try and create a story line of what had happened on the fateful night by text on the cards - though there a couple of errors such as putting the revolver in the lounge (instead of the study) and Reverend Green in the lounge (instead of the study) - Hmm ... maybe it was Rev. Green, in the lounge with the revolver ....

Rules (1996 Version)

Game Overview

Image of playing board (1996 Version)

Current Editions

UK 2000 Edition

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Braille Cluedo:

This game of Cluedo has been adapted with a tactile board, with all the written information on the board (rooms, characters etc.) in braille. All the squares on the outer edges of the rooms are marked by a raised line. The cards are also provided in braille, and a tactile dice is included. The playing pieces have different shapes e.g. square, circle, hexagon, plus sign and multiply sign (click image to left to see).

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Clue / Parcheesi:

Andrew N. from St. Louis, Missouri found this edition of Clue which is combined with the game Parcheesi. It comes in a tin case. Click on the images for a closer look.

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© Paul Howls, 1998-2005

Cluedo & Waddingtons are © Hasbro International Inc. Distributed in the UK. by Waddingtons Games, Castle Gate, Oulton, Leeds LS26 8HG

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