Use Logic and Deduction to Solve Your Own Murder in Ghosted

You’ve been murdered! Oops! But don’t worry. It’s not the end. You find yourself in the afterlife, determined to find out "who done it."

Published by Big G Creative, Ghosted is a deduction game in which you must choose your questions wisely in order to determine your killer, the motive, and the weapon used, before your opponents are able to solve their own crimes.

Gameplay

Each player takes a player board. You are dealt one suspect, one motive, and one weapon card. Without looking at them, you slot them into your player board so that they are facing out at the other players but you cannot see them. These three cards are the ones you are trying to deduce. Each player has his own set that he is trying to figure out. Your player board also lists all the cards in the game. You use this board to track the information you gather as you play.

Next, all the remaining suspect, weapon, and motive cards are shuffled together and dealt out to each player to form their hands.

On your turn you may either make an accusation or roll the die. If you make an accusation, you announce which three cards you believe are in your player board. If you are right, you win the game. If you are wrong, you are eliminated.

If you roll the die, there are six possible results you can get. One result allows you to choose one other player and name two suspect cards. If they have either or both cards, they must show you one of them (without showing it to the other players). There is a similar die result for weapons and for motive. One die face allows you to ask another player one single yes or no question (it can be as specific or as vague as you wish), and one result is the scales of justice. When you roll the scales of justice, you name one suspect, one weapon, and one motive and the other players tell you how many of these match the cards in your board (but not which ones). If all three are correct, you win the game. Unlike an accusation, you do not lose if you are not correct. The final die result is a wild, and allows you to pick any of the other five die results for your turn.

If you roll a die result for a card category you believe you have already deduced (for example, you roll the result that allows you to name two suspects but you believe you already know your suspect) you may instead take a token. If you again roll an element you believe you already know, you may then spend the token to choose any action on the die. You may only have one token at a time.

Review

Ghosted is a fun and easy-to-learn deduction game. The rules are intuitive and it’s easy to set up and start playing. It has a bit of the logic of games such as Clue, while streamlining the experience.

While there is player elimination, the presence of the scales of justice mechanism feels like it vastly mitigates this element and turns it into more of a push-your-luck decision. You may think you’ve deduced your cards, but do you really want to use your turn making an accusation and risking elimination, or do you want to roll and hope for the scales of justice?

Being able to take a token when you roll a die result for an element you’ve already deduced also ensures that you’re not constantly stuck due to bad or unhelpful rolls. The yes or no question, while potentially open for interpretation depending on how vague your questions are, is also an enjoyable element and it's fun to get creative with, particularly once you become more acquainted with all of the cards.

The player boards do a good job of holding your cards, and a guide to all the die results is helpfully printed on the back of the rules. There’s also a nice touch added in that each suspect is given a fun little bio inside the booklet. The art is distinctive and has character. However, the cards themselves could be made of a nicer paper stock. When we first set up the game near a window, the sunlight hit the cards in the player boards, so that you could read the text on them through the back. We had to play in a different room. This wouldn’t be a problem in all circumstances, but it’s a shame the cards weren’t made from a thicker stock, given that they are held vertically.

If you enjoy deduction games, Ghosted is a fast, simple, and fun entry into the genre. The game has a fun sense of humor, with the motives being absurd and often amusing, and it’s a nice touch that each player is trying to solve their own unique combination of cards.

Pros: Light rules, solid deduction game, good sense of humor, ways to mitigate bad rolls

Cons: Cards could be better quality, possible to see through them in the right light

Disclosure: we received a complimentary review copy of this game.