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2-6 Players     45-60 mins     Ages 14+

Prologue

Travel back to 1893 to explore the twisted and booby-trapped World’s Fair Hotel in search of evidence to clear your name, all while dodging the true murderer – H. H. Holmes himself!

In this game players stand accused of these atrocities and must roam the deadly rooms in search of evidence to clear their names, surviving all manner of traps and pitfalls.

Provided to us for review by Blueprint Gaming Concepts (BGC) its a bold entry for first time creators Seth Cooper and Brandt Hoffman but they’ve really stepped up to the mark.

The Setup…

Setup is apt as the game begins with your characters literally caught up in the infamous murders at The World’s Fair Hotel.

From a line-up of 6 you will choose a character with a unique skill set to help in your endeavor that may be used once per game.

From here on in your characters approach the hotel under the looming shadow of the Ferris wheel and cautiously enter via the Pharmacy and prepare themselves for the maze of deadly rooms that reside within.

Evidence is spread throughout the Murder Castle and when the time is right you can gather it, but always mindful that Holmes is stalking you and able to snatch it back at any moment.

At the game start evidence is stored at the imposing Ferris Wheel, where its gondolas are stocked with items drawn from the evidence bag.

Each gondola holds a collection of coloured cubes representing categories of vital proof you will need to fill your evidence boards.

Actions have consequences…

Each round begins with a nominated First Player taking the Skeleton Key and collecting an Action Tile to place on their evidence board.

They can choose to take the Action shown plus its Bonus Action – or do neither as these are both optional.

Play now moves to the Second Player who may choose to repeat this initial Action (but not the Bonus) and this continues until all Players have taken an opportunity of this Action.

The Second Player now selects their own Action Tile (with their unique Action Bonus) and again all Players will have the choice to take this new Action or not.

Eventually each Player will have drawn their own Action Tiles and the round draws to an end…

Now Holmes will make his move…

Holmes is controlled by the current Starting Player of the round.

First a Holmes Movement Card is drawn and then a room is chosen for him to enter and act accordingly.

The round begins a new with the Skeleton Key passing clockwise to a new Starting Player and fresh Action Cards drawn which continues until someone wins the game.

Remember, this is no co-op game…
Moving Holmes can work to your advantage to sabotage another player!

Available Actions…

Explore the Castle

Provided your current room has a doorway leading to an unknown location you can draw a Room Tile and place it face up at that new location.

The tile can be rotated as long as the current rooms door is connecting to a door on the new tile.

If the room requires evidence then the amount shown is drawn from the evidence cubes stored in the Ferris Wheel Gondola and once empty rotate the Gondola clockwise and refresh the available evidence.

Move Rooms

To move to a new room you must be able to pass through a connecting door – the Castle is full of tricks and often doors may lead to no where!

The Bonus for moving a room allows you to rotate the Ferris Wheel to bring fresh evidence to hand. If this fits your strategy of manipulating future evidence this can work for your benefit or deny opportunities for Players!

You can also move 2 or 3 rooms to help you delve further into the Castle.

Collect Evidence

The objective is ultimately to gather Evidence so you can choose to collect evidence from the current room (up to 2 pieces with a Bonus Action.)

Evidence is added to your board based on the matching color, until all slots are filled. If they’re all filled and you still collect it you must add it to the Holmes Strikes! section and take the penalty of removing the amount of evidence as indicated.

Being the Murder Castle traps may also exist that can trigger in your search and send you into a world of trouble!

Draw an Event

Events can make or break a moment – perhaps stealing an essential piece of evidence or alternatively bartering to save yourself at the last minute.

When Events are drawn they are known only to you and while some must be played instantly others are allowed to be kept secret for later use by calling it out in the nick of time!

Move Holmes

Holmes can be moved by an Action Tile but will always move at the end of the round…

The movement cards for Holmes are drawn, read out and undertaken according to the instructions. If there’s a decision to make then the current holder of the Skeleton Key will make that decision for this round – typically to their benefit!

If Holmes moves into a room you are in then you receive a strike and lose the equivalent number of evidence pieces which are returned to the safe of the current room.

Epilogue: Final Thoughts…

For those who know us, we’re suckers for a great story that weaves itself throughout a game and Murder Castle has this theme dead to rights.

Visually it’s table presence is fantastic with a labyrinth of deadly rooms growing as you delve ever deeper into this monument of macabre.

With that in mind artistically everything is looking the right side of disturbing given the theme. Sometimes games can be a little too visceral for general audiences (yes we’re thinking Abominations way too graphical artwork) but Murder Castle is still a comfortable play that maintains it’s infamous and gruesome origins.

As for game play? Well it’s a mixed bag of mechanics for sure – but in that really good way where you can say there’s a little of something for everyone. A compilation of popular modern mechanics well executed and on par for a game of this nature.

You have the suspense of tile laying reminiscent of The Cave or Escape: The Curse of the Temple, an abundance of Euro resourcing as you collect evidence and even the Event Cards bring in a Take That ability to sabotage and add heightened player competition and retribution to the mix.

Overall Murder Castle has so much to offer as an experience with plenty of replayability and we haven’t even broached the inclusion of the 2nd Story expansion!

Admittedly knowledge of the real life events has added to our enthrallment but with a little preamble from any amateur GMs out there it wouldn’t take much to set the backstory.

Coming to Kickstarter this January Murder Castle is a great all rounder with an excellent execution (no pun intended!)

Murder Castle available PLEDGE HERE