A deduction game for those who don't like deduction games? Can this be possible? Brother Adelmo has been murdered and one of the residents of Templar Abbey is the culprit. Was it a Franciscan or a Benedictine? Was he clean shaven? Did he wear a hood? Was he fat or skinny?
At the core of the game are 24 cards, each showing a
suspect and listing his characteristics: Order, Title, Hood,
Facial Hair and Girth. These are shuffled and one is removed (this
is the murderer who the players are trying to determine). The rest
are dealt evenly amongst the players with any left over placed in
the Parlor. The players then assemble in the Chapel and the game
begins.
On your turn you may move one or two spaces on the beautifully illustrated board. Many of the spaces have a special function - draw a special card from the Scriptorium, steal a card from another player by snooping in his Cell, take a suspect card in the Parlor, etc. Additionally, if you land on a space that contains another player you may ask him any question you like. The only restriction is that you cannot ask a question in which the answer would involve naming one of the monks, other than this, anything goes. The questioned player does have the right to invoke a vow of silence but if he answers he may then ask you a question in return. This continues for four rounds at which point mass is called and the players return to the Chapel where they will exchange cards. At first this involves passing a single card to the opponent on your right but at subsequent masses it will be two cards, then three and so on. This passing of the cards has a very profound effect on the nature of the game and I will come back to this later. The game continues until someone successfully identifies the murderer.
The first problem that players will become aware of is the difficulty in devising questions. Since any answer is given aloud, you generally help all the other players as much as you help yourself. If Bob tells you that he's seen Brother Guy then everyone knows to cross him off the list. Obviously you want to ask questions that tell you a bit of information and leave everyone else in the dark but this can be rather difficult to achieve. For example, you may have two of the three Templar Novices in your hand. If you ask Fred how many Templar Novices he has and he answers "one", then you know exactly which one whereas the other players do not. The problem is that in this case you're more likely to receive an answer of "zero" which does not tell you much. "Aha!" you say, but now you know that Fred does not have a particular card and you can then use that information to devise further, more complicated forms of deduction. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Why? Well, at the next mass (at the latest) Fred will be acquire one or more cards. Perhaps one will be the remaining Templar Novice? Either way, you can no longer be sure that he does not have a particular card in his hand. It's this passing of cards that will drive the analytic player batty. Attempting to logically determine the other players' hands as you would in Clue or Black Vienna will be a very frustrating experience that will likely result in despair.
It strikes me that this is not at all by accident and that the game is intended to be approached in a more light-hearted fashion. Rather than playing according to a strict line of questioning, you should be more liberal and "loose" with your investigation. Rely more on intuition than cold hard facts. It should be noted that unlike other games you are not eliminated if you make an incorrect accusation, so even if you're only "pretty sure" it may be worth guessing. There are a number of special cards that further indicate that Mystery of the Abbey should not be taken all too seriously—one requires that all players spend an entire round speaking only in a Gregorian chant! Much in the game indicates that it's the flavour and atmosphere that is to be emphasized and I think it works best when the players accept this. One potential problem with the underlying mechanics is the open ended nature of the questions. Since you can ask pretty much anything, this really creates the potential for abuse. I've read some accounts on the Internet that included questions that come very close to breaking the game. These are pretty obviously against the spirit of the game but are troublesome none the less. Again, it points to the idea that you really do need to play Mystery of the Abbey the way its designer intended although this may be difficult for some.
As I already stated, the game continues until one
player correctly identifies the culprit at which point scores are
calculated and the winner determined. Scores? That's right,
identifying the murderer does not automatically win the game as
you might suspect, rather it earns you four victory points.
However, players also earn victory points throughout the game by
making revelations at the Chapter Hall. A revelation is a positive
declaration about one aspect of the murderer, made aloud to all
the players. e.g. "The murderer is a Franciscan." or
"The murderer wears a hood." For each correct revelation
a player makes, he receives two victory points. If a revelation
turns out to be false, he loses one victory point. (You are
allowed to make contradictory revelations although you cannot
duplicate one previously made.) To my mind this scoring system
simply does not work. The reason is that ties are broken in favour
of the player correctly identifying the killer. This means that in
order for you to win without identifying the killer, you
must make three correct revelations. (Remember there are only five
attributes in total.) While this is certainly possible it seems
rather unlikely. The Chapter Hall is five spaces from the Chapel
so you can generally only make one revelation per round (you
cannot exit and then re-enter the same room in one turn). You're
simply not likely to have time to both deduce three
characteristics and make the necessary revelations before the
culprit is identified. Further, if even one other player is also
making (correct) revelations it's absolutely guaranteed that one
of you will not be able to attain enough points to win. In my
experience players are very reluctant to make revelations unless
they are sure and if they are, there's little incentive to do so
as it would help everyone else. Even if you absolutely knew three
attributes it's more likely that you could determine the remaining
two before you could actually make the three revelations. In
short, a reasonable player will simply not bother making
revelations and instead concentrate on identifying the killer.
Graphically, Mystery of the Abbey is one of the most impressive games I own, it is simply gorgeous. The board is a work of art with all sorts of wonderful little features and details, more importantly, it is very clean and functional. The cards are of excellent quality and well designed. I especially liked the fact that the eight mass cards showed a different time of day which nicely reflected the passing of time. The turn indicator is a little bell (which is rung to call the players to mass) and the player figures themselves are little resin monks! Wonderful stuff. Even the suspect sheets are in colour although they do not actually give you any room to make notes. (An all too common problem for deduction games.) I found that it was best to use these sheets simply to mark who you have seen and use a separate sheet for notes and deductions.
So, what's the final verdict for Mystery of the Abbey? I must admit that I'm conflicted. I'm a real fan of deduction games, absolutely love the production and think the theme is superb. However, in many ways it isn't a deduction game! The passing of cards really does "gum up the works" of any sort of logical inferences you may hope to make. If you try to approach the game with a coldly logical approach (something I am personally inclined to do) you will often be rather frustrated. However, this can be seen as a feature and not a bug. The problem with many deduction games is that there is often a wide variance in the abilities of the players. It's not too much fun to play a game if you know that Al is going to win before you've even started. Mystery of the Abbey does an excellent job of leveling the field albeit at the expense of adding a generous dose of luck. How you feel about this will largely determine if the game is for you. If you prefer a game of logic and deduction, I suspect that you'll be very disappointed and would steer you towards other games in the genre. If you want a light, luck filled game with a modicum of deduction then I think you'll really enjoy Mystery of the Abbey.
- Greg Aleknevicus
