Callapidder Days

Three of a Crime is one of those games that called to me right out of the box. Since I’m addicted to mystery novels and enjoy a good logic puzzle, I knew this was one I wanted to try out with my family. Read on to find out more.

In Three of a Crime, you and your co-players are detectives on the case, trying to nab three bad guys who’ve just committed a crime. You’ll use your reasoning powers to deduce which members of the local gang are innocent… and which ones are guilty.
Three of a Crime is targeted to players 8 and up, and will take 2-6 players about 15 minutes to play.

In a nutshell: The game consists primarily of 35 “suspect cards” (click the picture on right to see examples). Each suspect card has a picture of three members of the local gang of thieves. There are six thieves total, but only three are guilty in any given round, and each card has a different combination drawn from the six possible suspects. When you begin the game, you’ll designate one player as the “eyewitness.” The eyewitness takes the top card from the shuffled, face-down deck, and looks at it without showing any other players — this card designates the three guilty bad guys for the round.

Now the other players — serving as detectives — begin their questioning. The person to the left of the eyewitness goes first. He or she draws a card from the deck, places it face-up on the table, and asks the eyewitness how many — if any — of the pictured suspects are guilty. The eyewitness uses little cardboard markers numbered 0, 1 or 2 to indicate how many guilty suspects are pictured on that card. The witness makes NO indication as to which one(s) of the pictured suspects is guilty, only if there are any — simply by placing a marker on the suspect card.

Play continues around the table, with each detective turning over a card, and the eyewitness indicating how many of the pictured suspects are guilty. Before long, clever players will be able to deduce which three are the ones to nab. At any time, any detective can stop the game by calling out “Accusation!” and proceed to name the three thieves that he or she believes are guilty. If they’re right, they win the round; if not, they’re out for the rest of the round, and play continues.

Keep going until a player has won three rounds.

As I thought I would, I enjoyed this game as a fun kids’ game, and it fulfilled my need to solve crimes (I always wanted to be Nancy Drew when I was little). Chad thought it was a decent kids’ game as well. As for C., he had mixed feelings. It does take logic and reasoning, and while he’s an analytical kid, he’s not usually looking to use those skills when he’s supposed to be “having fun.” One round he loved, because the cards came up in such a way that he was able to figure it out quickly and make a successful accusation. Another round went on for quite a while (again, based on how the cards came up), and we both sat there trying to figure out who in the world was guilty. So I’d say that a kid’s enjoyment of the game would depend on how much they like a logic/deduction challenge. C.’s on the lower end of the age range, so I’m thinking he may enjoy it more as he gets older and as he sharpens his deductive reasoning skills.

In the meantime, it would be easy for us to use this game to “practice” logic skills — by working together as a team and talking through our thought processes. C. would probably enjoy that collaborative approach more, anyway.

In summary:

Three of a Crime

Number of Players: 2-6
Time required: 15 minutes
Ages: 8 and up
Where to buy: Time Well Spent or Amazon.com.

Callapidder recommends it for: Families who enjoy Clue, mystery stories, and showing off their logic skills.

Read more of Callapidder’s Game Reviews by clicking HERE.