Riddle Me This (Crack the Case)

2 men are found in a cabin in the woods.  There are no signs of a struggle or murder.  The both are resting on chairs.  The cabin is made of metal, but there is no sign of any burns or lightning damage on the cabin or the 2 men.  How did they die?
The solution:  They died in an airplane crash.



GAME DESCRIPTION: Crack the Case is a puzzle game for 2 or more players.  Players attempts to solve a mystery from a given scenario, by asking Yes/No questions and applying deductive reasoning.

SET-UP:  The cards are split into 3 difficulty levels, and 1 player is chosen to be the Moderator.  Players split up into 2 teams, and choose the difficulty of their Cases.  Each team takes turns solving a Case.  The Moderator reads each Case and Mystery aloud, reads the Solution and Story silently to themselves, and answers all questions given by the other players, or Investigators.

QUESTIONS:  Investigators may only ask Yes/No questions.  The Moderator may respond with 1 of 7 responses:

• YES:  Answer is clearly yes.
• NO:  Answer is clearly no.
• YES AND NO:  Answer might be Yes or No, but not in a way most people would see it.
• IRRELEVANT:  The question doesn't affect the Case or give any helpful information.
• I DON'T KNOW:  The question may give information, but the answer isn't in the story or solution.
• REPHRASE YOUR QUESTION:  Used if there are two questions in one, or a false assumption was made
• DEFINE WHAT YOU MEAN BY:  Used to clarify a term or question, and help

CLUES:  If the Investigators are at any point stuck, they may take a time penalty, and are given one of the clues located at the top of the card.  If they are still stuck, they can take the other clue for another penalty.  Each penalty is different, and specified according to the clue.  But, if an Investigator can prove they knew the information given before the clue was read, the time penalty doesn't apply.

CASE SOLVED:  At the end of each Case, the Moderator stops the clock, adds up any penalties, and awards the appropriate amount of points shown on the card to the team that played this case.  The game ends when each team has finished 3 Cases, with the winners being the team with the most points.  

CONCLUSION:  This is a fairly hard game, even if you only play the easy cases.  A lot of the Cases that are given are word-play, such as a mint and a plate being not a sugar mint and dinner plate, but a bank mint and money plate.  It requires a mind that likes to be challenged with difficult riddles and puns.  If you are that type of person, and can find some like minded friends, then this is a great, solid game.