Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game

The murder board is optional. You will end up making one.

Portal Games' cooperative investigation game, set firmly in the present day rather than a foggy Victorian London. You and your fellow agents work through a campaign of connected cases, and the modern setting is the point — this is forensics and record-keeping rather than magnifying glasses and hansom cabs. The rating of sixteen and over is a judgement about subject matter, not about how hard the rules are.

Sessions run long. Two to three hours for a single case is normal, which makes this a game for an evening and a table you can leave standing, not something to squeeze in before dinner. If the lighter deduction games have started to feel like they are quietly handing you the answer, this is the one that stops doing that.

Perfect for: The group who finished a murder mystery night and complained, at length and with feeling, that it was too easy.

1–5 players | 120–180 minutes | Age 16+