Played this game for the first time last night, and had a great time! We were only able to get through the first journal phase due to time, but we're hoping to come back to it in a few weeks. There were a couple of points we stumbled over while playing — some of which are answered in other comments here — so I rounded up some feedback from my play group in case it's helpful for future editions:
- First off, love that this game is formatted to be read through as we played. It made the game very easy to bring to the table without having to do a bunch of reading ahead or facilitating.
- Some of the killer's movement rules could be more explicitly spelled out:
- It moves diagonally (not clear if you don't know chess)
- It does not move onto Suspect squares that have not been filled out/added (unless you want to add a Suspect?)
- Note: we were playing in Google Slides, so I made a grid of text boxes as shown on page 6, akin to the Worksheet
- Including a diagram of an in-progress journal would help; all current visualizations depict a complete grid
- Mini movement diagram like the one for the Sleuth would be helpful
- What should happen when the killer moves onto a Suspect with no open adjacent spots? That is, all the Clues and Suspects around that Suspect have been filled out.
- We skipped the Chapter and drew again, unless The Pieces [Were] in Place.
- Optional random tables/oracles would help Suspect creation go faster, e.g., names, commendable qualities, abhorrent qualities
- Could use 6-Q cards for additional details
- Some example Chapter titles would be helpful; wasn't sure how to title these differently than just whatever the Clue is (this might become more clear in the second part of the game?)
- Loved word choice of "commendable" and "abhorrent" qualities, very evocative
- Defining the abhorrent quality made clues flow naturally once we had Suspects established, great mechanic
- Only got through the first Journal phase, but had a good time and the note-taking of the game means we can pick it back up later
Hope this is helpful! Thank you for creating this game!