Deduce or Die! (formally known as Secret Project) is the second game from Hexcell Games and is free to play in your browser. And yes, the exclamation mark is part of the game title.
Deduce or Die! is a deduction game, possibly the best deduction game ever. If you enjoyed Sleuth or Black Vienna then this is the next step up in brain burn. If you are not familiar with those games then think Clue (or Cludo in the British English speaking world) without dice, board or pawns – just the battle of deductive wits.
In Deduce or Die a special deck of cards is dealt to the players, then players interrogate each other to deduce the identity of cards missing from the deck. Once you know the missing cards they point to a card in the hand of one of the players. The first to correctly name the cards and player wins.
Larry Levy designed Deduce or Die! to be played with three decks of ordinary playing cards. When I first played it I fell in love with it but decided it needed its own special cards, so I designed some. That design got me a game designer credit on Board Game Geek.
- Moderation prevents players from making mistakes and unintentionally ruining the game.
- A full history of all the questions and answers from the game is available.
- Helper tools in the interface make it clear which cards are being asked about.
- Players can opt to get email notices when it is their turn, or when anyone takes a turn.
Deduce or Die! is free to play right now on Hexcell Games.
Of course nothing goes smoothly. An eager potential player pointed out to me that the registration form was throwing an error. Embarrassing. Anyway it has been fixed now.