Kill Doctor Lucky: 19.5th Anniversary Edition pits 2-8 players on the surprisingly difficult task: kill Doctor Lucky!
Everyone is at this mansion with one thought on their mind, to do the good doctor in, but no one wants to get caught doing it. Players all start in the drawing room and will move around the board, trying to corner Doctor Lucky alone in a room with no witnesses. Line-of-sight factors in here, so if you are in a room whose doorway faces a room with another player in it, you cannot take any actions and must go about minding your own business.
A player’s turn is divided into 2 phases; movement and action. The first phase is the movement phase. In this phase, the player is allowed to take one free move from one room to another. Hallways don’t count as a room, so a player is allowed to freely move through them. They are also allowed to play a movement card to add 1 or 2 steps to their normal movement. This number is specified on the card. You can play as many move cards as you want, before your free move action.
The next phase is the action phase. In this phase, a player is allowed to take one action. The actions are to draw a card or try to kill Doctor Lucky. This phase is optional as there are sometimes when the player is not able to perform either action. To draw a card, the player must be in a room where no one including Doctor Lucky can see them. This is based on the line of sight rule. If they are able to meet the requirements, then they can draw one card from the top of the deck. If there are no more cards left to draw, then the lights go out. This means that sight lines are no longer in play, making it easier to kill Doctor Lucky.
You can also attempt another action on your turn, and that is to try and kill Doctor Lucky. To do this, the player must be alone in a room with Doctor Lucky and not be able to be seen by any other players, based on sight lines. They may then play a weapon card to increase their chance of success. The strength of the player’s murder attempt is then determined based on the basic strength and value of the weapon used in the attempt. Each character begins with only a strength of 1. Each time the player fails to murder him, their strength increases as they gain a “Reason”. The basic strength and strength of the weapon card are added together. In should be noted that some weapons are worth more when used in the corresponding room. Once the combined strength of the attempt is determined, players are then allowed, in turn, order, to discard cards from their hand in an attempt to foil the murder attempt by contributing to Doctor Lucky’s Luck. This is represented by the four leaf clovers on some of the cards. Each clover adds 1 to his luck. Players are allowed to play as many cards with luck on them as they’d like or they may pass if they’d like. As long as the players are able to meet or exceed the strength of the murder attempt, then the player fails to kill Doctor Lucky. If the player’s foil the attempt, then the cards used are sent to the discard pile, except for 1 card. This card is placed facedown beneath the player’s character card as a “Reason”. This card adds 1 to the player’s future murder attempts. If for some reason the other players are unable to stop the attempt or chose not to, then the murderer wins.
In addition to the standard game, this anniversary edition includes a bunch of variants including a token which serves as Doctor Lucky’s Dog (or Cat, depending on preference) which adds additional obstacles to the murderous mayhem and a “turn the tables” option (“Escape from Lucky Mansion!) where Dr. Lucky has “risen from the dead” intent on revenge and to murder the players. In this option, the last player to survive wins!
COMPONENTS
The game board of the mansions is well made and has great colors to it, you can read it all around the table. The pawns are well made of wood and come in various colors. They are sturdy and I think will hold up to many plays.
The cards are of a good stock and also has great artwork on them, and the text is very easy to read, which as you all know is a major thing for me.
RULEBOOK
The rulebook starts with a brief narrative into the world of Doctor Lucky. All the basics for setting up and playing the game with any amount of players is included. It even gives information on which rooms to shut off on both sides of the board for fewer players. Everything is quite simple to read and understand. The rulebook also includes rules for 2 players as well as all the variants that I mentioned earlier. There are great photos in the book that show you various gameplay situations. Overall great rulebook and easy to read and learn.
Final Thoughts
Kill Doctor Lucky 19.5th Anniversary Edition is a lightweight game of hand management with a Clue look and feel, I’m not saying it’s a direct ripoff of the clue, but it has the same “feel” as clue with a darker twist. It has the “take that, screw your friends” element that we are love, well at least my group of friends does, we had a blast stopping someone from killing Doctor Lucky, “Not so fast Sir!” The only problem I had with the game is the “Riding the lucky train” aspect, it’s an interesting twist, but the problem was one of my friends I was playing with used this to his advantage and got like 4 turns in a row. which is within the rules, but I think it needs to be tweaked a bit.
Kill Doctor Lucky 19.5 Anniversary Edition is a great game to grab a few beers and start off a fun game night with, it plays fast and it a blast to play.
Kill Doctor Lucky 19.5 Anniversary Edition can be purchased via Cheapass games website or via Amazon
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