The Games and Puzzles Book of Modern Board Games - 1975

Front Cover Click Image to Enlarge	Modern Board Games, edited by David Pritchard, takes a now-retro look at some of Great Britain's (and America's!) favorite board games. Cluedo ('Murder at Tudor Close') takes 8th place out of 13 and comes just ahead of such favorites as Tri-Tactics and Escape from Colditz. The 9 page article by David Parlett starts quite simply as he describes the game as “...undoubtably the greatest product of the post-war tail-end of the detective epoch.”

Page 107 Click Image to Enlarge	Page 110 Click Image to Enlarge

Reverse Cover Description:

Monopoly probably ranks second only to chess among favourite board games. Close behind are other commercially developed games, immensely popular and no less entertaining. diplomacy, a strikingly original battle of wits, and Mastermind a simple game of great profundity, are only two examples of such.

Modern Board Games covers thirteen of the most popular board games of today in detail - history, rules, strategy, how to win. The selection has been made by the test panel of Games & Puzzles magazine and each game has been described, with illustrations and examples of play, by an expert.

Here is an essential book for everyone who has an intelligent interest in indoor games. Modern Board Games is a guide to good play, a reference work, a social document (in that it analyses our leisure preferences) and also an entertainment in its own right. Despite its authority, the book is written in lively style and is edited, with an introduction by David Pritchard, the editor of Games & Puzzles. It shows you how to enjoy some of the world's most ingenious games in the most satisfying of all ways - by winning!

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Beneath the minty green cover that offers no hint of Cluedo, the article which spans from pages 102 to 110 pretty much is as described on the back cover. It begins with a brief background, introducing Dr. Black and the suspects followed by the location information. The author states, “It is quite obvious by the scuff marks that the murder was not committed at the bottom of the steps, but that the body had been dragged from one of the rooms on the ground floor.” Scuff marks? What scuff marks? This was the first of many liberties followed soon after by such bon mot as “Dr Black was quite famous for always keeping a stout piece of rope handy in the ballroom, in case his braces snapped when he was dancing...”

The book continues on with the “Description of the game” which dryly recaps the rules and compares it to other games - all the while referring to the solution envelope as the “Murder Bag.”

The next section, “How to play successfully” introduces the diagram on page 107. The author explains the importance of purposefully moving about the board and shows the number of steps it takes to travel between rooms. He continues to debate the advantages of being called into rooms and using the secret passages but doesn't go as far as to suggest which is the best method.

Lastly (save for the concluding paragraph), the author spends three pages (including the illustration on page 110) exploring “How to make detective notes.” Unfortunately, the text is dense and complex and the author manages to turn Cluedo in the a giant logic puzzle which is somehow squeezed into the small detective notepad and requires a bit more extensive memorization. It's a bit too complicated to describe here. Ultimately, it does suck much of the fun out of the game.

Maybe winning isn't everything.

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Editor: David Pritchard
ISBN: 0860020592
Format: Hardcover, 144 pages
Pub. Date: 1975
Publisher: William Luscombe Publisher Ltd.

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