presentation

3 Secrets

Cooperative detecting

A case of three secrets needs to be solved; you have five minutes for each secret. One of the players is the undercover investigator and can assist, as he knows the secrets. The cards in the game are illustrated in black & white and show the main character in a situation; three details of the picture are colored. Those details represent the secrets that must be solved; their color indicates the level of difficulty, from green for easy via yellow, orange, red, light blue and dark blue to purple for difficult.

An app for the game can be downloaded for free and works as a timer; you can, however, play with or without the app.

One card is randomly drawn, and the investigator reads the back side. All play simultaneously and as a team. Players can ask any questions and discuss the case; the investigator can only speak if asked and his answers are restricted to “yes”, “no”, “not completely” and “this is irrelevant”. The card carries one clue per secret, which the investigator can give anytime. This, however, halves the remaining time for solving the secret and no other clue can be given until the time for the secret runs out or another secret is solved. An example: The lady in the image has green lips - the clue for this is “She loves her job!” However, at least in my opinion, the image does not really give a clue or information on her job.

The basic concept is similar to Black Stories, the cases are rather macabre and already rother difficult in the green level; you need quite a lot of imagination and creativity to interpret the colored details, as the details usually are not connected, either.

Players: 2-8

Age: 14+

Time: 15

Designer: Martino Chiacchiera, Pierluca Zizzi

Artist: Werther dell'Edera

Price: ca. 10 Euro

Publisher: Abacusspiele 2017

Web: www.abacusspiele.de

Genre: Cooperative deduction

Users: With friends

Special: Many players

Version: de

Rules: de en it

In-game text: yes

Comments:

Cases are brutal and macabre

Secrets usually not connected

Lots of creative imagination needed

Hints are also difficult to interpret

Compares to:

Black Stories

Other editions:

dV Giochi (en, it)

Chance (pink): 0

Tactic (turquoise): 1

Strategy (blue): 0

Creativity (dark blue): 3

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 1

Communication (red): 3

Interaction (brown): 0

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0