The Lost Tomb of the Queen

Created by: AveLIVEX
5 to 10 players

AveLIVEX has created several online escape games, which might explain why this jubensha includes escape-room-style puzzles alongside the central mystery.

It’s available in two modes: Murder Mystery, the traditional role-playing format where the culprit can lie in order to escape suspicion; and Crime Scene Investigation, a co-op format where players just read the testimonies of suspects.

The game is played at offline premises, but makes extensive use of an online interface. I liked that they had physical replicas of some items, which were more fun to work with than the digital versions.

The escape room puzzles were okay: a few questionable design decisions, but also a couple of fun ideas. I wouldn’t play this with the puzzles in mind, but they generally added to rather than detracted from the experience.

The central mystery itself is solid, spreading suspicion around while preserving clear paths towards the truth. We played the CSI version, but I think the Murder Mystery format might be more fun — there’s some room for the murderer to manoeuvre, especially as the digital format imposes artificial difficulty in keeping track of the evidence.

The game serves as a good introductory jubensha, with a forgiving three hour runtime, fun touches such as costumes, and a relatively straightforward plot. As a rare English game in Singapore, it’s certainly worth playing.

There might still be tickets left for this weekend’s run; I can imagine this working for corporate groups as well.

搞钱

As this is a commercial boxed game, many Chinese reviews exist; you might want to check them out too.

Played at: 梦回 Another Day
7-10 players

《搞钱》is a light-hearted 欢乐 case with laughably negligible mystery-solving. It focuses on game mechanics (机制) instead, with the premise that you’re businesspeople trying to make the right investments.

Each character has secrets to hide and mysteries to figure out, and there’s some reasoning involved re: investments, but it’s all pretty lightweight. Like 《日日是好日》, this is chiefly jubensha-as-social-activity, not jubensha-as-intellectual-exercise.

The fact that it accommodates 7 to 10 players is convenient if you can’t confirm exact numbers. Play it with a group of friends if you like the idea of gleeful roleplaying, alliance-forming, semi-serious business proposal evaluation, or mild game theory-ish calculation; don’t expect much else.

Try if you like: Light-hearted business and investment games; alliance-building; interacting with the DM and other players.

Not recommended for: Players who care about investigation and murders; players uninterested in alliance-forming.