なかよし村殺人事件 (Nakayoshi Murder case)

なかよし村殺人事件 (Nakayoshimura Satsujinjiken) (Nakayoshi Murder Case) is a werewolf-style deduction game from Japan. It has a day and night phase, and the players must deduce who the murderer might be, but is not run by a player and the culprit is not actually known until the end of the game.

Nakayoshi is a peaceful little village, and everybody shares everything. Their belongings, their family, even their destiny. But one morning, a body is found, clearly murdered. And suddenly a detective arrives in the village to interrogate all the suspects. Can the murderer be found, or will they escape justice?

The game has only 14 cards, which are shuffled, and a card dealt face-down in front of each player. In the day phase, the players can look at the card dealt to them in secret and discuss the situation. At night, the night-crawler phase occurs. Each player closes their eyes, and in turn, one player may open their eyes and examine one card to the left or right of them, and may, or may not, swap the cards or make it sound is if they have. When all the players have had their own night-crawl, the next day begins and the players can again look at their card and discuss things.

At the end of the game, the culprit is the player with the highest total value of cards against them, being the card in front and to the left and right of them. The cards are things such as murder weapons, or motives such as passion.

If the villagers can identify the culprit at the end of the game, they win. If the culprit is not found, the culprit wins. But the actual culprit is not resolved until the final reveal. By moving cards between one another, players might draw attention to themselves, but might also deduce who is the real culprit.

The game is designed for 3 to 7 players normally, but with 2 player rules too. the designer suggests that the unused cards could be made open to players if they wanted extra information. user summary