Grey Fox Games Deception: Murder in Hong Kong Board Game

Product Description

In Deception: Murder in Hong Kong, players find themselves in a scenario of intrigue and murder, deduction and deception. One player is the murderer, secretly choosing their weapon and the evidence they leave behind. Another is the forensic scientist who holds the key to convicting the criminal but is only able to express their knowledge through analysis of the scene. The rest are investigators, interpreting the clues to solve the crime and the killer is among them.

Top Reviews

One of My Favorite Games - Solid Expansion
by n00b (4 out of 5 stars)
February 20, 2018

One of my favorite party/deduction games. This is a solid expansion but fyi
- The box it comes in is basically a mini-version of the base game box.
- More cards, more tiles, more role cards.... yay

The main negative
- The back of these new role cards are different from the backs of the base game role cards which means... you will have to sleeve all your role cards (a sleeve that has a solid colored back side) otherwise it would be easy to spot which players have a special role.
- My base game has a hard time holding all the components by itself, so I'm not sure it can carry more tiles/cards. I wish this expansion came with a deeper insert that could better hold everything.
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New additions add a much needed challenge!! Fantastic Expansion!!
by Luke Marrs (5 out of 5 stars)
February 26, 2018

To start off, I would like to profess my love of the original version of this game. When I first played this with a group of friends at a Christmas party a few years ago, it blew us all away. It's such an immersive and interactive party game unlike any other. It truly gets your methodical brain going for the good guys, and your game-face and acting abilities going if your'e the bad guys! I can't tell you how many hours upon hours I have played this game, and how many circles of friends I have introduced this to, who all fell in love with it just as I did.

That being said! After you play the original game so many times, you do kind of get to boil it down to a science. When you really have a firm grasp of all the different weapons and clues and scenarios, it becomes noticeably favorable for the investigators to narrow down their suspect and eventually deduce what the killer used for his or her crime. Eventually you start implementing house rules and game variants to try to make it harder for the investigators to catch the murderer.

IN COMES 'UNDERCOVER ALLIES' TO THE RESCUE!! Wow, what a breath of fresh air! This game adds just the right amount of elements I feel the original needed to keep it fresh, explore new ways to enjoy the game, but also keep the core elements of what made the original so great. Again the new roles add just the right amount of balance that this game needed to make it a much less one-sided game for the good guys. Not only that but because there are more roles to play, more people get a chance to interact with the game in their own unique way, other than just being a standard investigator like everyone else. Also it helps out a lot that they have added a bunch more evidence and weapon cards to the mix. I really feel like they hit the nail on the head with this expansion, as far as ironing out any problems the original may have had. Like I said, they added just enough new elements to keep it fresh, balanced, and unique, while still keeping the core of the game that makes it so much fun. I am truly a big fan of this expansion, and I can't wait to play it again and again with my groups of friends!

As far as the physical contents goes, there are a few things to note. One is that the role cards are all crispy clean fresh! Awesome, right?! Well, not so much if the original game you own is weathered and worn down, because now your crispy new expansion roles will be among your worn down original roles, and it might give away who has what if people take notice. An easy fix for this is to get card sleeves for your role cards. As far as packaging your new cards in with your original box, there should be plenty of room for your evidence, weapon, and role cards, but there seem to be a few too many clue tiles. You can still get it to fit int he box, but it's a little cramped, as the tiles will overflow a little bit. I believe the kickstarter box for the expansion is big enough. Bummer for those of us who didn't kickstart it though! It's not a big deal though.

Exclusive Kickstarter role** The kickstarter included an extra role that you can easily implement yourself. That is the "Clever Accomplice" which replaces the normal accomplice. The rules for the clever accomplice are the same as the the original accomplice BUT as an extra level of difficulty, the clever accomplice chooses a piece of evidence and a weapon from a DIFFERENT character than the murderer. If these 2 pieces are ever accused of being the murderer by someone, the murderer team automatically wins the game. So the idea is for the clever accomplice to choose 2 things that are very similar to what the murderer has, in order to get people to guess that instead. Pretty sneaky!!

Pros:
-More Weapons and Evidence cards
-More roles make it more fun for larger games
-Game Is much more challenging for investigators to win (It's a fair fight now, as opposed to investigators always winning)
-One of the best party games ever made

Cons:
-New role cards give themselves away in an old deck. You'll need card sleeves to hide this
-Adds elements that might make it TOO challenging for the investigators, but luckily there are several new way to tone down and adjust the difficulty.
-New tiles done quite fit in the box perfectly. Not a big deal though, just a little overflow

If you're a fan of the first game, or even if you've never played the first game, you will absolutely LOVE this game. Your friends won't stop talking about how much they love this game. So much more involved than your typical party game. There's just no end to the fun you'll have!!
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Worth every cents!!
by Amazon Customer (5 out of 5 stars)
November 13, 2016

Really quickly became the game my group plays the most! It's a great game that brings good deduction mechanics and most importantly a big laughs&funs!

I played about 10 games so far (6ppl & 4ppl) and here are my impressions:
- It's really fast (15-30 depending on no. of players) and non gamers can easily pick up and also be really good at this game.
- I love the components and its quality. Though I still used card sleeves to protect the role cards. If murderer card has some distinct damage or fold it will kill the game.
- It's easy to swap away your Forensic Scientist role without affecting the game (if you don't like the role).
- Murderer has much less pressure compared to other games like Resistance. It's really hard to tell who the murderer is from their behaviours as everyone's cards would match some of clues given. Also guessing the murderer won't finish the game as you have to guess the 2 cards completely correctly. So it's much more proper deduction than sniffing out the bad guy(s) which I really like about the game.
- I would say it's slightly easier for murderer to win. It's mainly because some of the clue tiles cannot help to guess some cards at all (e.g. weapon is a poison and clue tile is weather). And you only get to change 2 clue tiles only.
- Definitely would be more fun with large number of players (I think 6-8 would be perfect).

I really really really hope to see an expansion for this game as there are good room for improvements such as adding more cards, roles, events, mechanics. I am not saying this game is not great yet but I can see that it can become even greater game with more stuff. Please make an expansion !!
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Perfect game for a social night with anywhere from 4 to 12 friends...
by Honest Reviewer,Top Contributor: Woodworking (5 out of 5 stars)
February 11, 2018

This is my favorite game to bring to a dinner party or wine/cocktail night with friends. It plays well with 4 players, but excels at 6 or more.

The premise of the game is that a murder has taken place, and the killer tries to mislead the investigators while hiding among them. Each player is randomly assigned a character role, and randomly dealt 4 evidence cards and weapon cards. The player assigned the role of Forensic Scientist silently uses cards and markers to try to guide the investigators to their win condition - identify the killer, key evidence, and weapon.

It's a very easy game to learn, and equally easy to teach. When there are six or more players in it, additional player roles can boost the complexity to make the web of deceit more difficult to untangle. With four to five players, the game is still fun, but often easier for investigators. The visual aesthetic to the game is pretty great - very clear, creative, mature.

I'd strongly recommend this game - great for a social night with friends, no matter their familiarity with board games, and accommodating anywhere from 4-12 players.
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A great group game that makes for some interesting arguments
by Ernesto,Top Contributor: Board Games (5 out of 5 stars)
February 24, 2017

A great group game that makes for some interesting arguments. Deception: Murder in Hong Kong is a hidden role game that begins with all, but one, player receiving cards that represent the murder weapon, 4 cards, and evidence left behind, 4 cards. The killer will choose one card each that is in front of him for the players to figure out. In Deception there are several roles the players take on; Forensic scientist, witness, killer, and accomplice. The forensic scientist is trying to help the group figure out who the killer is using special tiles. Each tile has word blurbs of a particular type of death, location, etc. The death tile always starts the game and has words listed like poison, severe injury, suffocation for the player to choose from. Each word placement on the 8 tiles the forensic player has will inch the players closer to who the killer may be. The issue is all the players have cards and a wrong word use can get the players to look at the wrong person. With six players, game plays very well with six, the game includes the roles witness and accomplice. When the killer chooses his weapons it is with their accomplice, whose sole goal is to through the rest of the group off by either making it seem they are the killer or someone else is. The witness brings the complication of knowing who the killer and accomplice is, but not exactly which or their evidence. The witness's job is to push the other players towards the people who did the murder. When a witness is involved in the game it also allows the killer to snatch victory away from the players. In a standard game when the players figure out the killer the game is over, but in a game with a witness the killer and accomplice have a chance to win if they figure out the witness player. This forces the witness to keep himself from being too obvious when pushing the other players towards the killer.

The game is great, and really fast as a game can take 20-40 minutes to play. I prefer playing with a 6 player count as the witness and accomplice add a lot to the game. The abstract nature of the game allows players to make outlandish leaps about what the clues the forensic scientist is giving. This is funny as sometimes those outlandish leaps do not involve the killer or accomplice.
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Social deduction at it's finest!
by Kevin Griffin (5 out of 5 stars)
January 2, 2018

One of my favorite social deduction games.

This game came highly recommended and it did not disappoint. I've played it with coworkers, family, friends and my gaming group. It almost never just gets played once, everyone wants to go again immediately.

In this game for 4-12 players(I'd say 8 being best), one person plays a forensic scientist and everyone else plays as an investigator. Players are dealt 4 clue cards(main clue or piece of evidence) and 4 means cards(murder weapon) which are laid in front of them for everyone to see. A role card is also dealt out to everyone, secretly looked at and one of the players is the murder. The investigators all close there eyes and the forensic scientist tells the murder to open their eyes and point to one of their clue cards and one of their means card at the beginning of the game. These are now the clue and means cards that must be chosen by the other players to win the game. There are options to add other roles as well such as the accomplice and witness.

The forensic scientist is leading the game by putting markers on randomly drawn scene cards that contain abstract clues to try and lead the investigators to guess who the murder is, what the main clue is and what the means of murder is. It is incredibly fun to play as the forensic scientist as it can actually be really difficult to point people in the right direction. It's also your job to give everyone a chance to speak so each player can try to persuade the other players who they think the murder might be and how they did it. An official guess can be made at anytime during the game but each player only gets one official guess. The forensic scientist then says yes or no to the guess...they are not allowed to say if one or none of the persons guess was right.

The murder is secretly trying to persuade the other players to waste their guess on an innocent player, downplaying their own possibility of being the murderer.

Lots of good interaction here and very easy to get people involved. A blazing fast setup and a quick rules explanation and you're off to solving the crime. There is a huge amount of clue and means cards as well as forensic scientist scene cards so the game could stay fresh for hundreds of plays.

Highly recommend this social deduction game!
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Highly recommended!
by T! (5 out of 5 stars)
October 12, 2017

If you've played Mafia, Werewolf, The Resistance, etc., and even remotely enjoyed them: You will probably like this game a lot. What makes me enjoy it far more than others (including The Resistance) is that *everyone* has something to talk about, or observe, from the outset of the game. (Whereas with The Resistance the first round is usually kind of a wash, etc).

Another great aspect: It's easy to change the relative difficulty, depending on your group, etc. There are several flexible elements to the game that can be changed.

I've successfully played this with some "table-top newcomers" and they understood the game and were "into it" quickly, and we played through about 8 times in one evening.

I think it's best played with 5 to 12 people.

Also, the game is about solving murders: It should be obvious that there are some *potentially* "adult" themes (murder. hello.) and I wouldn't necessarily recommend this to the 11-and-under crowd.
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Player size should be 6+.
by Sean (3 out of 5 stars)
January 5, 2019

I want to preface this with my group size was 4 so we had 1 Forensic Scientist, 1 murderer and 2 investigators. A lot of what I find bad about this game would probably be fixed with 6 or more players. I wish the player size indications were more descriptive from manufacturers. This is very clearly a CAN be played with 4 but really should be 6+.

This game is very round dependent. Some rounds give the murderer a lot of room to talk the group away from them and some rounds they are just absolutely screwed. This gives players a horrible feeling if the one round they are murderer they didn't stand a chance. We tried playing 2 different sessions.

I would also like to mention multiple playthroughs with the same group will end up with a lot of hints and guided play. My group very quickly figured out how to word things to get the forensic scientist to react. Then it only really takes 1 investigator to be close to win the game.

Overall I will say I did like differences in this game to other in the genre, I just feel like it needs a slight tweak to make this game usable for smaller groups. I feel like the extra roles would fix a lot of what I said here but I can't give stars on conjecture.
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Best of the hidden role games out there!
by R. Newman (5 out of 5 stars)
August 30, 2019

This game is a hit with several gaming groups I am in. It is fairly easy to teach, but like with a lot of these hidden role games, you either have to explain to players how they "should" act (like pretending to be good, until you cannot any longer), or you just let them stumble through a bit on their own.. which can have a negative effect for some, so just be aware of that. The role of the forensic scientist is a little boring but it can be a good challenge to try and point to the murderer with whatever random scene cards come up.. I rarely give out five stars for anything as to me, unlike many others, five stars means perfection.. nothing better.. but I am breaking my own rule a bit for this game, it's not perfect, there can be some confusion and down time, but we have house rules for getting around some of that.. GET IT
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Best, most engaging party game for gamers and non-gamers alike.
by Bryan Lane (5 out of 5 stars)
April 10, 2017

Awesome party game for a smallish gathering. We played the other night for about 3 to 4 hours non-stop (probably 4 games in a row). In fact we played with 13 people by simply assigning the forensic investigator and then using that forensic investigator card as just another normal investigator and it worked perfectly. We did modify the rules a bit so that we each had only 3 of each card type in front of us as 4 of each is a bit overwhelming when playing with a larger number of of players. This game is totally an Avalon or Resistance killer for me and my group and it was honestly the first time that I think I've every introduced a game where everyone was totally involved (included non-gamer people). No one was talking about non-game related topics like movies or other general social topics like work or whatever, it was that engaging for all. The whole time everyone was totally focused on the game and it was so much fun. I would encourage taking some liberty with a few rules such as with a 4 player game, increase the number of cards to 5 of each type and perhaps give people two guessing tokens while as I've already suggested that in a larger game you might want to reduce the number of cards of each type down to 3 per person. Such a great game and so much fun for such a reasonable price. Here's another tip... make sure you put protective sleeves on the 12 secret identity cards to protect them from unwanted marks. For example, if someone scratches or defaces in any way the back of the murderer card, that pretty much screws up the game.

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