3. Place the empty envelope marked “Case File CONFIDENTIAL” onto the “X” in the
center of the board.
4. Sort the pack of cards into three groups: Suspects, Rooms and Weapons. Shuffle each
group separately and place each face down on the table. Then—so no one can see
them—take the top card from each group and place it into the envelope. The Case File
now contains the answers to the questions: Who? Where? What Weapon?
5. Shuffle together the three piles of remaining cards. Then deal them face down
clockwise around the table. (It doesn’t matter if some players receive more cards than
others.) Secretly look at your own cards: Because they’re in your hand, they can’t be in
the Case File—which means none of your cards was involved in the crime!
6. Take a detective’s notebook sheet and, so no one can see what you write, fold it in half:
Check off the cards that are in your hand, if you wish.
7. Miss Scarlet—the player with the red token—always plays first. Play then proceeds, in
turn, to the first player’s left.
GAME PLAY
Moving Your Token
On each turn, try to reach a different room of the mansion. To start your turn, move your
token either by rolling the die or, if you’re in a corner room, using a Secret Passage:
Rolling
Roll the die and move your token the number of squares you rolled.
• You may move horizontally or vertically, forward or backward, but not diagonally.
• You may change directions as many times as your roll will allow. You may not,
however, enter the same square twice on the same turn.
• You may not enter or land on a square that’s already occupied by another suspect.
Secret Passages
The rooms in opposite corners of the mansion are connected by Secret Passages.
If you’re in one of these rooms at the start of your turn, you may, if you wish, use a Secret
Passage instead of rolling. To move through a Secret Passage, announce that you wish to
do so, then move your token to the room in the opposite corner.
Entering and Leaving a Room
You may enter or leave a room either by rolling the die and moving through
a door, or by moving through a Secret Passage.
• A door is the opening in the wall, not the space in front of the doorway.
When you pass through a door, do not count the doorway itself as a space.
• You may not pass through a door that’s blocked by an opponent’s token.
• As soon as you enter a room, stop moving. It doesn’t matter if you roll
a number that’s higher than you need to enter.
• You may not re-enter the same room on a single turn.
