"Welcome, lost stranger to 1313 Dead End Drive. How may I assist you?
Your car has broken down? You need to call a Tow Truck? Well, let me take your hat and coat. I’ll fix you a drink while you wait.
Scotch neat sir, if that is fine by you.
What’s that sir? Why are there so many vehicles in the driveway?
Well… you have stumbled in to our humble abode on an interesting evening. Aunt Agatha has recently passed away.
No, No No, It was of natural causes sir… I assure you, she was quite old and frail.Tonight is the reading of her Will.
She has named 16 heirs in her Will, an unscrupulous gang of conniving murderous thieves, if you ask me.
While each one of them could leave tonight with a million dollars or more, I find it highly unlikely that many will.
You see, Aunt Agatha had rather a morbid sense of humor. She stipulated that if anyone died before they left the house this evening their inheritance would pass to the next in line.

I’ll point the Heirs out to you.
Over there is Spritzy. She took care of dear Aunt Agatha’s coiffure for many years. Aggie has left her the most. She could walk out of here with four million.
Standing next to her is Sedgewick, Agatha’s nephew. Scientifically he is brilliant but otherwise dumb as a stump. He has a chance to leave with two million.
The others are Dusty the Maid, Parker the Chauffer, Prudence her Lawyer, LuLu, Agatha’s Sister, Sassy her dizzy headed Rock and Roll niece and that lady in the strange garb is Madame Astra her soothsayer.
The gentleman with the pencil moustache is Pierre the temperamental Chef...
… oh heh heh heh, yes sir… I quite agree sir… “Oh, those crazy French” sir…
... next to him is Clay her “Tennis Pro”, Charity her Doctor, there is Perkins
… what’s with the hat sir? Oh… He’s a big game hunter.
... and finally that rather slimy looking individual is Beauregard III.
No sir… I’m not quite sure what he does, however I have seen him leaving Agatha’s bedroom on a few mornings so I’m sure he “does” something.
…hehehe… yes sir… thank you sir.. I also thought that was witty.
Oh…I apologize sir, I almost forgot; that repulsive bug-eyed dog is Pugsley and that ball of white fluff is her cat Poopsie. Poopsie is a beast that I find particularly repugnant… treated better than most humans she is.
Anyway sir… each one of these individuals has been left a million dollars. All they need to do is leave before midnight.
What if no-one leaves before midnight?
Oh sir… that’s the best part. Aunt Agatha stated that should this happen, all the money will be left to the “Pet Pals Retirement Home”

Completely daffy towards the end she was.

Myself sir?
Many apologies. I’m Smothers sir.
I have Buttled for Agatha for quite some time. We have become very close over the years… so close that she also left me a million dollars.
In fact, I was just heading out the door when you arrived, but now that you’re here sir, I’ll sit with you while you have your dink and wait for the local master mechanic.
Please, allow me to take the chair situated directly under the large Boar’s head that Perkins mounted on the wall. Quite imposing, but harmless really.
My plans sir? Well, I plan to retire in Scotland sir.. yes sir, the golf courses, I hear they’re…"

CRASH

The Boar’s head fell from the wall and landed on Smothers, crushing him flat and killing him instantly.

I think you have the gist of the game. Get your characters out of the house with as much money as you can before they are killed or before the “Clock Strikes Midnight”. At the same time you want to kill off your opponents characters and try to hide your multiple character's identities from him.

To Start:

-Assemble the playing board. It’s three-dimensional with walls springing up from the main playing surface.
-There is also five “traps” that need assembling, a fireplace trap, a staircase trap, a suit of armor trap, a safe trap and the aforementioned Boar’s head trap.
Each trap has a different action and is sprung in a different manor.

-The “Will” is a large cardboard cut out with pictures of all the characters on it. The correct amount of moneybag tokens need to be placed under the characters.
-The 16 “Heir” cards are shuffled and divided evenly between 4 players. For three players, you get five characters each with one in the dummy. For two characters, pass out six each with six in the dummy.
-The dummy should never be looked at.
-There are 32 action cards. Shuffle them and place them in the appropriate place on the board. The “Clock Strikes Midnight” card goes upside down at the very bottom.

-The “Heir” playing pieces need to be mounted in their plastic bases.

Playing The Game:

First- You are allowed to move ANY heir on the board, whether he is your character or not.
-You will want to move for three reasons 1) Get your Heirs out of the house, 2) Kill off other Heirs so that their money will become your money, 3) Fool your opponent in to thinking your someone you’re not.
This can be very effective… you could move 2 characters toward the front door just to fake your opponent out so that you can kill someone.
-You have 2 dice, roll them. You can move any two players the roll of the dice.
Example- If you roll a 2 and a 5, one Heir moves 2 and one Heir moves 5.
-If you roll doubles you can move any 1 heir the total amount shown.
-If you move an heir on to a trap you can draw an “Action” Card, which can then be played.

"Action" cards are as follows:
1) “Room” Card- Allows you to move any character from one room to any space in the room stated on the card
2) “Take a New Heir” Card- allows you to take an heir from your opponent or the dummy hand (with out looking)
3) “Run For It” Card- allows you to role one dice and move any character you want (in effect a second roll)
4) ”Trap” Card- allows you to spring the trap shown on the card
5) ”Wild Trap” Card- allows you to spring any trap.

- If an Heir is on a trap, and that Trap is sprung, the Heir is dead. Reset the trap for the next victim.
- Whoever is playing the recently deceased Heir has to give up the card. Likewise, any moneybags under the dead Heir are moved to the next Heir in line.
- If all the “Action” cards are drawn and the “Clock Strikes Midnight” card is showing… the game is over.
- Game also ends if no one is left in the house.
- The player with the most total money wins.

Opinion:

We have about 60 to 70 games in our basement. Many collect dust.
This one doesn’t.
It get’s pulled out a lot, mostly in the summer.
This is a pretty cool game… and if they ever decide to do an “Anniversary Edition” it could be cooler.
It’s part luck and part strategy so it stays interesting.
Springing the traps is a ton of fun. Guys will especially like this.
Dropping a Boar’s head on someone is surprisingly therapeutic.
Assembly is very easy (and also fun) and the rule book simple to follow.

I took one star away for two reasons:
1) It is VERY possible to win the game on 1 character. If you kill Spritzy, her four million dollars goes to Sedgewick. If you kill Sedgewick, his (now) six million dollars goes to Dusty.
If you get Dusty out of the house… you’re up seven million.

2) I wanted better Heir tokens and detail on the traps. The moneybags and the will are fine but it would be nice if each Heir was a solid individual token (a La Monopoly) instead of just a cardboard piece inserted in to a plastic base. The creators could really go to town with this. They could etch each name on the base of a “Character bust” and turn up the detail on the traps several notches.

Over all a good Milton Badley game and a nice way to spend an hour. If you have younger kids you can stretch this time out with the assembly. Much better than the standard “move… answer a question… move again” type of board game.


Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 19.99
Type of Toy: Board Game
Age Range of Child: 9 Years or Older