I´m not sure it is supposed to be played that way. | Mr. Jack

Simon S.

Germany
Tübingen
B-W

Judging from other session reports, this game seems to be quite a popular one to play with your mother. I recently also had that questionable(?) experience.

I recently introduced my mother to some modern boardgames and discovered that she really enjoys playing. So I thought i´d bring a few nice 2-player games for the weekend visit. We didnt have much time to play but we squeezed in a game of Mr.Jack on monday morning before i left.

I tried to explain the game as best as I could and judged it best for her to be the inspector on her first play, because i thought that it would be easier to get into the game (even though it is not necessarily easier to play well). I played as Jack and drew Inspector Lestrade.

In the first turn 2 people were found out to be innocent (Watson, Gull), but from my mother´s moves it seemed that she had not really understood the strategy yet. This really showed in the next two turns when she wasnt able to add any further innocents to the list (except for one alibi card). I had noticed this all along and tried to explain again how to seperate the suspects to increase information gain at the end of the round.

Since i tried to teach the game well, i was getting a little desperate when, at the beginning of the next round, my mother asked me again "so... to win, all i have to do is move to the killer and announce?". I confirmed it. She then quickly moved Mrs. Stealthy up to Lestrade, called him out and won.

I was a bit baffled as to how she did it (i suspected i had maybe stared at him at the wrong moment or something) and when i asked, she said: "Well, my instincts told me it was him even before the first turn".
...

"But you had only identified three of the others, so you only had a one in five chance?"

"Well, Obviously the girl wouldnt be so evil and Sherlock Holmes is beyond any suspicion"

"But this Lestrade is a famous police inspector?"

"Anyone can pretend to be a policeman... ... and i dont trust the police anyways".

I guess i could then have pointed out that Mr.Jack is only "disguising" himself as one of those people, or explain that if we play a hundred games like this, she is likely to win only roughly one fifth of those, with this strategy...

But i have long since found out that when you have been as thoroughly "pwned" as this, it is better to just shut up and take it like a man.