Gryphon Games Sid Sackson Signature Series – Sleuth, Venture And Monad Board Games

A collection of fantastic card games by legendary game designer Sid Sackson.

Sleuth

In Sleuth, a classic deduction game from master designer Sid Sackson originally released as part of the 3M Gamette Series, players are searching for a hidden gem, one of 36 gem cards hidden before the start of the game. The remainder of this gem deck – with each card showing 1-3 diamonds, pearls or opals in one of four colors – is distributed evenly among the players, with any remaining cards laid face up. Thus, you and everyone else starts with some information about what’s not missing.

A second deck contains 54 search cards, each showing one or two elements, such as diamonds, pairs, blue opals, red pearls, or an element of your choice. Each player receives four face-up search cards; on a turn, you choose one of those cards and ask an opponent how many gem cards they have of the type shown. If you ask for, say, pairs, the player must tell you how many pairs they hold but not which specific pairs; if you ask for something more specific, say, red diamonds, the player reveals to everyone how many such cards she holds while you get to look at them in secret.

Players track information on a score pad. You can guess the hidden gem at any time, or on your turn you can ask any one question regardless of which search cards you have, then immediately make a guess by marking your sheet and checking the hidden gem card. If you’re wrong, you keep playing but can only answer questions; if you’re correct, you win.

The simplicity of the rules and the cards belies the complexity of the game. In some cases you see cards, while in others you hear only the number of cards that an opponent holds, making it tough to deduce. Any notation system you devise must be both flexible and reliable, recording negative information as well as positive in order to tick off the possibilities one by one…

Venture

Card game in which players purchase companies using sets that have various monetary denominations (the resource cards). Turning in a set with matching symbols is worth more than the face value of the cards, so set collecting becomes a key strategy. Purchased companies (the corporation cards) are placed in front of the player according to a matching letter system. The top company of each stack is vulnerable to proxy take-overs by other players, so they usually attempt to order their holdings such that the most valuable ones are covered by less valuable companies. Scoring occurs whenever a player draws a profit card from the deck. The game ends when the corporation deck is exhausted.

Originally published by 3M (3M Gamette Series), re-published by Avalon Hill in its “gamette line” (gamette no. 205) when they took over 3M’s line. Schmidt published the German edition DIE BOSSE in 1991.

Monad

The object of the game is to collect round cards known as “Monads,” which look like yin-yang symbols. The players do this by Trading, Buying, and Leaping with other cards.

Monad / Die 1. Million uses a deck of cards with six colors (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, and Purple). Half of these are called “Warm” colors (Red, Orange, and Yellow), and the others are “Cool” colors (Green, Blue, and Purple). The majority of cards has one symbol on them (known as “Commons”), but there is one card of each color with 2-5 colors on them (known as “Bis,” “Tris,” “Quads,” and “Quints”). At the start of the game, each player is assigned one of the six colors as their “identity” and is dealt six Commons and one “Bonus” card (which shows three pairs of colors). The Bis, Tris, Quads, and Quints are placed face up in separate piles in the center of the table.

On their turn, a player attempts to get higher numbered cards into their hand. The easiest way is by “Trading.” To trade, a player turns in a pair of cards with the same number of symbols but of opposite colors (one warm and one cool) and takes the top card from the stack with the next highest number of symbols. When they turn in two Quints, they gain a Monad. If the two cards turned in match one of the pairs on their bonus card, they may also draw the top card from each of the lower stacks. They may also use cards of the same color as their Identity as wild cards, which are treated as having any number of symbols.

The player can turn in more than two cards and “Leap” to a higher stack. This allows them to select a card with a higher number of symbols. Finally, they can “Buy” a card. Buying cards uses the numbers located on each card. The player turns in a number of cards which total greater than the number on the card they are after. Monads can be purchased for 80 points.

A player can also draw the top card from the deck but doing so prevents them from taking any other action that turn.

The first player to accumulate a given number of Monads (which varies depending on the number of players in the game) is the winner.