Intent to Kill

• Designer: Artur Khodzhikov
• Publisher: Hobby World
• Players: 2-4
• Age: 16+
• Time: 60 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

Intent to Kill is a thrilling detective noire game in which you will find yourself in the middle of a police investigation. You can take the role of a notorious serial killer, while the other shall become an experienced detective following the tracks of a criminal.

The game is different for each of these roles: the murderer has to plan every step while hiding their motive; the detective has to collect evidence and question witnesses — but not all of them are truthful…

A new murder is committed each round. The detective can move around the blocks and question civilians that might have useful information. The murderer can intimidate civilians to stall the investigation. The game ends after the fifth murder.

Use your actions and abilities efficiently, the detective has to find the murderer among civilians and determine their motive by analyzing the murders. If the detective fails, the murderer wins.

The game allows for many ways to enrich gameplay — when you get comfortable with the basic rules you can combine different motives, add new components and play through scenarios. Once you have enough practice, you will be able to rediscover the complexity of the game: our game tests show that a truly intense battle begins when experienced players that have mastered both roles go against each other.

To set up the game, first split up the players onto the Detective (harder) and Murderer (easier) side.  Each side gets a notesheet.  The two sides should sit opposite each other if possible.The gameboard is placed on the table and the buildings are set on the appointed spaces. The 5 Crime Scene cards are placed in the Victim area.  

The 54 Civilian cards are shuffled and a deck of 20 cards is drawn from this.  One of these is randomly chosen by the Murderer – the chosen card is the Murderer in the game.  A different Civilian card is then chosen, this card is the Person of Interest.  The characteristics of these two cards are noted on the note sheet and then these two cards are shuffled back into the deck of 20 Civilians.  The Detective now places 2 Civilians in each of the corner areas of the board and 1 in every other.

The Motive cards are shuffled and the Murderer draws six – and then chooses one at random – this is his Motive for this game.  The cards are then shuffled and all 6 are placed face up on the table in a 3×2 grid.  The Detective side mirrors this arrangement with their own Motive cards.  Finally, the 9 social group tokens are shuffled and the Murderer draws three of them, choosing one of these three to be the Supporters of the Murderer.  This information is written down on the note sheet.  The other two tokens are discarded to the box, and the remaining 6 tokens are placed onto the gameboard.  The Detective starts the game in the city block of their choice.

The game is played over a number of rounds.  The Murderer has to kill 5 Civilians (while following the mandate of his Motive).  The Detective has to identify the Murderer and determine the motive.  There are three phases in each round:  Murderer Phase, Detective Phase, City phase.

In the Murderer phase, the Murderer must first intimidate 2 Civilians. They cannot be in the same block as the Detective marker. The intimidated Civilians are flipped to their black and white side, and the Detective will not be able to question these civilians.  Then, the Murder chooses a victim if possible.

• Fits the Motive
• Is not in the same block as the Detective marker
• Is not the Murderer (you cannot commit suicide)

If a murder occurs, the lowest numbered crime scene card is placed on the block and the murdered Civilian is moved to the corresponding Victim area on the board.  Once in a game, the Murderer can refuse to commit a crime.  If they refuse twice (or are unable to do so based on the rules), the Murderer loses the game.

In the Detective Phase, the Detective first moves to the new Crime Scene block. Non-murdered civilians in that block are then moved to adjacent blocks if possible.  The Detective then can take two different investigative actions.

• Question Civilians – ask every civilian in your block a single question about the Murderer’s characteristics.  The Murderer must answer truthfully. Unless the Civilian being questioned is the Murderer, the Person of Interest or from the Supporters social group.  If so, the Murderer may lie if he wishes, but he could also could choose to tell the truth.
• Police Station – if you are in a block with a Police Station, place the Surveillance token on a Civilian in this block or an adjacent block
• Diner – if you are in a block with a Diner, question one unintimidated civilian in this block or an adjacent block
• Hospital – if you are in a block with a Hospital, comfort one intimidated Civilian in this block or adjacent one (flip it back to the unintimidated side)
• Fire Station – take a random token from the Social Group stack, you may move every Civilian of this group once.

During this phase, the Detective has 2 movement points which can be used to move to adjacent areas.  If the Surveillance token is in play, the Detective can also use this once for free – asking the Murderer if he is able to kill that particular Civilian based on the rules, and the Murderer must answer honestly.

Finally, in the City phase, the Detective first comforts any intimidated Civilians in the block where they currently are.  Then the Murderer draws one of the Social Group tokens and then is able to move any or all Civilians of that group.  The Detective then draws a token and has the same option.  If the fifth murder of the game occurred, the game end is triggered. If not, play another round.

If the game is over, the Detective now has to name the Civilian that they believe to be the Murderer as well as the motive.  If the Detective is correct on both counts, they win.  Otherwise, the Murderer wins.

When you’re done with the basic game, you can add in some scenarios or play with the more advanced intuition mode.  

My thoughts on the game

Well, the theme of the game is definitely dark and grisly, and this is one of the few games where I agree with the age recommendation on the box.  Intent to Kill pits two sides against each other – a game of cat and mouse.   Every game will play out different – six possible motives out of a pool of 12 in each game, 20 different Civilians out of a pool of 52, etc…  Your plan might change based on the distribution of attributes in any particular game. 

After the somewhat finicky setup, I would recommend that both sides take a minute to look over their initial bits of information and prepare for the game.  For the Murderer, make sure you know which Civilians will be able to lie when questioned.  It’s a dead giveaway if you have to take a minute to refer to your sheet before giving an answer…   I’d recommend that the Detectives look at the characteristics of the Civilians on the map, trying to determine which categories will give the best yield when characteristics are identified.

The different motives make each game different, and as the Murderer has to find a new victim each round – there are soon plenty of clues on the board pointing to the Motive.  However, there are only five or six rounds in the game, so the Detective doesn’t really have a lot of time to ask questions to figure out the identity of the Murderer.  Things can get murky with a well timed dishonest answer from a Civilian…

The flow of each round is pretty simple, and the minimalistic player aid and reminder on the bottom of the board is really all you need to make it through the game.  That being said, the game is not necessarily fast – there is plenty of time that will be spent poring over your notesheet, trying to deduce the facts.

As with many games like this, while the rules say this can be played with up to 4 players, this really feels to me like a 2-player game – or at least a single Murderer vs everyone else as a Detective.    Sure, an unlimited number of people could collaborate as the Detective, but it really makes no sense to me to have multiple people share the Murderer side (i.e. how could you secretly and effectively communicate when trying to decide when to lie and what to lie about?!)

Given the sparse number of rounds, most of the games here have ended up in the 30-45 minute range, and that feels about right for what you get.  This is a fascinating take on the detective genre, and one worth trying out if you like this style of game.

Until your next appointment,

The Gaming Doctor