WTF MR X

December 26, 2010 7:31 AM

Question about the game Scotland Yard. Are the rules crazy or are we just playing the game straight up wrong?

The rules for Scotland Yard explicitly state (over and over again) that the detectives must play counter clockwise. This seems crazy to my group of new players. If discussion is encouraged (which it is (see rules)) then why would the counter clockwise rule matter at all? When we play, Mr X. makes his move and then we all discuss what we need to do. Then we all kind of make our moves simultaneously. So what's with the clockwise rule? It baffles us. Are we missing something?

posted by degoao to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (6 answers total)

I don't remember the game that clearly, but the question I could find on this topic in the Board Game Geek forums for this game suggests that it's non-optional to move in that order.

I suspect the ordering is there because there are some less cooperative variants, and there might be game situations where moving out of order would make it very difficult for Mr. X to reason about the game state. But yeah, it does seem a little bit obscure to me too. The other rationale that comes to mind is just one of familiarity: new players are probably more used to moving in order rather than simultaneous moving, and having a reliable order to it makes the game feel more familiar.
posted by heresiarch at 8:08 AM on December 26, 2010

The counter clockwise rule does actually effect the game in some situations. I think to example you can't have two detectives on the same spot, so there are times when you want to move detective A out of the way of detective B, but you can't because B has to have their go before A.

For what it's worth there have definitely been times where our plans have been complicated by having to move in turn order.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 8:34 AM on December 26, 2010

I suppose it's possible that it might make a difference towards the end of the game, assuming Mr. X reveals instantly when a detective has moved to his location. The fact that Mr. X is not caught when Detective #1 moves to location A might allow the detectives to conclude that he is instead at location B, thereby allowing him to be captured by Detective #2; however, if Detective #1 is supposed to move after Detective #2, then they can't do that. That said, my friends and I usually play the same way you do.
posted by Johnny Assay at 8:39 AM on December 26, 2010

I haven't played the game in ages, but I'd say that (a) turn order matters a lot in general to these kind of "semi-coop" games, and (b) there may be cards/rules/events that specify "player to your left/right", which makes clockwise vs. counterclockwise matter.
posted by mkultra at 8:47 AM on December 26, 2010

EndsOfInvention has it exactly right. I've played a lot of games of Scotland Yard (a lot!) and it precisely because two detectives cannot occupy the same space at the same time that order is important. This rule, in conjunction with the rule that all players MUST move on every turn, essentially prevents the detectives from reaching full efficiency in blocking the highest number of possible routes Mr. X could take. This is why communication and planning is encouraged.

To be explicit: maybe detective 1 has several good moves he can make, but detective 2 has only one good move, and that's to one of the locations detective 1 can move to. If Detective 1 blocks detective 2 from moving there, detective 2 must waste a turn, possibly even moving FURTHER away from the action, possibly even letting Mr. X eventually slip through the net.
posted by evinrude at 11:14 AM on December 26, 2010

This is an awesome question, if only because we just bought Scotland Yard last week, and learned the rules this weekend! After spending the entire Christmas weekend playing it over and over with family, my answer to this question would be, like EndsOfInvention and evinrude point out, that the moving order of the detectives matter a lot for the reasons given above. What a great game, wish I'd known about it sooner!
posted by misozaki at 3:44 PM on December 26, 2010