A man with greying hairs at the temples and a rumpled suit is found dead in his mansion. In which room did he die, who killed him and with what? That is what NCIS has to work out…
Miss Scarlett, Professor Plum and Colonel Mustard
"McGeek! I think it's only fair if you are Professor Plum."
"Who?"
"Aw come on Probie, don't tell me you've never played Cluedo before?"
"No Tony, I can't say I have."
"Well you are Professor Plum. 'Cause he is a McGeek, just like you!"
Tony playfully pinched McGee's cheeks and received a painful punch in the arm.
"Come on! That wasn't nice! Anyone can see a mile off your McGeekness Probie."
McGee ignored Tony and picked up his thoughtful looking figurine. Well it didn't look like him. He didn't have ginger hair after all and nor did he wear purple. Well, at least the title sounded clever. Professor eh…?
"Elf lord, have you seen Ziva anywhere?"
"I'm right behind you Tony."
"Ah my fine er…friend...No, I can't call you that can I." Tony frowned and thought about what he could call Ziva. After a moments consideration he decided to drop the subject.
"So what are you two playing?" said Ziva, dumping her heavy rucksack on the floor.
"Ask Tony, I don't really know what I'm doing." McGee frowned at the board.
"You Ziva can be Miss Scarlett, the sexy, secretive and sneaky young woman, who also happens to always go first." Tony's momentary grin faded from his face as he finished his sentence. "Should have seen that coming!"
"Well, you couldn't be the sexy woman now could you Tony?" Ziva smirked at Tony and sat down on his desk. "So what is it we are actually playing?"
"Cluedo, the game of murder, mystery and need of enormous skill, such as the skill I possess." Tony smiled toothily at Ziva and handed her the Miss Scarlett figurine.
"Red isn't really my colour."
"Well I can't re-paint it for you Zivaaaa. It came that colour. "Tony held it up to eye level and peered at the figurine. "She's not that sexy this close up."
Ziva snatched Miss Scarlett from him. "So Einstein, which character are you going to be? "
"I, Ziva, am going to be the fearless, handsome Colonel Mustard who will find out who killed Montgomery Black!"
McGee who had been idly flicking through the instruction manual suddenly piped up again, "Actually Tony, anyone of us could have killed Dr. Black. That is the point of the game; you don't know who the murderer is, even if it is you."
"Shut up Probie." McGee just shrugged and picked up the Colonel Mustard figurine. "Tony, I'm sure you never had a white handlebar moustache…"
"Well McGee, when I was in college—"he gave McGee an evil. "Just shuffle the damn cards and leave me alone so I can explain the game to Ziva." McGee stayed quiet but kept looking at Tony coldly. Tony completely ignored him and put his wide grin back on. "So Ziva, what don't you know about Cluedo that, I, the master can tell you?"
"Well, at the beginning of play, three cards - one Suspect, one Weapon, and one Room card - are chosen at random and put into a special envelope, so that no one can see them. These cards represent the true facts of the case. The remainder of the cards are distributed among the players.
The aim is to deduce the details of the murder; that is, the cards in the envelope. There are 6 different characters, 6 possible murder weapons and nine different rooms, giving 324 possible solutions. To do so, players announce suggestions to the other players, for example, "I suggest it was Mrs. White, in the Library, with the Rope." All elements contained in the suggestion are moved into the room in the suggestion.
The other players must then disprove the suggestion, if they can. This is done in clockwise order around the board. A suggestion is disproved by showing a card containing one of the suggestion components to the player making the suggestion (for example, the Rope), as this proves that the card cannot be in the envelope. Showing the card to the suggesting player is done in secret so the other players may not see which card is being used to disprove the suggestion. Once a suggestion has been disproved, the player's turn ends and moves onto the next player.
The player's suggestion only gets disproved once. So, though several players may hold cards disproving the suggestion, only the first one will show the suggesting player his or her card. A player may only make a suggestion when his or her piece is in a room and the suggestion can only be for that room.
Once a player thinks he knows the solution, s/he can make an accusation. According to the rules, "When you think you have worked out which three cards are in the envelope, you may, on your turn, make an Accusation and name any three elements you want. ... When making an Accusation, you may name any room (unlike a Suggestion, where your character pawn must be in the room you suggest). The accusing player checks the validity of the accusation by checking the cards, keeping them concealed from other players. If he has made an incorrect accusation, he plays no further part in the game except to reveal cards secretly to one of the remaining players when required to do so in order to disprove suggestions. Also, according to the rules, "If, after making a false Accusation, your character pawn is blocking a door, you must move it into that Room so that other players may enter." Since a character pawn can only block a door by being outside of a Room, this clearly demonstrates that the character pawn need not be in any Room to make an Accusation. If the player made a correct accusation, the solution cards are shown to the other players and the game ends.
It is possible for a player to be using the piece representing the murderer. This doesn't affect the gameplay; the object of the game is still to be the first to make the correct accusation. If the game is played with two people, the process of elimination diffuses the same information to both players. Such a game tends to pass quickly. Apart from that, nothing"
Tony gaped at her open mouthed. "I thought you didn't know how to play Cluedo!"
"I didn't Tony, but I can read. I have an incredible memory remember." She picked up the instruction manual of the desk where it had lain closed and waved it in his face. She smirked at Tony, smiled at a grinning McGee and turned on her heel and headed upstairs.