Deduction games, especially hidden movement games, are my favorite board game genre. I sadly don't get enough in real life as my friends are mainly boring Eurogamers, who like stock games and efficiency games, so I am turning here to scratch that itch. This thread is to see if A) people actually scroll down and look at this forum topic and B) people would be interested in giving this a go.
Letters from Whitechapel
The game is thematically focused on the police (up to 5 players controlling 5, no more or less, officers) hunting down Jack the Ripper (1 player) in the Whitechapel district of London. The game is based on four "nights" of play where Jack the Ripper kills a woman, a starting location the police know, and flees back to his lair, an unchanging location that he selected before the start of play, by moving around on numbered circles. Jack's movements along the circles are hidden, he doesn't have a piece on the board, and each turn he writes down where he moves to from his current written down spot, so a record of where he has been is kept. He has a few tricks up his sleeve to help him evade police, but each night, he gets fewer tricks.
The police hope to corner him, arrest him, or be able to declare his base's location at the end of the game. They do this by searching for clues at numbered circles surrounding the separate movement locations they use. If Jack has been at a circle they search, it gets marked with a clue marker. Jack has 15 turns to get back to his base by the end of the night or he loses. If he gets back to his base at the end of the fourth night and the police name the wrong circle as his base (a last chance at the very end for them to catch him), he wins.
Explanation of Rules: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7UKJE0bcwk
Current Thoughts of Play-by-Post Rules
I will likely have six actions due every day - three by the police and three by Jack - at 11 am (police), 1 pm (Jack), 5 pm (police), 7 pm (Jack), 11 pm (police), 1 am (Jack) with a helper or me posting results an hour after the deadline (I work 3-11 pm and frequently get forced overtime to 7 am, so I sure as hell am not going to be awake at 11 am or even 1 pm, thus a helper will be needed for these times to work). Jack will be controlled by either one player or a team of four players discussing options with main control of Jack rotating each game night. Jack's actions will be PMed to me and my helper. The police will be controlled by everyone else with one poster having main control ever game nights, which will be resolved simultaneously (a difference from the board game). If there is enough interest, I might rotate main control of the police more frequently than after every game night, so more people get a chance to shine as the Chief.
I love hidden movement games (Fury of Dracula, Letters from Whitechapel, Specter Ops and Escape from the Aliens in Outer Space are great). People should give this a go, or if you don't get any interest you'd maybe get some success on the PBEM forums on boardgamegeek.
But I doubt I'd be able to commit the time to this myself unfortunatey.
Unfortunately anything which has a REQUIREMENT to be on at a certain times every day even if its just for a short period, I can't commit to. Some days I just can't be on. Some days I can be on a lot.
Looks like I was right.
Thanks to those who responded!
Just to add to this, I love the idea but the time requirements are just not quite possible for me. On certain days I'd not be able to post at all in fact. But I love the idea in theory!
I love hidden movement games (Fury of Dracula, Letters from Whitechapel, Specter Ops and Escape from the Aliens in Outer Space are great). People should give this a go, or if you don't get any interest you'd maybe get some success on the PBEM forums on boardgamegeek.
But I doubt I'd be able to commit the time to this myself unfortunatey.
