______
Objection! Courtroom Mysteries is a 20-40 minute competitive detective game where you and your friends play as judge, jury and lawyers as you investigate and debate the outcome of a dramatic murder mystery!
Inspired by games like Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney and Detective: City of Angels, each game follows a pre-written case with evidence, suspects, and a victim. Players draft for evidence using playing cards. You get three pieces of evidence to choose from each round. A piece of evidence might read ‘♥ Open the Briefcase’, so to draft it you might play a ‘10 ♥’’ to claim the card. Evidence is then distributed based on the cards players reveal.
When you choose a piece of evidence to investigate, you are also choosing which piece of evidence you won’t see, and which may be used against you in court! Once the investigation is over, players bid on what role they want (Prosecutor, Defence or Judge). They then reveal the evidence they drafted in an explosive courtroom battle, with optional rules for additional players to serve on a jury.
The courtroom battle eventually leads to a warrant phase, where lawyers must convince the judge which ‘warrant’ to follow. These are advanced investigation leads that may reveal explosive information that can turn the case around!
At the end of the game, each player wins based on the final verdict. the Prosecutor wants the Judge or Jury to declare their suspect guilty, the Defence wants the Judge or Jury to declare anyone else guilty. The Judge wants to declare the correct suspect guilty while ensuring that they get to announce the final verdict. This means the Judge must bang their gavel and enforce order in the court, keeping lawyers and jurors divided.
In games without a jury, lawyers can stop the Judge from winning by negotiating a ‘plea deal’ by both revealing the name of the true culprit at the final verdict. In games with a Jury, the lawyers must rely entirely on their powers of persuasion, while the Judge must ensure a divided jury to ensure they get the final verdict!
Have a look below at a quick how to play video.
Final art for the game being worked on now!
