Emergence vs Progression in Clue
As a kid, Clue was my favorite board game. I never owned it personally, so it was always a treat to play it at a friend or relative’s house. I loved it because of the mystery. It always felt like I was on an episode of Scooby-Doo (which I also loved as a kid), trying to piece together clues to solve a crime. And the mechanics were set up in such a way that added to that feeling, like the secret passages, and subtle context clues from the other players. In fact, that feeling resonated so well with people that it even had a movie based on it.
The game contains many mechanics of emergence. While there is no traditional economy in the game, it could be argued that information is the economy. Players must make an effort to find out as much information as possible, while giving away as little information as possible. This also makes positioning on the board important, so as to not have the player next to you show you the same room card each time you seek information. And lastly, players interactions with the other players are important, as they must keep secretive about their cards.
But the game does also have some slight progression mechanics. These come in the form of the story and the checklist. From the outset, the story lets players know their end goal: find the murderer, the murder weapon, and where the murder took place. As players gain more information about the incident, they mark that down on the list. This acts as “keys” to “unlock” the mystery, giving visual progress towards solving the murder. Once all but three boxes are filled in, players should have reached their goal of finding the murderer.
