What we’re playing: Kill Doctor Lucky

I like the concept of Kill Doctor Lucky. Essentially it’s the flipside of Clue; instead of trying to hunt down the murderer you ARE the murderer, attempting to knock off the good old Doctor. But while the idea is funny and original, I think the execution of it falls just short, which is why the game has only seen play five times in the ten months that I’ve owned it (three times when I first got it and twice on this previous Sunday).

Here’s how the game works. You’ve got your standard Clue-esque board made up of a house filled with a variety of rooms and hallways. Doctor Lucky is randomly given a room to start in and then begins to wander around his house in a predetermined pattern. Meanwhile, the players are attempting to kill him, which required them to be both (a) in the same room as the good Doctor, and also (b) out of the line-of-sight from any other player on the board. If such requirements are met, the player can attempt to off the old man, but the other players have an opportunity to stop him/her from doing so.



How does this all happen? Each player starts the game with a hand of six cards, pulled from a deck that is broken down into four categories: Move cards, Room cards, Weapon cards, and Failure cards.

Move cards: you may move yourself or the Doctor a number of spaces equal to the amount listed on the card (1, 2 or 3).

Room cards: you may move yourself or the Doctor directly to the room listed on the card.

Weapon cards: for each attempt on the Doctor’s life, you may use a single weapon card to increase your attack damage. Some cards do more damage when used in a specific room (i.e., Bad Cream is normally worth 2 points of attack, but if used in the Sitting Room it is worth 5).

Failure cards: when another player makes an attempt on Doctor Lucky’s life, the remaining players may attempt to thwart him by playing failure cards (value ranges from 1-3).

On a given player’s turn he or she may take the following actions:

1) A free move (1 space); must happen before attacking the Doctor.
2) Play any number of move cards; must happen before attacking the Doctor.
3) Play any number of room cards; must happen before attacking the Doctor.
4) Play a single weapon when attacking Doctor Lucky (if in the same room and unseen by other players).
5) Draw a card (if no cards were played turn and an attempt was not made on the Doctor’s life).

There’s more to it than this, but I think it’s enough to give you the basic gist of the game. The problem is the game only works with a very select number of players. The box states it works with three to seven players, but having attempted it with three, four, five and six players I can tell you it only really jelled with five. Less than that and the game ends very quickly; more than that and the game drags on (because it’s almost impossible to be out of sight from the other players to attempt to kill the Doctor). And even with the two five-player games we played Sunday, the second one dragged on. :\

Again, I really, REALLY like the concept of the game, but it just doesn’t work well enough to get repeat playtime in my group, so I can’t recommend picking it up yourself. Still, if you get a chance to play it, I’d certainly give it the old college try.