Top 10 Deduction Games

Tom Vasel, Zee Garcia, and Chris Yi take a look at their favorite games that use inference, suspicion, reasoning, hunches, and stone cold deduction!

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#dicetower #thedicetower

[heypootpoot]

Their list of board games with time stamps:

10 -
7:30 Tiwaknaku
9:43 Sleuth
11:25 Outfoxed!

9 -
13:15 Museum Suspects
15:08 Sky Tricks
17:32 Confusion

8 -
19:55 Sniper Elite: The Board Game
21:47 Timbuktu
24:25 Zendo

7 -
27:07 Decrypto
29:31 Kryptos
32:30 The Lost Code

6 -
34:45 The Shipwreck Arcana
37:14 Bomb Busters
38:33 Bomb Busters

5 -
40:47 Expressions
43:27 Cryptid
45:55 Sleuth

4 -
48:00 Spectral
50:40 The Lost Code
52:13 The Search for Lost Species/Planet X

3 -
54:24 Turing Machine
58:55 Hooky
1:00:45 Awkward Guests

2 -
1:04:50 The Crew
1:07:35 The Shipwreck Arcana
1:08:45 A Message from the Stars

1 -
1:10:45 A Message from the Stars
1:13:45 The Search for Planet X
1:15:05 Hooky

[jacobbengert]

One I really like that I didn't see mentioned is Black Sonata. Solo, deduction, hidden movement. I think its real solid

[andyharris]

My top 10:

1. Sleuth
2. Mind MGMT
3. Rear Window
4. Cryptid
5. Whitehall Mystery
6. Suspects
7. Treasure Island
8. Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective
9. Tragedy Looper
10. The Lost Code

[ConeDefense]

Whitehall Mystery / Letters from Whitechapel are the most accessible while crunchy deduction you can play

[gabtrat]

Whitehall Mystery! One of the few games where nothing needs to be upgraded, organized, or sleeved. Just an addictive simple and tense 1-vs-all game in a small box.

[ChaBox]

I can't believe Tragedy Looper is not even mentioned at all...such a great game that is underrated.

[ramonosuke]

A great top 10 that introduced me to a lot of games I have not heard of, or completely forgot about.

[winstonhammonds]

I know Tom didn’t care for it, but my family and I really enjoy Paint the Roses

[quinncallahan]

We've played soo much Outfoxed! great intro deduction!

[randalladkins]

21:45 - Personally, I feel hidden movement has enough games to match Social Deduction as a separate category from pure deduction. IMHO, I don’t believe it belongs on this list if they are excluding other sub-categories like Social Deduction and Escape Room games. Just my 2 cents. 😊

[GleasonE]

This was a fantastic list. Thanks for the great surprise guys!

[stevenamamoto]

Paint the Roses is great.Things in Rings is fun.

[Infil]

Decrypto is a great game because the theme fits so well (compared to other word association games). You're trying to give clues to the table that are encrypted, but your teammate is able to easily decrypt them because they have access to the hidden key (the 4 words). Meanwhile, the team without the key is supposed to have no idea what the message means, just like real encrypted messages. My favorite example of this is my friend writing the word "summer", which clued "calculator" in my screen (a device that sums). I was able to impart special meaning from his clue because I had access to the key, and it is a completely confusing clue if you don't have the key. There are lots of good word association games out there, but they are usually just words in grids or similar things where any theme can be applied without much trouble. The theme really elevates Decrypto for me.

[darbyl]

Hooky is so under the radar for being so good. I want to try Message From The Stars. It sounds like an advanced version of Phantom Ink, which CAN be really intense, and lots of fun. My other favs are Decrypto, Cryptid, and Inkognito. If they could be combined, it would be called Dekogtid.

[llegaremosalasestrellas]

Chris, Zee, please, play at least once the game suggested by Tom (awkward guests). It has the DICE TOWER Seal of Excellence!!!! 😅 I have the game and it is very nice.
In adition, I would like to add Watson & Holmes (from Ludonova) as a great deduction game.
Best regards!

[MisterAbysmul]

Love this studio format! Professional!

[TheEternal]

A Message From the Stars really is phenomenal. It's one I was hoping would make your list because I think it deserves it

[KabukiKid]

Yeah, I remember even personally asking Buonocore about Confusion and if it would ever get a reprint and he said that it was a rare case where he never planned to reprint it strictly based on the production cost. The game basically was barely profitable because it was so costly to produce the components. He said if you ever see it still on a shelf in a game store, snatch it up. I took his advice. ;-) lol I was fortunate enough to find a copy still in the wild at a game store. Solid game!

[rexology_bg]

Alchemists should be on the list. I know none of you really like it, but it is a good game. Tempted to list First Contact but I think it is more inference than deduction.

[levenzaha]

One of my favorite genres and yet quite a few games on here that weren’t on my radar. Thanks for the great top 10. A message from the stars is my most played game this year.

I’m surprised that you completely excluded the more straight forward word deduction games that I know you all love: so clover, just one, codenames, etc

Also, less surprised, but no hanabi or beyond baker street?

I love that Tom included outfoxed. I may put Deduckto over it but still a great choice.