Top 10 Deduction Games - with Mike DiLisio

Mike DiLisio lists his top 10 games that challenge players to use deduction!

0:00 Intro
0:55 Number 10
2:26 Number 9
3:49 Number 8
5:07 Number 7
6:21 Number 6
7:16 Number 5
8:46 Number 4
10:19 Number 3
11:49 Number 2
13:23 Number 1

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#dicetower #thedicetower

[WhereTheSkyRuns]

Great to see recognition for Tiwanaku - an underrated gem.💎Would add Search for Planet X. Great list - thanks Mike!

[ConstantChaosGames]

Cool to see these deduction games and the differences in mechanisms. I would love a video of solo deduction games - something a bit less common in this category but I'm sure there are quite a few. I've been working on a design of a solo deduction game "Whodunit in Your Pocket" that I've had good feedback on, but there is more of a "survive the deck" emphasis as murder facts are eliminated vs pure deduction. Great category of games, and excellent video!

[boardgamesonthemoon]

Have been so impressed with the way Veiled Fate looks (visually and structurally) since its release. Really hope I can finally try it in person someday!
Ditto ( or maybe even more so) with that deluxe version of Mind MGMT

[pulpvictim]

My top 5 would be:
1 Feed the Kraken
2 Mind MGMT
3 Decrypto
4 One Night Werewolf
5 Mr. Jack in New York

[tabletalkreviews]

Solid picks on the list. Shipwreck Arcana, Logic & Lore, A Message from the Stars, and Search for Planet X are few more that might make my personal list.

[KennethChile]

I think Search for Planet X and Turing Machine deserve to be in this list.

[jeremymenear]

We need Mike to rank the Garphill games! 😊

[samirjafri]

While I dont play a ton of deduction games, I would put these in a top ten:
- Awkward Guests
- Black Sonata
- Search for Lost Species

Although from the descriptions, I can see why these newer games might rank higher.

[GleasonE]

I backed Corps of Discovery after watching Mike’s playthru… should be coming in any day now- looking forward to trying it AND looking forward to Mike’s review! I’m guessing it will be high since this beats Orapa Mine and Bombusters, which I recall he gave high scores.

[VivisectMerch]

I love deduction games. One of my favorites that never gets mentioned is Odyssey: Wrath of Poseidon. My favorite is Cryptid.

[noizeemama]

I would love to see a breakdown of those Garfield games behind you. Been debating on buying one or two of them.

[alexanderpopov]

I am a simple man - I see Mike's video, I click!

[davidstigant]

I love love love Witness. It combines telephone (A whispers a message to B who whispers to C who whispers to D etc) with logical deduction in a mashup that has no right to work, but it does. Sadly, it’s out of print, requires exactly four people, and has fallen absolutely flat with just about everyone else I’ve tried to play it with (except for the guy who owns the copy I played… we could never find anybody willing to play more than one scenario with us).

[victorhohnberger]

I really really like Bomb Busters! We played it at DTW!

[laraarne]

First Thanks! Veiled Fate was also a source of great excitement at our table. I can also highly recommend it! Mind Management not so well received. I haven't played the others yet. However, I do miss my beloved Cryptid... Greetings 👋

[ashwanthramasubbu]

Nice list! I personally like shipwreck arcana and hooky!

[Pierre-AlexandreVincent]

I love The Search For Planet X and Awkward Guests.

Did you take these in consideration? Did they make your top 20?

[Steve-L]

In general I am not a fan of Deduction games, how ever if done right I can really love it!

#5 Obscurio

My sister is a huge fan of deduction games, maybe her favorite style. We has lost our Mom last year and wanted to spend more time with my sister and she loves deduction games. So I sent her some videos recommending some and this was in one such video. So she bought it.

I tolerate this game only. Its better than clue... But I don't like the theme, I don't like speaking to the dead. I told my sister I would play this like 3 times a year for her...

#4 Deception Murder in Hong Kong

This sounded promising. I didn't think I would love it, but got it for my family get togethers. We played it twice, it did not go over well. I would play it with a group to try it again if I ran into such a group. It still intrigues me a little. I gave this game to my sister a couple years ago...

#3 Kronologic

Another game I recommended to my sister in videos. But this one interested me the most in such videos. It is like Clue, but instead of spending 2/3 of the game moving to make guesses you get to guess every turn and it has modern mechanisms. She got it about a month ago and we played it last weekend.

My bother-in-law, who dislikes deduction games, won the game simultaneously with me. It was fine, on the border of being a brain burner. I am concerned in later games it may be beyond my enjoyment for being to difficult as the games are are scaled to get more difficult as we go. For now am ranking it a 7.

#2 Code Names

This game I also recommended to my sister about 4 years ago after all the buzz. I wanted a party game for my family. This one was soso for my family some liked it some did not. But I was really good with it. I was able to get my team to guess either 4 or 5 words with my clues. Can't remember either 4 or 5.

My sister bought it. I liked it, its not a top 50 game for me but for deduction it is fine.

#1 Chronicles of Crime

Now this is amazing! This is the deduction game I always wanted to play. I love the story telling! I learned of this through Tom's reviews.

I own all of Chronicles of Crime except: Welcome to Redview, which I probably will get eventually. It intrigued me but did not pursue it, only slightly interested in the genre and had no device to run it. But decided to get the base game to play with my sister last fall. We had lost our Mom last year and wanted to spend more time with my sister and she loves deduction games.


The game was a hit for us, and I downloaded probably half the online scenarios on her device. Then as Christmas started to arrive someone commented that all the scenarios online were on sale. So I had them all downloaded. Shortly after that it was mentioned in the Hot Deals forum the physical expansions were on sale, so thats why I bought them all except Redwood. Tom's least favorite...

My sister and I finished all the downloaded scenarios fairly quickly then we started the physical expansions. Next month we will play 2400 and when we finish that we will play the Millennium expansion for the final.


We love the game. We play it by ourselves. I rank them all as 9 or more. 1900 I rank the lowest as a 9. I don't like the Escape Room angle at all. My sister loves that stuff so I let her do the puzzles. Noir I rank as a 9.6 and may be my favorite, but am very excited to play the future one: 2400.



Other games:

Hidden Movement:

I am fairly interested in trying this genre and never have. I have a friend who owns Dracula, I keep telling him I wanna try it! .

[scotthinckley]

Thanks for the great list, Mike! I will be looking into buying a couple you listed that I was unfamiliar with. I am curious if you considered Message from the Stars, and if so, if it perhaps made your top 20. I'm guessing that its use of letters falls broadly under your comment about numbers, and those sorts of puzzles not necessarily being your favorites given how your specific brain works?

[gabrielnorena]

Mind Management is an amazing Hidden Movement game.
I still prefer Whitechapel, as it is simpler but has a lot of deduction depth.
Mind MGMT is my second favorite though. Both games are essential for me.
ANother amazing deduction game is Cryptid. I think it's the best of the deduction genre.