Spy Club (Foxtrot Games)

No matter how old you are and no matter if you are a boy or a girl, you probably grew up reading mystery literature. There was The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and The Boxcar Children just to name a few. Didn't like to read growing up? Well, surely you watched Scooby Doo and helped those meddling teenagers crack cases in their psychedelic van. Foxtrot Games is taking that love of the mystery genre that seems ingrained in our DNA and turning it into a board game called Spy Club. Spy Club is a game for 2 to 4 players, ages 10+. It is currently on Kickstarter for a pledge of $39. Randy Hoyt (Relic Expedition) and Jason Kingsley (Lanterns: The Emperors Gifts) are the designers and Bartłomiej Kordowski (Dream Home) and Keith Pishnery (The Fox in the Forest) are the illustrators.

Unlike other mystery solving games (let's use the old standby of CLUE), you aren't playing against other players, but instead you are working together to solve the case! With double-sided clue cards in front of each player, you are taking turns manipulating the cards (flipping, drawing, or trading them) to uncover part of the solution. In order to completely crack the case, you must solve all five parts before your suspect escapes or you run out of clues! And now for the really cool part...

You can play this game in campaign mode! There is a campaign deck with 40+ modules and 150+ cards in it that ties five games together. With each game you complete, more of the story is revealed. But before you go thinking that this game is a five time only game and then you're done, you can reset the campaign upon completion. With all the different modules available and only using five each game play, you will get a ton of play out of this game. It's only the first day, but the game is currently 2/3 funded on Kickstarter and needs your help to get published. So head on over to their page and give them some love. This looks like a great family game that your kids will ask to play many times over.