Mr. Ree! The Fireside Detective

"She walked into my office, you know the type...the quiet but questionable dame, the one you show off to the boys at the club but don't bring home to mother. She told me she was in need of two things; a good detective and a stiff drink. Lucky for her both things could be found in my office."

I have to admit, there aren't enough mystery type board games. Oh sure, we have "Clue", and we have...well..."Clue", but that really does run the gamut it seems like. Perhaps I'm not taking into consideration the amount of new board games that come out on the regular (and I'm not because this blog is primarily about classic board games) so maybe that niche has been somewhat filled out more, but I really like the idea of a noire styled board game, and I feel like it's a genre that really hasn't been touched on quite enough in recent years, for any sort of content, really.

And it's a shame, because there's a lot you could do with it, especially when it comes to a medium as interactive as a board game. Hell, there's an entire style of dinner theater based around solving mysteries, and a board game is almost as interactive as that, so why not go down that road? Well, Mr. Ree (which sounds like an internet slur, but I assure it isn't) decided to try it, with...interesting results, to say the least, and I have to commend it for that much at least. But the real question is, does it hold up in any kind of way? Hard to say as I haven't played it, but let's face it, we're on the internet, so let's judge things without experiencing them firsthand!

First of all, this might be the oldest board game I'm covered. It's from 1937. This board game is old enough to have fought for our countries freedom, and then voted for an oppressive president in the 80s. Not only is it super old, it's also made by people I've never heard of before or since. It's designed by Edward H. Freedman and the art is done by William Longyear, which sounds like a detective name, I won't lie. It's published by a company named Selchow & Righter. I looked into the company, and it turns out they also produced Scrabble, Backgammon and were eventually bought by Coleco in 1986 when, and I'm not kidding this is what it says, they were ruined thanks to the bottom falling out of the Trivial Pursuit market, which might be the funniest fucking thing I've ever heard.

Board Game Geek says it's actually for up to 4-7 players, which is kinda impressive. You don't often get upwards of that many people involved in a board game, so that's kinda cool. They describe the gameplay as such:

This game is planned to give you all the thrills and excitement of a true detective mystery. More than that, the game gives you an opportunity to play an exciting part in the creation of the plot, and the thrill of actually playing Detective; an eagerly sought opportunity to solve a baffling crime committed right under your very nose. And, amazing as it may seem, the plot is never the same. Each player assumes the part of one of the Characters in AUNT CORA'S red brick house, and by his actions and positions in the house-hold follows thru with his likes and dislikes of the various persons with whom fate has placed him. The player, represented on the board by a hollow token, roams about inside and outside the house, choosing and concealing weapons with which to commit a crime. The strong arm of the law, in the person of Mr. Ree, is ever present patrolling the grounds surrounding the house. 

Not so much a description as much as it is a vague retelling, but that's what we got.

And the board itself is pretty cool looking. It's your standard top down style board (obviously, while other games later on would use pop up effects, this wasn't the case in 1937, as all the technology was being used to invent refrigerators) and the art has an almost Edward Gorey like style to it, which I personally love.

The whole thing, even if it isn't super interesting to play, is at least artistically articulate, which is not something one can say five times fast. I really love the attention to detail and the effort that went into creating this board. It's beautiful.

But what about the tokens?

Well I'm pleased as punch to say that the tokens show just as much craftsmanship as the board itself.

They appear on their own pedestal, each with a personalized weapon, and while I'd love to claim they're made out of metal I sadly cannot do that because I don't know for sure. Still, each character is given a distinct look and color, and again, the detailing is off the charts. This isn't usually the case. More often than not you get player tokens that look like the kind of trinkets one receives from a gumball machine, but not here. Here you get fully carved, fully detailed people, each with their own personality and identity, and that's just such a breath of fresh air.

I mean, the air is from 1937, so it's not exactly "fresh", but you know what I mean.

And that artistry reaches even to the cards used in the game. I like that they have cards that tell you where to go, as opposed to simply rolling a die and following a trail to said destination. Though I gotta admit, if the cards were swapped, and it said "Go to the bathroom, take someone with you", this would be a very different kind of board game. This whole thing reeks of high end craftsmanship and might in fact just be the nicest board game I've ever seen. Every single aspect of it is really well designed and really well made, and there's nothing funny to joke about here, which makes my job kinda hard, cause I wanna make fun of things and now I can't.

That being said, there's also something refreshing about people who actually give a shit about what they do, instead of just slapping another idea on a piece of cardboard with poorly printed tokens and naming it something like "Froofty Dooper's Fun Slide!" or whatever. I'm not saying that people in this industry don't care, because I think everyone cares about the work they do, but we have to admit there's indeed a level of artistry that's more or less "churn it out, whatever the cost", and we all suffer as a result, so it's nice to see something with this much love and effort put into it for a change. Plus, above all else, you get to solve a mystery! And who doesn't wanna wrongly convict their closest friend of murder and send them to jail for life? I know I would.

It's all part of a hard days detective work.

"I offered to take her case, but on one condition...she have a drink with me after it was good and solved. She agreed, and I was pleased, if however unaware that the drink I'd be having was poison, and she'd be the one serving it. Dames. Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em."