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Clue World of Harry Potter Board Game Review and Rules

Clue World of Harry Potter Board Game Review and Rules

When most people think of the deduction genre the first game that comes to their mind is Clue. Clue is just one of those classic games that everyone has played at some point in their lives. I would say that I don’t love or hate Clue since it deserves credit for basically creating the deduction genre but at the same time has some faults that have been fixed by more recent board games. Being a fan of Harry Potter and enjoying an occasional game of Clue, I was interested in finding out if Clue World of Harry Potter was just a re-themed Clue or if it actually brought something new to the game. For the most part Clue World of Harry Potter plays like normal Clue but the game adds some interesting mechanics that both improve and hurt Clue.

How to Play | My Thoughts | Should You Buy? | Comments

How to Play Clue World of Harry Potter

Setup

Turn the four wheels on the gameboard so each one shows “start”. Separate the dark deck and help cards and shuffle each deck. Each player takes:

  • A clue sheet
  • A writing utensil
  • 1 help card (placed face up)
  • Floo powder based on the number of players
    • 3 players: 8 floo powder
    • 4 players: 10 floo powder
    • 5 players: 12 floo powder
  • An identity card and matching playing piece.

Before the players choose a character, one of the identity cards are chosen at random as the character that has been kidnapped.

Separate the mystery cards into three piles based on their type. Randomly take one card from each pile without looking and place them inside the secret envelope. The rest of the mystery cards are shuffled together and are dealt out to the players. If there are more cards than can evenly be split between all of the players, all extra cards are placed face up on The Burrow space. Players mark off the cards they were dealt and any cards that were placed in The Burrow since those cards cannot be inside the envelope.

The player who has the next birthday gets to play first.

Rolling The Dice

A player begins their turn by rolling both dice.

First the player will handle the black die. The player will perform an action based on what symbol was rolled:

  • Star: The player draws a help card.
  • Location symbol: The player will turn the dial corresponding to the symbol rolled one notch clockwise. If this reveals the dark mark the player will have to draw a dark mark card.

    Changing the Board in Clue World of Harry Potter

    The player has rolled the Hog’s Head symbol so they will turn the wheel in the Hog’s Head corner of the board.

  • Dark Mark: The player will have to draw a dark mark card.

After using the black die, the player will move their playing piece. The player can either use the number they rolled or they can use one floo powder to teleport to any lit fireplace.

Floo Powder in Clue World of Harry Potter

The yellow player could use one floo powder to teleport to the Malfoy Manor or any other room that has a lit fireplace.

When moving the following rules must be followed:

  • You do not have to use your entire roll.
  • You can only move horizontally or vertically but not diagonally.
  • Any black doors are open and you can use them to enter a room. Red doors are closed so you can’t use them to enter a room (unless you have the Alohomora help card).

    Doors in Clue World of Harry Potter

    The top door is black and can be used by all players. The bottom door is red so it can only be used by players with an Alohomora card.

  • Once you enter a room you must stop your movement immediately.
  • If you land on a star symbol you must stop moving immediately but you get to take a help card.

    Help Cards in Clue World of Harry Potter

    If a player lands on a star symbol or rolls a star symbol they are able to take a help card.

  • A player may not land on a space occupied by another player.
  • You cannot stay or move to the same space on consecutive turns.

Making A Suggestion

When you enter a room you are able to make a suggestion to the other players. The player chooses a suspect and an item. The player then asks the player to their left if they have the card for the suspect, item or the player’s current location. You place the suspect and item token of your suggestion in your current room to indicate what you are asking the other players. The player to the left looks through their cards and if they have one or more of the cards, they must show one of them to the player who asked. The player’s turn then ends. If the player to the left does not have any of the cards, the next player has to show the current player one of the cards if they have it. This continues until a player shares a card with the current player or none of the players have any of the cards that were asked for.

Making a Suggestion in Clue World of Harry Potter

The red player has entered Hog’s Head and has made a suggestion of Peter Pettigrew with the Love Potion in Hog’s Head. One of the players had the love potion card so they showed it to the red player.

Dark Marks

When a player is forced to draw a dark mark card, they will read the card and do as it says.

Dark Mark in Clue World of Harry Potter

If the dark mark shows up on the die or on the gameboard the player will be forced to draw a dark mark card.

Each dark mark card has sections indicating who is affected, how much floo powder is lost and how a player can protect themselves from the card. For every player that the card effects they either need to protect themselves or they will lose the corresponding amount of floo powder. In order to protect yourself the player needs to have one of the help cards listed on the dark mark card. If they have one of the associated help cards, the player avoids the punishment and keeps their help card. If they don’t have an appropriate help card, the player loses the corresponding amount of floo powder.

Dark Card in Clue World of Harry Potter

The dark mark card at the top of the picture has been drawn. This card affects all of the players and will force each player to lose three floo powder unless they have one of the help cards that protects them from the dark mark card. In order to protect themselves from the dark mark card they either need the Expelliarmus, Petrificus Totalus, or Protego cards.

Making An Accusation and Winning the Game

When a player thinks they have solved the mystery, they can make an accusation. To make an accusation the player has to move their piece the The Burrow.

Making A Guess in Clue World of Harry Potter

The green player has reached The Burrow space. The green player is able to make a guess at the solution.

When a player reaches The Burrow they reveal the suspect, item and location they suspect for the crime. The player then looks at the cards in the envelope without letting the other players see the cards. If the player was correct they reveal the cards and they win the game. If they were wrong they put the cards back in the envelop and they are eliminated from the game. This player can’t win the game but still has to give cards to the other players when they have a card that matches a suggestion.

Solution in Clue World of Harry Potter

One of the players has solved the current mystery by making an accusation of Lucius Malfoy with the Poisoned Mead in Gringotts. Since this player was correct, they win the game.

My Thoughts on Clue World of Harry Potter

Being part of the Clue family, it should come as no surprise that Clue World of Harry Potter borrows heavily from the original Clue. Basically all of the main mechanics are exactly the same as the original Clue. You move around the board stopping in rooms to ask questions to the other players. Eventually one player wins the game when they figure out the three cards that are hidden in the clue envelope. Due to the fact that pretty much everyone has played Clue at some point in their lives I am not really going to address my thoughts on Clue itself since you probably already have your own opinion of the game. If you really want my thoughts on Clue you could also check out my review of Clue Master Detective. So instead of wasting time talking about normal Clue I am going to talk about what is new/different in Clue World of Harry Potter. While none of the new mechanics drastically change the core gameplay, I was actually a little surprised by how much new stuff was added to Clue World of Harry Potter.

Lets start with possibly the most noticeable difference, the transforming board. This mechanic was probably my second favorite addition to the game. Basically when you roll the dice you likely will have to turn one of the four wheels underneath the board which impacts the layout of the board. By turning the wheels you will open and close some doors and also turn on/off fireplaces. While I will get to the fireplaces shortly, I like the idea of changing up the board from time to time. While you have no control over how the board changes it makes the game feel fresh. It might be frustrating having a door slam shut in your face but I liked the mechanic since it adds a little variety to a game that otherwise just has you moving from room to room.

My favorite addition to Clue World of Harry Potter is the idea of the floo powder though. Basically the floo powder is a way to balance out some of the die roll luck. If you roll poorly you can decide to just use some floo powder to teleport to a room that has a lit fireplace. While this might seem overpowered, the game does a decent job of mitigating it by having some of the fireplaces go out (when the board changes) which limits which rooms that a player can move to. The game also gives each player a limited amount of floo powder so you need to choose the best times to use it or you will quickly run out of it. One of the things that I have never liked about Clue is the dice rolling. I have never been a fan of the dice rolling in Clue since it just adds unnecessary luck to a game that should mostly be about figuring out the mystery. While the floo powder doesn’t totally eliminate the dice roll luck, it does reduce it a little.

The final major addition to Clue World Harry Potter is the addition of help and dark mark cards. While the designers were trying to use the help and dark mark card to add some variety to the game, I think they just add more luck to the game. Basically the purpose of the help cards is to avoid the penalties of a dark mark card. Outside of choosing to land on a help space instead of entering a room there is really no strategy in acquiring help cards. Which help card you get is completely random and you have no control over what help cards you will need. Basically you are relying on luck to draw help cards that will actually help you.

The dark mark cards have no less luck involved with them. Basically you will be forced to draw a dark mark card if you roll the symbol on the die or if the dark mark symbol is revealed when you turn one of the wheels on the gameboard. You have no control over either of these happening so you need to just hope that you don’t have to draw dark cards. Once the dark mark card is reveled there is also a luck component where the card either won’t impact you or you have the appropriate help card. Based on my experience this doesn’t happen often. The punishment for not being able to avoid a dark mark card is losing some of your floo powder which puts you at a disadvantage over the other players. While I can see what the game was trying to do with the help and dark mark cards, they feel like a waste of time since all they do is add luck to the game.

As far as components I was pretty disappointed with Clue World of Harry Potter. I will admit that the game does a pretty good job utilizing the Harry Potter license. The artwork is pretty good. The gameboard is pretty nice and the changing rooms mechanic actually work pretty well. The problem with the components though is that they are kind of bland. The game uses pretty thin cardboard for a lot of pieces and the game has some of the thinnest cardstock that I have seen in a long time. Add in that the clue sheets are pretty small and I think the game could have done more with the components.

While this is probably pretty obvious, Clue World of Harry Potter was a game made for fans of the series and they will be the people who enjoy the game most. As I have already mentioned, the game does a pretty good job with the Harry Potter license. The game does a good job utilizing the franchise to tweak the basic version of Clue. Fans of Harry Potter should enjoy the game if they like Clue. The problem is that I don’t see the game really appealing to people that don’t really care about Harry Potter. These players will have trouble saying some of the words/names in the game and just won’t get anything out of the game other than it being just another Clue game.

Should You Buy Clue World of Harry Potter?

Clue World of Harry Potter is an interesting game. While the game shares a lot in common with normal Clue, the game actually added more mechanics than I was expecting. For the most part I enjoyed the changing gameboard and floo powder mechanics because they change up the gameplay and in some ways remove some luck from the game. On the other hand I really didn’t like the addition of the dark mark and help cards since they just add more luck to the game. Being a game made for fans of Harry Potter it is not a surprise that the game will mostly appeal to fans of the series.

If you don’t really like Clue or Harry Potter I can’t see you enjoying Clue World of Harry Potter. If you are a big Harry Potter fan or think the new additions to the Clue formula are interesting, I think you could enjoy Clue World of Harry Potter.

If you would like to purchase Clue World of Harry Potter you can find it online: Amazon, eBay

Hazera

Tuesday 21st of September 2021

at the end of the game once you make an accusation and no one else has the right mystery to discount that accusation, isnt it understood that this could be the final answer? Then all will try to race to the burrow to make the final accusation, which would mostly give a chance to the other players more than the one who actually made the correct accusation, a better chance at winning the game. Is this the right way to conclude the game? Also to reach the burrow do we need an exact count in the dice or just the minimum to reach into it and the rest of the number of the dice is exempted?

Eric Mortensen

Tuesday 21st of September 2021

If I am understanding your first question correctly, players could always infer information about the responses that the other players get to their accusations. The player making the accusation could add one or two pieces to their accusation that they already know aren't correct though. For example they may hold the card for the location, item and/or suspect that they put into their accusation. Therefore the player may not get to see a card from the other players, but that doesn't mean that their whole accusation was correct. Typically throughout the game I will do this as it makes it easier to get information that you need out of other players. I believe mixing in some accusations where you know you can't get one or more of the cards from another player (because you hold it) keeps the other players from inferring too much from any information you may or may not receive on your turn.

As for your question about having to reach the Burrow by exact count, the rules don't specifically say either way. The rules just say to reach the Burrow as quickly as possible once you know the correct solution. Normally instructions will specifically say that you need to arrive on a space by exact count it that is the intended rule. So I would personally say that you only need to roll high enough to make it to the Burrow and any exact spaces would be ignored. Since the rules don't specify though, if you think requiring an exact count to make it to the Burrow is the right decision you could choose to use that as the rule.

Saturday 17th of October 2020

I understand the luck factor in regards to the help desk, however I don't know where to find an appendix that tells me which help cards do what. For instance, the rules say that the Alohamora card can be used to go through locked doorways... but that's it. Is there somewhere I can find out how other help cards such as Wingardium Leviosa can assist you?

Eric Mortensen

Monday 19th of October 2020

I will preface this by saying that I haven't played the game in quite a while and the instructions aren't easily accessible for me at this time.

I believe all of the cards outside of Alohamora are used solely to ward against when a Dark Mark card is drawn. Basically you can use these cards to protect against the specific Dark Mark cards that mention them if you otherwise would be affected by the Dark Mark card. I think the Alohmamora card is special in that it also has the special ability of allowing you to walk through locked doors.

Kathy

Sunday 29th of December 2019

So, you are supposed to leave the room on your next turn. but what if you have no flow powder and the door is now locked. What do you do??

Eric Mortensen

Monday 30th of December 2019

The rules specifically say that you can't remain in the same room two turns in a row and you can't move through closed doors unless you have the corresponding Help card. Without any Floo powder you also can't use the fireplaces.

I don't have the game right in front of me so I can't look at the board. Based on pictures it seems like a lot of the rooms have doors that are always open (don't switch from black to red) so I would assume you would be forced to leave the room through this exit. If there are rooms that don't have one of these exits though I am not entirely sure what you are supposed to do as you would be violating some rule no matter what you do. In this case you should probably come up with whatever house rule you prefer for the situation. I personally would probably have the player stay in the room until they can move out of the room as that makes the most sense in my opinion. If you think forcing the player out of the room is the better option though you can make them move out of the room based on the roll of the die.

Rawan

Saturday 30th of March 2019

I want to ask about the dark deck, if the card has all characters on so only one player has to submit the suggested help card to save everyone or each player should?

Second question, if the player lost all his floo powder and do not haveone of the suggested help cards what does he do ?

Eric Mortensen

Saturday 30th of March 2019

For your first question the rules don't specifically mention this situation. Based on my interpretation of the rules though I would assume each player individually would have to use a help card to protect themselves.

The instructions also don't directly reference your second question either. The penalty for not having the appropriate help card is to lose floo powder. The only thing the instructions mention for when you run out of floo powder is that you can no longer use the floo network. Therefore I would interpret that to mean that since the player has no floo powder to lose, there is no punishment for not having the proper help card in this situation.

As neither of these are directly referenced in the rules though I think you could interpret these situations whichever way you prefer. The conclusions above are just how I would personally handle the situations.

Natalia

Saturday 27th of October 2018

I was wondering about those "normal" doorways too, so yours comments were helpfull. Thank you. What about the sytuation when you are "stuck" in forbidden forest. I mean when the only doorway is red and there are no "normal" exits. You supposed to leave the localization every turn but what about that situation? Sorry for my english, I hope my problems are understandable

Eric Mortensen

Saturday 27th of October 2018

Hello.

I haven't played the game in a while so this is based off my memory of the game. I would assume if there are no open exits from the location, you would be stuck in that location until an exit opened up.