How to Play Clue: Liars Edition Board Game (Rules and Instructions)

Originally released back in 1949, Clue has been a classic family game for many years. With how popular the game has been, there have been a number of Clue spinoff games that have tried to tweak the formula. Released in 2020, Clue: Liars Edition takes the traditional gameplay and adds in the ability for players to occasionally lie as well as take an additional action on their turn.

Year: 2020 | Publisher: Hasbro | Designer: NA | Artist: Henning Ludvigsen

Genres: Deduction, Family

Ages: 8+ | Number of Players: 2-6 | Length of Game: 30-45 minutes

Difficulty: Light | Strategy: Light | Luck: Moderate

Components: gameboard, 6 character tokens, 6 weapons, 21 Evidence cards, 12 Investigation cards, 6 Reference cards, Case File Envelope, Detective Notepad, die, Liar Button, instructions

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Objective of Clue: Liars Edition

The objective of Clue: Liars Edition is to be the first player to determine who killed Mr. Boddy, with what weapon, and in what room.

Setup for Clue: Liars Edition

Place the gameboard in the middle of the table.
Place each of the character tokens on their corresponding start spaces. You will place the tokens of all of the characters, even if some of them aren’t being used by players.
Randomly choose a room to place each of the weapons. Each weapon should be placed in a different room.
Each player will take a reference card. The remaining reference cards are returned to the box.
Separate the Investigation cards from the Evidence cards.
Shuffle the Investigation cards. Deal each player one Investigation card face down. Players can look at their own card, but shouldn’t let the other players see it. The rest of the Investigation cards form a draw pile.
Separate the Evidence cards into three decks (characters, weapons, locations). Shuffle each deck separately.
Randomly choose one card from each Evidence card group and place it into the envelope. This should be done so none of the players see what cards are chosen.

Mystery Envelope — The three cards that constitute the solution to the crime have been placed inside the envelope. The players will try to figure out what cards were placed inside of it.

The rest of the Evidence cards are shuffled together. The cards will be dealt out to the players face down. Some players may receive more cards than others.
Each player takes a notebook sheet and something to write with.
You will look at the Evidence cards that were dealt to you. You can cross off the corresponding spots on your notebook sheet. As you have the cards, they cannot be inside the envelope.

Evidence Cards in Clue: Liars Edition — To start the game this player was dealt the Ballroom, Dining Room, Dagger, Miss Scarlett, and Statue cards. THey can cross these off from their Detective Sheet as they know they can’t be inside the envelope.

Playing Clue: Liars Edition

On your turn you will get to take three actions.

Move your character
Make a suggestion
Play your Investigation card

Move Your Character

To begin your turn you will roll the die. You will then get to choose one of three options for movement.

Die Roll in Clue: Liars Edition — This player rolled a two on the die. They will get to move their pawn up to two rooms away.

First you may move your character token around the mansion based on the number that you rolled. You may move a number of rooms equal to or less than the number you rolled. Each room counts as one space. You may either move clockwise or counterclockwise.

Movement in Clue: Liars Edition — As the Professor Plum player (bottom right corner) rolled a two, they have a few options for rooms they can move to. Using the dice they can move to the Lounge, Hall, Library, or Billiard Room.

Instead of moving with your die roll, you can use a secret passage. If the room that you started your turn on has a secret passage, you can move to the room indicated on the secret passage.

Your third option is to just stay in the room that you are currently in.

Make a Suggestion

After moving your character you will have the opportunity to make a suggestion.

Before making your suggestion you should consider the information you already know, and what information that you would like to learn. You will get to make a suggestion consisting of your current location, a character of your choice, and a weapon of your choice. You may ask about Evidence cards that you yourself control.

After making a suggestion, you will move into your current room the character token and weapon you used for your suggestion.

Make Suggestion — The current player has made the suggestion of Miss Peacock in the Lounge with the Statue.

The player to your left will then look at the Evidence cards in their hand. If they have one of the cards you asked about, they will pass you the card face down so none of the other players see it. After you have seen the card, mark it down on your notebook sheet as you know the card can’t be in the envelope. You will then hand the card back to the player.

Receive Card From Another Player — One of the other players had the Lounge card in their hand. They will show it to the current player.

If the player should have two or three of the cards you asked about, they will only show you one of the cards. They should not indicate to you that they have more than one of the cards.

If the player to your left didn’t show you a card, the suggestion will move to the next player to the left. Should they have one of the cards, they will show it to you. If they don’t have one of the cards, the suggestion will pass to the next player. This continues until one player has shown you a card.

If none of the players have one of the cards, you will not get to look at a card on your turn. You should learn information from the fact that none of the players have any of the cards you asked about.

This phase of your turn ends after you have seen another player’s card, or none of the players show you a card.

Play Your Investigation Card

In your hand you will have one Investigation card. These cards give players the ability to take additional actions on their turn. Some of these cards say truth on them and some say lie. The additional actions that these cards provide are as follows:

I can move to any room and make another suggestion.
All players must pass 1 card of their choice to the left.
I can peak at 2 random Evidence cards from the player of my choice.

Before you play your Investigation card, you will tell the other players what it says on the card. If your card is a truth card, you will just read off the card (don’t read that the card say truth on it).

Lie cards have three options printed on them. You will choose one of the three options to read to the players. You should do this in a way where the other players don’t think you are lying.

After reading your card you will place it face down on the discard pile.

The other players then need to try and figure out if you were lying or telling the truth. Each player will decide on their own. If they think you are telling the truth, they won’t do anything. If they think you are lying, they will press the Liar Button.

Press Lie Button — One of the players think the current player lied about their Investigation card. They will press the Liar Button to accuse them of lying.

What happens next depends on whether anyone presses the Liar Button.

If no one presses the Liar Button, you will take the action you read out loud (even if you were lying).

If a player presses the Liar Button, you will reveal the Investigation card that you discarded.

If you were lying, you are caught. You will choose one of the Evidence cards from your hand and place it face up in the Interrogation Room on the game board. All of the other players can now cross off this card from their notebook sheet.

Caught Lying in Clue: Liars Edition — One of the player’s were caught lying. Therefore they had to put one of their Evidence cards face up on the gameboard where everyone can see it.

If you were telling the truth, the player who pressed the button must show you one of their Evidence cards. You will randomly choose one of their cards. You can look at the card and mark it off on your notebook sheet. You will then return the card to the player. Finally you will get to take the action from the Investigation card that you discarded.

Before ending your turn you will draw a new Investigation card. Should the draw pile run out of Investigation cards, you will shuffle the discard pile to form a new draw pile.

If you ever run out of Evidence cards in your hand, you will skip this step. You will keep your Investigation card though, in case an Evidence card gets passed to you in the future.

End of Game

At the beginning of any of your turns (before rolling the die), you can choose to make an accusation.

You will say your accusation out loud. An accusation consists of one location (doesn’t need to be your current location), one person, and one weapon.

You will then look at the cards inside the envelope without letting the other players see.

If your accusation for all three cards was correct, you win Clue: Liars Edition.

Final Solution in Clue: Liars Edition — The current player made the accusation of Mr. Green with the Lead Pipe in the Kitchen. The three cards pictured were inside the envelope. Therefore the player who made the accusation has won the game.

If you were wrong about one or more of the cards, you are eliminated from the game. You will return the cards to the envelope. You will not take anymore turns for the rest of the game. If another player makes a suggestion, you will still have to show them cards. The game will continue until someone makes a correct accusation. If none of the players make a correct accusation, all of the players lose the game.