Top 10 Deduction Games

[@jacobbengert5531]

One I really like that I didn't see mentioned is Black Sonata. Solo, deduction, hidden movement. I think its real solid

[@andyharris4048]

My top 10: 1. Sleuth 2. Mind MGMT 3. Rear Window 4. Cryptid 5. Whitehall Mystery 6. Suspects 7. Treasure Island 8. Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective 9. Tragedy Looper 10. The Lost Code

[@ramonosuke]

A great top 10 that introduced me to a lot of games I have not heard of, or completely forgot about.

[@winstonhammonds3314]

I know Tom didn’t care for it, but my family and I really enjoy Paint the Roses

[@ChaBox998]

I can't believe Tragedy Looper is not even mentioned at all...such a great game that is underrated.

[@framerate1607]

Just played it with my friends. Amazing game, just need a way to consistently make tragedies as the website went down…😢 Good game overall tho, solid 8/10

[@lystic9392]

I've heard people only say that it's impossible to get to the table. But I'm also someone who is more interested than the average person in hidden gems.

[@43bg1]

I don't think Tom and Zee like the game, I have vague memories of it coming up during a convention show and they were both negative towards it.

[@ChaBox998]

@lystic9392 the rules are actually pretty simple. The game setup is also very easy. The challenge, I believe, is the role of mastermind. This is a 1 vs many game so the 1 mastermind really needs to know the game and script well.

[@ChaBox998]

@43bg1 I think they might not have played with someone who is experienced at the game. I played it with a very sharp master mind and an experienced teammate. The game was amazing.

[@ConeDefense]

Whitehall Mystery / Letters from Whitechapel are the most accessible while crunchy deduction you can play

[@GleasonE]

This was a fantastic list. Thanks for the great surprise guys!

[@Infil]

Decrypto is a great game because the theme fits so well (compared to other word association games). You're trying to give clues to the table that are encrypted, but your teammate is able to easily decrypt them because they have access to the hidden key (the 4 words). Meanwhile, the team without the key is supposed to have no idea what the message means, just like real encrypted messages. My favorite example of this is my friend writing the word "summer", which clued "calculator" in my screen (a device that sums). I was able to impart special meaning from his clue because I had access to the key, and it is a completely confusing clue if you don't have the key. There are lots of good word association games out there, but they are usually just words in grids or similar things where any theme can be applied without much trouble. The theme really elevates Decrypto for me.

[@llegaremosalasestrellas3245]

Chris, Zee, please, play at least once the game suggested by Tom (awkward guests). It has the DICE TOWER Seal of Excellence!!!! 😅 I have the game and it is very nice. In adition, I would like to add Watson & Holmes (from Ludonova) as a great deduction game. Best regards!

[@stevenamamoto585]

Paint the Roses is great.Things in Rings is fun.

[@CamObscura88]

So surprised Paint the Roses isn’t here! It’s so good!

[@darbyl3872]

Hooky is so under the radar for being so good. I want to try Message From The Stars. It sounds like an advanced version of Phantom Ink, which CAN be really intense, and lots of fun. My other favs are Decrypto, Cryptid, and Inkognito. If they could be combined, it would be called Dekogtid.

[@JorWat25]

Love the Sherlock-esque intro music.

[@andyharris4048]

I believe it was a play on the "Masterpiece Theater" theme.

[@gabtrat9091]

Whitehall Mystery! One of the few games where nothing needs to be upgraded, organized, or sleeved. Just an addictive simple and tense 1-vs-all game in a small box.

[@43bg1]

Thanks for the list! I don't think The Crew (while I love the game) quite belongs to this category. The Crew to me is similar to other games that rely on limited communication, like Hanabi. I think deduction games are about using concrete facts to figure out other concrete facts. The Crew/Hanabi are about figuring out what other people are trying to tell you.

[@TheEternal792]

A Message From the Stars really is phenomenal. It's one I was hoping would make your list because I think it deserves it

[@KabukiKid]

Yeah, I remember even personally asking Buonocore about Confusion and if it would ever get a reprint and he said that it was a rare case where he never planned to reprint it strictly based on the production cost. The game basically was barely profitable because it was so costly to produce the components. He said if you ever see it still on a shelf in a game store, snatch it up. I took his advice. ;-) lol I was fortunate enough to find a copy still in the wild at a game store. Solid game!

[@randalladkins7452]

21:45 - Personally, I feel hidden movement has enough games to match Social Deduction as a separate category from pure deduction. IMHO, I don’t believe it belongs on this list if they are excluding other sub-categories like Social Deduction and Escape Room games. Just my 2 cents. 😊

[@CamObscura88]

I feel like there aren’t quite enough of them for multiple top 10s to be different.

[@ryancourtney7498]

Excited to make the list!

[@levenzaha]

One of my favorite genres and yet quite a few games on here that weren’t on my radar. Thanks for the great top 10. A message from the stars is my most played game this year. I’m surprised that you completely excluded the more straight forward word deduction games that I know you all love: so clover, just one, codenames, etc Also, less surprised, but no hanabi or beyond baker street? I love that Tom included outfoxed. I may put Deduckto over it but still a great choice.

[@thedicetower]

I don't consider the word "deduction" games to be deduction games, that's why. I think Hanabi is okay, and same for Baker Street. That's why. :)

[@rexology_bg]

Alchemists should be on the list. I know none of you really like it, but it is a good game. Tempted to list First Contact but I think it is more inference than deduction.

[@thedicetower]

I (Chris) enjoyed my play of it, but I've only played it once several years ago. It's very fun, but not in my top 10!

[@pabloandrada6558]

I think that Alchemists has a great deduction mechanic, but involves a lot of other actions that distracts you from that so, i'd rarher play a lot of the games on their lists before Alchemists ("Search for Planet X" killed Alchemists for me) But that's true, the center of the game is the deduction.

[@raysandrarexxia941]

Especially with the King's Golem expansion, adds a whole new layer

[@wevegotgame]

Completely agree! Was hoping Alchemists would shine through. One of my top games. Work placement centered around the deduction is beautiful. Even more amplified with kings golem.

[@FredrikRibbing]

Definitely agree. Alchemists is such a great production as well.

[@aetherllama8398]

One of my favorite genres. A bit surprised Decorum wasn't on any lists.

[@MisterAbysmul]

Love this studio format! Professional!

[@holgerchristiansen4003]

On the one hand: Yes. On the other hand: They should install some pop filters to get rid of those nasty things

[@quinncallahan]

We've played soo much Outfoxed! great intro deduction!

[@davegildersleeve4316]

Not one of my favorite genre of games, but great video. Always enjoy seeing you guys review games.

[@junyanliu3621]

Hooky is so amazing. We played so many times

[@Spudkitty513]

One of my very favorites, not mentioned here, is Alchemists. Very fun to play with others who are already familiar with the game. Less fun with people you have to teach it to.

[@Poiuytrew.Q]

Love the Sherlock intro!

[@play-it-or-not]

Paint the roses is a great one! For kids 5 minutes mystery

[@brikabraka9273]

What?!! No 221 B Baker Street! Also, I would consider Deception, Murder in Hong Kong a more of a deduction game. The social deduction part is a small part The game it is about really about guessing from the clues which of the items were picked.

[@leonjoffe6380]

Thx for great video. Wonderful new games for my list. But a word of caution: dont try Turing Machine solo at nightmare level, even with only 4 clues. After an hour, with 3 coffee breaks, I crumpled all my pieces of paper and sulked out of the room 😅. But I agree with Chris: a great game for one's special nook

[@mr_boom105]

Our go-to deduction game is letter jam. I need to try a lot of these!

[@Ras137]

Letter Jam is in my wife and I's top 10 deduction games. No game has made us laugh as much as this one.

[@benco804]

2:08I love Zee's face here. It all says did I mess up boss?

[@maizetoken377]

If Zee's and Eric's voices had a baby, it'd be Chris'.

[@mizzy_chiara]

I would add Hanabi to the list too

[@bonniemacpherson7742]

Fallen Angels is a great little cooperative deduction game. Dark theme, but really good.

[@jonsparks3152]

Scotland Yard, Turing Machine, and Search for Planet X are my favorites.

[@robinbaksh9023]

They should really separate the cooperative and the competitive games into separate lists. Also a mention to Alchemists, while understandably not a top 10, it did help make this genre more popular in the last 10 years. In general I think I like games where it is a race to deduce something (like Cryptid) than it is a deduction game wrapped in a standard euro.

[@oviaelectronica]

Wish you were just chilling on the couch instead of the sports commentator style with the new mics, but anyways great list! - but where is "Murder in Hong Kong"?! - Edit: fair enough It's a social deduction game, it's just such a great deduction game.

[@CoasterMagicX2]

I'd call that Social deduction even if it has more deduction than most social deduction games

[@lajeit]

Yeah it’s a lot of us who don’t like this new format but it’s them making the content and I’m sure some other people like it, they ain’t gonna change it because 3 randos complain about it

[@bricelory9534]

They mentioned that social deduction would not be on this list.

[@MathMagicianSam]

I like the desk look

[@Ian-R-Wilz]

I agree about the desk. It’s too formal looking like a newscast.

[@barry_t]

My favorites: Letters From Whitechapel, Tragedy Looper, Intent To Kill, and Tobago!!!!

[@christinebiancheria7237]

The appearance isn't really on Rio Grande. It's on we novices although we based it on photos of kids at the school. Anyway, thank you for your comments!

[@avaraportti1873]

What a great category! Did you run out of letters already? Because you could just do top ten games with an odd number of d:s in the name.

[@poca5053]

Also decorum?

[@petercsm5769]

A beanie is tight on your head and has no brim, similar to a skull cap. That's not a toque or a knit cap or a domesweater or a cranialwawasoft or any of the other very serious-sounding names for brimmed, ear flapless winter hats for playing in the snow.

[@holgerchristiansen4003]

I would like to know which crossovers the three of them suspected at the start, because not all of them actually happened in the end

[@thedicetower]

A lot of mine (Chris's) turned out to be Tom's 13-16 or so.

[@EfrainRiveraJunior]

My wife and I love Tiwanaku (Formerly known as Pachamama).

[@mooghoo2]

FYI it’s spelled Tuque. It’s a French word for A winter beanie. The more you know

[@WretchinWilson]

Does Love Letter count?

[@KabukiKid]

I was wondering if Zee was going to mention Perfect Alibi. I don't believe it ever got a North American release, but it was sort of an evolution of Sleuth. Sleuth was his #10, so maybe he just prefers the more "pure" version of the system. heh :-)

[@karink2079]

Yes, he even reviewed it and liked it. kzbin.info/www/bejne/kH2YYoWnlJqcldE

[@jonathanfranklin461]

Black Vienna is incredible. Zendo is also induction, so if Tobago is out, why is Zendo in?

[@DKTV84]

No Mystery of the Abbey?

[@bhodges3]

No love for Paint the Roses?

[@dischound]

Woot! So glad to see Shipwreck Arcana on the list :)

[@nshaw1299]

Outfoxed is a great game to introduce deduction to 4-6 years' old, but has one of the shortest shelf lives in existance until it stops challenging the kids, and then you need to transfer to 'Five Minute Mystery'. Also, 'Museum Suspects' - the 'several persons' and 'no persons' option takes the game down for me. The opposite of Chris. Because it's just reminds how random it is... If that randomness wasn't a bad factor, then Awesome guests and search for planet X wouldn't need an app... Most people want to know there's a secret *specific* answer. One last thing, 'Dinosaur Tea Party' is what 'Guess Who' wanted to be as an adult and too bad it's OOP... So great. Guess who but structured, for more players, AND, some characters lie, in a pattern you can deduce that it's them. One of the best kids' deduction games.

[@hannahbeertz1231]

Five Minute Myster is a good one, and enjoyable for adults as well.

[@nshaw1299]

@@hannahbeertz1231 It just changes the challenge of outfoxed, from 'hope for dice results' (there's no other challenge once kids are familiar with the concept) to a time based challenge which also requires more attention to details, both to get clues and to eliminate suspects quickly. That's definitly enough to make the same thing outfoxed does, just more mature. But adults do need to like the time based challenge which is the main mechanism here in order to enjoy. Because that's only what makes it challenging. The rest is just discovering clues and eliminating suspects, almost straight up.

[@Cocoon-e5m]

One day, some day, The Dice Tower will have 4K video and streaming. One day....

[@KidJV]

can do top 10 push your luck games.. playgroup is liking dont llama dice and flip 7

[@gnomersy1087]

Tuque ... Chris you been playing Rimworld?

[@johncullen9436]

Would Captain Sonar work here?

[@thomascocks9136]

There is one deduction-esque mini game among a bigger game. I wouldn't describe it as a deduction game

[@saeeeeed]

What's the intro song?

[@daveculling5467]

It’s a version of the Dice Tower theme that I made in the style of the music from Sherlock

[@Troy-gu5vu]

im surprised there was no decorum?

[@bensgoogle]

I wouldn’t necessarily say that. I know these guys tease each other but ultimately they’re good friends. It’s a casual atmosphere, don’t worry about it.

[@johncullen9436]

I am dyslexic, and it can be. It is. It has been. And always will be, sometimes. Friday the 31, right? I got that right, right?

[@GleasonE]

I’m going to want to know where Corps of Discovery lands when it ships

[@MichaelJones-yp8gj]

Spy Tricks is a good game

[@arekkrolak6320]

Detective City of Angels would be first on my list. Watson and Holmes would be second.

[@rpriske]

Toque is NOT the Canadian word for beanie. Beanie is the American word for Toque.

[@WebMonkey741]

Some other deduction games on my list that were not mentioned :Mind Mgmt Mystery of the Abbey First Contact Tiny Epic Crimes Tragedy Looper Fugitive Mystery Express Almost Innocent Treasure Island

[@SpackJarrow94]

Mind MGMT is blast.

[@philippeattali3821]

Thank you for Almost Innocent ! I home.you enjoy the game! 😁

[@JasonOshinko]

I prefer deduction based on logic rather than on vibes and luck.

[@Wildhorn666]

@13:50 A tuque is not a beany.

[@iamtheoneyouknowbest]

What about Love Letter?

[@danielgoicoechea3440]

I don’t think there is enough deduction in that game so much as there is just random guessing or guessing on a probability. There are few instances where you can deduce real information just by using your brain.

[@nedeljkodukic7279]

The only time you can deduce something for sure is if you compare cards and it's higher than the Countess lol​@@danielgoicoechea3440

[@darbyl3872]

There is definitely an increasing amount of deduction as fewer cards are in the players' hands. The last cards are almost a certainty, but the missing card keeps it interesting.

[@warever37]

No Alchemists, Tom?

[@johncullen9436]

Loot of Lima. Yes, there are problems with the game. But it's pure deduction.

[@TheChrysalis83]

Kind of shocked not to see Mind MGMT- guess the crew aren't a fan of hidden movement games, as that one seems like a distillation of everything the sub-genre has tried to do.

[@thedicetower]

Well, we DID mention it quite significantly.

[@TheChrysalis83]

@@thedicetower Oof! That's what I get for TL;DRing the video and just skipping around to see the "list". I'll have to come back later for a proper watch.

[@tiagomarques9822]

I’m glad to find 6 of my games on your Top 10. I’d add Finding Atlantis (still unplayed on my shelf, but I’m looking forward to it), Tricoda (a.k.a. Code 777) (a favorite of mine), Break the Cube (a small but great deduction filler) and Décorum.

[@CactusJackter]

Human error is why I sold Cryptid. Great game but way too easy to make mistakes.

[@dancondonjones]

Same here. About half of the games I played of it were ruined by a mistake.

[@CarrieAaron-p1o]

Magdalena Lodge

[@MondChristine-v8z]

Schroeder Avenue

[@ganjielong]

Chronicles of Crime?

[@bhodges3]

The Crew as a deduction game? *eye roll*

[@ganjielong]

Yeah, that’s a tough sell. Most games are deduction games then, given we have to deduce what other players are doing

[@dancondonjones]

I think it counts in the same way The Shipwreck Arcana counts (and Hanabi would count too). You have to deduce a lot. Working out why someone played a particular card or gave a particular clue is just the same king of thinking.

[@bhodges3]

@@dancondonjones That feels like a stretch to me, but at least that makes it make a little more sense. Thanks for replying.

[@HellfishX88]

Love letter?

[@saveversus]

Shipwreck Arcana broke my heart. The setting was amazing... but had nothing to do with the game. My wife and I played the hell out of it during the pandemic, but we only lost once. Increasing the difficulty just lessened the time, which increases the "guessiness" of the game, it doesn't make the game harder.

[@dischound]

Did you try the expansion cards? We find those make it significantly harder.

[@saveversus]

@@dischound We did.

[@Eric-je1je]

We played it a lot at two players, using 2 sets of token each, easily simulating a 4 player game which we found made it more of a challenge

[@ferver-san]

No Alchemists ?!?! booo

[@thedicetower]

Alchemists is only (very) partly a deduction game. Most of the game is worker placement, etc.

[@Puddleford]

What the heck is a beeny?

[@davidcanas105]

Great show. But, You know, I kinda miss Zee's barefeet.

[@ChewieHuey]

No love for Infiltraitors?

[@DontNickMe]

no Almost Innocent? :(

[@philippeattali3821]

Thank you! I am happy to read that you like Almost Innocent ! 😁

[@poca5053]

Mysterium?

[@Tenebyss]

Only a sociopath could find Shipwreck Arcana cozy.

[@raysandrarexxia941]

No Alchemists love smh

[@origenward3845]

Perfect thumbnail lol I hope you all are actually getting paid to work there😉

[@MrBugz94]

Disappointed about you getting confusion completely wrong. I think you need to play it again to do it justice. You cant see your own pieces only your opponents and you have to figure out what your own guys do

[@WalderFrey]

Awkward Guests!? What an awful game for all the reasons Tom describes, plus a large dollop of pure luck. A complete dud.