Before your first roll: read your hand
Your hand is your first set of clues. Every card in it is one the stash cannot hold, so it is already crossed off on your notes sheet.
How much you start with depends on the table size. At six players you hold 3 of the 21 cards; at three players you hold 6. With a big hand you have fewer unknowns and can afford sharper questions sooner.
Look at the shape of your hand, too. If you hold two locations and no methods, the methods are where you know least, and that is where your early questions should aim.
Turn one: go somewhere, fast
You can only interrogate from inside a location, so a turn spent in a corridor teaches you nothing of your own. Your first move should be to the nearest location you can reach in one or two rolls.
If two locations are equally close, prefer one you don't hold. Asking from a location you hold wastes a third of the question: nobody can show it to you. Later in the game that becomes a weapon (see below), but early on you want every part of the question working.
Corner locations are worth a detour. If you start a turn in one of the four corners, you can skip the roll and take the secret passage to the opposite corner. It is the fastest way across the board.
Your first interrogation: cast a wide net
Early in the game, the goal of a question is simple: get a card shown. Each one you see removes one of the 18 dealt cards from your list.
So name a crew member and a method you don't hold, from a location you don't hold. With three unknowns in the question, someone will almost always have one of them, and you will see a card.
This is the opposite of late-game play, where you name cards you hold on purpose to focus the answer. That comes once you have narrowed things down.
Watch everyone else's turns
The biggest mistake new players make is looking away when it isn't their turn. Every question asked at the table tells you something:
- A player who has no match holds none of the three cards. Mark that on your sheet. Three "no match" answers on one question can tell you as much as a shown card.
- A player who shows a card holds at least one of the three. You don't know which, but note it. When you later learn two of those cards are elsewhere, you will know the third.
- Nobody could show a card. Unless the asker holds them, all three named cards are in the stash or in the asker's own hand. That is one of the most valuable moments in the game.
The notes assistant records your own cards and the cards shown to you. The deductions from other people's turns are yours to make, and the case log has every one of them.
Expect to be moved
When someone names your crew member in a question, your pawn is moved into their location. It can wreck a plan to reach the far side of the board. It can also save you a long walk.
Don't plan more than a turn ahead early on. Pick your next destination after you see where you are at the start of your turn.
A sample opening
You are playing Adriana at a four-player table and hold five cards: Rafael, Lena, the crowbar, the garage and the rooftop.
- Turn one. You roll 7. The kitchen is six squares away and you don't hold it. You go there and ask: Marcus, with the drill kit, in the kitchen. The player on your left has no match. The next player shows you the drill kit.
- Between turns. Selim asks Céleste, spy cam, office. You have no match. Rafael's player shows a card. You note that he holds at least one of Céleste, the spy cam or the office.
- Turn two. You start in the kitchen, a corner, and take the passage across the board instead of rolling. You ask again with three unknowns.
After two turns you have six cards crossed off (your five and the drill kit), a note about Rafael's player, and whatever your second question turns up. That is a strong start.
