Mord Im Arosa

Mord Im Arosa is a game of listening. There have been two murders committed at the Arosa hotel, the players job is to first locate the floors the bodies are on, and then try and implicate each other as the murderer!

The hotel itself is made from a series of cardboard half-boxes, that stack on top of each other to make a 3D model of the Arosa. Each level has a small hole in the centre (the ‘chimney’), big enough for a wooden cube to fall through. At the start of the game, two red cubes are dropped in at the top floor (this is where the listening comes in, as you need to guess which floor they land on) followed by two cubes from each player, who have their own set of cubes in a particular colour.

Play then commences with each player in turn making a guess as to where the red cubes – the bodies – are, and lifting up the upper parts of the hotel to reveal if their guess is right. If they guess correctly, the red cube or cubes are removed and put on a game board beside the Arosa on the appropriate level (the game board shows each story of the hotel). If they guess wrong, then any cubes they find must be dropped back in at the top of the hotel, followed by another of their own cubes.

Once the bodies are found players then move on to make accusations – saying where they think they’ll find a particular player’s cubes in the hotel, and as with the bodies, lifting the hotel to reveal if they guessed right. If they did, any cubes belonging to the accused go on the game board at the appropriate level, and any other cubes are dropped back in from the top. If they are wrong, they must add one of their own cubes – thus, wrong guesses are really bad as not only do they not damage anyone else, they add more of your own cubes to the hotel, increasing your chances of being both accused – and caught.

The cubes moved over to the game board represent points against you – on the same level as either body (red cube) is three points. Adjacent is two points, and anywhere else is one point. As soon as someone goes over 13 points the game ends, and the person with the least ‘suspicion’ against them, wins!