Kill Doctor Lucky

Today's review is of the 1996 release, Kill Doctor Lucky.  For 3-8 players, it takes 45 minutes.

Overview
You've had it.  You cannot stand Doctor Lucky, so you're going to take him out.  The problem is, everyone else wants to get him first.  Your hatred runs so deep, though, only the one who kills him truly wins.  So it's going to be you.

In Kill Doctor Lucky, your goal is to . . . do as the title says.  Everyone starts with a hand of cards and a pawn in the [foyer].  Most rooms are named and numbered, some are only named, and some aren't given either.  On your turn, you:
- make a free move (to an adjacent room)
- optional: play card[s] which allow you to move yourself or move Doctor Lucky
- optional: make a murder attempt on Doctor Lucky (if you're in the same room AND out of line of sight of all other players' pawns)
- draw a card (only if you didn't play cards this turn AND didn't make a murder attempt AND are in a named/numbered room)

To make a murder attempt, you [optionally] play a murder weapon card that boosts your chances.  Your total value on the attempt = number of spite tokens + (number on the weapon card OR 1).  Then, every other player (in clockwise order) can play 'failure' cards, valued 1-3.  Once the total value meets your murder attempt value, your attempt fails and you get a spite token.

the board; image from here

After your turn, Doctor Lucky automatically moves to the next named and numbered room (ignoring unnumbered rooms and unnamed ones).  The rooms are numbered 0-18; once he gets to the end, he starts again at 0.  The turns progress until someone makes an attempt that doesn't fail.  If the unfortunate doctor ends his move in a room with a person, the game immediately goes to that person's turn (breaking turn order- a key strategy employed to skip players).

Cards include 'failure cards'- these are NOT shuffled to make a new pile- murder weapon cards, and room cards.  Play a room card to move you or Doctor Lucky to that room.  Once the failure cards are used up, anyone who's able to make a murder attempt will be successful.  So ration them wisely!

Review
This game- basically inverse Clue- is pretty fun, if you can forget the overall goal of killing a person.  The theme aside, the mechanics are simple and strategy interesting.  You have to both position yourself to get the doctor alone, and prevent others from doing it, and get a weapon to increase your chances, but at a stage in the game where you have a chance to succeed . . . you get the point.

Rating: B