Nexus NGILDT003, multicoloured, one size

Having possessed more than a fleeting interest in the 'Whitechapel Murders' and being a keen board-gamer to boot, the announcement of 'Letters From Whitechapel' had piqued my interest almost from the offset. Though designed for play for up to six players, 'Letters From Whitechapel' plays far better in the one-on-one scenario. With one player taking on the role of the nefarious 'Jack the Ripper' and the other, the forces of Victorian law and order, the battle of minds between those partaking is both tense and utterly involving. Based on the five canonical murders of 1888, the game is played over four consequetive 'game' nights. The down-trodden unfortunates are on the streets, and after identifying his hide-out, Jack must despatch each one of them without getting himself caught. Utilising as its game-board a numbered map of the East End and incorporating a secret movement chart for the ruthless killer, the player/s controlling the police must attempt to second guess where the killer is located on the area of play an execute an arrest. Should Jack go on to claim his last victim, the combined forces of vigilance will have failed.On the other hand, if the killer is located and brought to justice, the streets of Whitechapel will be (relatively) safe again. Beautifully packaged and well designed, 'Letters from Whitechapel' is a consummate work of strategic board-gaming. Competetively priced, and extremely user friendly, I really can't recommend this one enough.

Ten out of ten for quality components. The board is large and beautiful and the pieces are all carved wood (at least in the Revised Edition)! Based on two games of Letters from Whitechapel, I think the entire game rests on how well Jack's first night goes. If Jack escapes to his hideout in no more than 6 moves, he'll seriously regret it in subsequent nights and he'll have a scary policeman-filled gauntlet to run. That being said, it's a deeply engrossing game and all the players, both Jack and the police, have to be on their toes all the time. I recently lost on the first turn of the third night (after a tense 17-move chase on the second night, no less) because a lapse in concentration made me start on a crime scene within a policeman's movement range. I love this game! The components are all high quality and it's incredibly good fun. It is also much more streamlined than Fury of Dracula, a similar game in the genre. There are no cards to lay out. Everything that matters has its place on the board and Jack simply has to write a number every turn before the police can continue studying the streets and alleyways.

great game...

This game is really good, although I thought it was perhaps a bit expensive. We had a good time playing it though and it kept everyone's interest.

It arrived twice in Spanish, when I had ordered it in English.

This review is for the Revised edition and not for the original Nexus edition, although I have played both. The revised edition plays the same but has improved components.This is not a family game. It's long if you play through the four rounds, with a brutal, grim theme. It tests the patience of hardened gamers. But I enjoyed it and recommend it for serious players.In the game, one player is Jack The Ripper, and across 4 rounds, you murder five women and try to make it back to your secret hide-out without being caught. The other players move five detectives around and seek clues to your trail and possible arrest. Jack loses if he's arrested, or cornered, or fails to reach his hide-out before a round ends. There are advanced options but we didn't play them.The game is a follow-up to the superb Italian game Garibaldi, which itself was a great improvement on the classic German game Scotland Yard. All these games have a group of players hunting one player down, who records their moves secretly and is sometimes forced to reveal their location, or leave clues to the trail. Using deduction skills, the hunting players work out the possible locations and try to corner and capture their target. It's cat and mouse stuff, and usually very hard for the hunted player to win. (Note, there's a lovely inverse game called Nuns On The Run, where naughty novices secretly run around the Convent at night, hunted by one player operating the Abbess & Prioress).So the game relies on the detectives working together and being logical and sensible. Which is why these games rarely work with more than two players on the detective side. With 4 or 5 as detectives, play bogs down into interminable arguments and confusion. Play these games with one player as the hunted and one or two players as the hunters.Letters From Whitechapel has some novel twists which keep the exercise tense. Firstly, when the murder happens each round, the location is marked. So the detectives know EXACTLY where Jack is. And the next few turns are fairly easy to work out his possible location. This is very interesting, as Jack is not trying to hide, but is trying to keep his HIDE-OUT hidden. This is a crucial element, as initially, Jack wants to lead the detectives on a dance, staying out of reach but laying a false trail.Secondly, Jack has two tricks he can use. He can take a cab ride, which allows him to move two spaces and to move through a detective (normally forbidden). And he can duck through alleys, which allow him to jump across a city block. He starts with tokens for these actions (3 and 2) and as the rounds progress, these are reduced. These actions really give Jack the edge early on, but by the fourth round, with only one each, Jack has to use them very carefully.Thirdly, the map of Whitechapel is actually two maps. Jack moves on numbered circles, but the detectives move on intervening squares. This takes a bit of getting used to as it's very different from other games like Scotland Yard. We are used to the hunted and hunters sharing the same spaces. But in Letters From Whitechapel, they never meet. This map bears good inspection, as in some places Jack can make big jumps away from the detectives, whereas in other places, it's easy for the detectives to close in on him.And fourthly, after moving, the Detectives may then ask for clues in the circles that touch their square (or make an arrest). As in previous games, Jack notes all his moves in secret on a pad. But in this game, when asked about a location, he must check ALL his moves during that round. Not just his current place or the last few turns. ALL his moves. This makes it much easier for the detectives to find clues and deduce his trail. Remember, the detectives are really trying to identify his hide-out, and so capture Jack or run him out of time. So getting clues early is OK, but the more clues the detectives get, the more they know where Jack's hide-out is.And finally! When Jack makes it home, the round ends and the next round begins. The detectives start in the positions they reached! This is a brilliant twist. If they've been doing well, they'll be milling around in exactly the place Jack needs to reach. Again, they know where each murder takes place. They really want to know the hide-out. As the game progresses, it gets harder and harder for Jack to get through and home again. Jack has to play very tactically to stand a chance.There's more, but that's enough for now. It's a very nicely produced game. If you like this sort of game, you'll like Letters From Whitechapel. There's a lot here to get your teeth into, whether you play Jack or the detectives. You should get several plays of the game without tiring of it.But it is not family fun, unless your family is especially macabre. Be very clear, the game is about murdering women and escaping justice. The graphic design is very graphic, lots of blood red splashed around. But it is very well produced and if you can stomach the theme, it's a very clever result. If you want a game for Granny and the kids, get Scotland Yard or Nuns On The Run. If you want a strong, challenging game for two or three players, then try Letters From Whitechapel. I only mark it down one star because it is a long game. We took five hours, but we were chatting and joking a lot. But you need to stay focused and interest may wain if the game goes on too long.

Muy buen juego para novatos, reglas simples y fáciles de entenderPuede hacerse un poco largo pero la caña del juego es precisamente engañar a los demás jugadores y planear rutas para despistar al asesino

Cuando digo que este es mi primer juego de mesa, digo que como tantos, yo había jugado al parchís, al ajedrez, a juegos de cartas... pero no a juegos modernos de mesa, mucho más emocionantes y atrayentes que las viejas reliquias. Al final, me decidí por este Sombras sobre Londres por que había oído buenas críticas sobre él, y me atraía el tema. No conocía mucho de este mundo (a pesar de ser friki practicante....), y este Sombras sobre Londres, es un juego categorizado como Eurogamer. Los eurogamer son juegos más lógicos y más sencillos que los ameritrash. Por eso me decidí para empezar por un eurogamer, pero al tiempo que no tardaré en lanzarme hacia algún ameritrash, porque este mundillo engancha un montón. Por lo demás, gran juego, absorvente, de partidas entre media hora y dos horas, asequible para no frikis y personas no iniciadas... Un consejillo para terminar: el juego es para adultos, pero cambiando la macabra temática, por "Jack el devorador de tartas de fresa", es perfectamente válido para niños que quieran resolve el misterio del hombre que se zampa un montón de tartas de fresa por las tenebrosas callejuelas de Whitechapel...

I was originality drawn to this game for the mechanics, and this game doesn't disappoint. I was a worried about balance, but have found that both sides of this game have a fairly equal chance of victory.Summary: In this game, one player takes on the role of Jack the Ripper, and any other players take on the shared role of the London police force. the game is played in four rounds which act as four different nights in which Jack commits a murder. The player, who is playing as jack, moves along the board invisibly. The board is numbered, and he moves along the board using a special note pad to record his location. The players playing the police, move pawns around the board to mark their locations.At the begining of each round jack chooses one of the remaining victims, and removes it from the game. Jack will start the round at the location of his victim. The police will be alerted to the crime, and its location, now... The Chase is ON.Each night Jack is needs to make it back to his hideout before he runs out of time, or gets caught. The hideout is a numbered location, that jack selects at the beginning of the game, and remains the same throughout the entire game. Each turn involves Jack making his move secretly, by marking his new location on his note pad. After jack moves, each of the five police pawns can move, and each police pawn gets the chance to investigate the spots around them. As the police investigate, Jack will tell them if he has been on the spot they are investigating, at any time that night. If the police find a spot that jack had been on, they put down a marker, which allows them to start to form a trail.Since Jack must end each night at his hideout, the police will eventually be able to narrow down it's location. Each night the police will be able to better track Jack, and hopefully get ahead of him, and prevent him from getting to hide out.If Jack makes it back to his hideout on the fourth night, he wins. If the police catch jack at any point, or prevent him from making it back to his hideout in time, the police team wins.Players: This is a game for 2-6 players, but I think it works best with fewer. With only two players, it becomes a tense head to head game of cat and mouse. As you add more players, they all work together as the police team. With two or three people on the police team, they work together for form a strategy and discuss the possible locations of jack. I think that 5-6 players would be too many. When you add people to the police team, the length of the game increases due to the added discussion, and I think that four or five police players would cause the game to drag too much.I do think the team aspect of the police team is a great way to allow a new player to learn the game with the help of a more experienced player. I also think this allows the opportunity to have an adult help a younger player. The game relies heavily on logic to look at the known path of Jack, and try to deduce his current location.Theme: The theme of this game does revolve around Jack the ripper murdering prostitutes, and the artwork is kind of dark, but not gory or overly graphic. To avoid the issue among adults you can try and focus on the cat and mouse aspect of game play. I also try to play down the dark event that is being portrayed, by revering to the "murdered prostitutes" simply as "the victims".Parents are going to need to make the decision on their own, weather or not their children are ready for this theme.Mechanics: I like the one versus many mechanic in this game, it allows people to work together on a team, but also includes an aspect of competition. Another of my favorite mechanics involved in this game is the secret movement aspect. There are also some other more subtle things at play that help keep the game balanced, mainly by reducing Jack's options as the game gets closer to the end.Overall: This is probably my favorite game of the year. As Jack the tension is high, especially as the police start to move in on you. As the police you are constantly on your toes as you count out different scenarios on the board trying to find jack. I have never had a game that hasn't come down to the wire, making any choice a critical one. I highly recommend this game.Off Topic: If you like this type of game, or find the theme to be a bit too much, I would recoment looking into  Nuns on the Run . Nuns on the run is a backwards version of Letters from Whitechapel. Instead of a team of police trying to find a single player, one player is trying to find any of the other players as they move around secretly. Nuns on the Run

同じロンドンを舞台にした「スコットランド・ヤード」とほぼ同テーマで、以前私が「スコットランド・ヤード」のオプションとして提案したルールを一部取り入れています。最大の違いは「勝敗を重視し、ファミリーゲームとしての要素を薄れさせて」います。…殺人事件である切り裂きジャック事件がモチーフです…。またルールも必要以上に複雑化していて「家族(親子など)で手軽に楽しむゲーム」ではなくなっています。　そこの評価は百人百様だとは思いますが、少なくとも私にはあまり好ましいものではありませんでした。

Me a gustado mucho es para edad de 20 hacia arriba y a sido un regalo