Scotland Yard, the Board Game Trivia Quiz

Answer: Five

The original rules say that there must always be five detectives, while the 20th anniversary edition rules say only one detective for each player. There's room in this game for six players at a time. On person has to be Mr.X, the fugitive running loose in London, trying not to get caught, while the other players put their heads together, trying to puzzle out where Mr. X will be and how best to catch him.

Answer: Half of the circle is shaded.

In the original version, buses are green, and in the 20th anniversary edition they're blue. Each space is a circle, halved horizontally, with a box in the middle displaying the number. A bus can allow you to skip many spaces in one turn. Only certain spaces are bus stops, and when using a bus you can only get off at another bus stop (this allows you to skip one of two spaces at a time when moving around).

In the origional version, the top half of the circle was shaded, while in the 20th Anniversary Edition, the bottom half is shaded.

Answer: Yellow (original) or white (20th anniversary)

All 200 spaces in the original version and the 199 spaces in the 20th anniversary edition are taxi stops. This means that each space on the board can be reached by a taxi from an adjacent space. Although you start off with more taxi tickets than you do bus or underground, you can still run out of them.

A common thing that happens is a detective will be chasing Mr. X through the suburban areas (taxi-accessible only) and run out of taxi tickets.

Answer: They give them to Mr. X.

Mr. X starts off with considerably fewer tickets at the beginning of the game compared to each detective. The more the detectives look for Mr. X, the larger his resources become, and the more variety he has when moving around.

Answer: Twenty-four

Mr. X's goal is to move twenty-four spaces without being caught by one of the detectives, while the detective try to corner and capture Mr. X (only one detective needs to land on the same space as Mr. X).

Answer: Ferry Routes

Mr. X starts off with black tickets which can be substituted for any other form of transportation. In the original version, he had two to use. In the 20th anniversary edition, he has one for every player against him. Mr. X can jump on a ferry that will take him along the River Thames. None of the detective can go along the ferry route.

Answer: The third turn

Mr. X has to reveal himself on the third, eighth, thirteenth, eighteenth, and twenty-fourth turns. The detectives don't really know where Mr. X goes, but they do know what kind of transportation he uses. They can puzzle out where he's hiding based on his transportation and their positions.

Answer: No

Each detective gets his/her own set of tickets. If a player is playing two detectives, he/she must remember which set of tickets belongs to which detective. Also, if a detective ends up on a space and doesn't have any more tickets of a certain form of transportation needed to get out (this could happen by being on a taxi-accessible only space and running out of taxi tickets) he/she gets to sit there, acting as a road block.

Answer: False

No two detectives can be on the same space at a time. This makes things difficult if one detective wants to move toward Mr. X but can't because another detective is in the way (turn order is also locked). Essentially, the detectives should plan to be efficient. With only 24 turns to capture Mr. X, they can't afford to cut off the routes of their fellow detectives who will aid greatly in Mr. X's capture.

Answer: One of them has to land on the space Mr. X is on.

Apart from landing on the same space, detectives are also able to win by surrounding Mr.X. This is why the detective have to corner Mr.X. They have to come in from all angles and cut off all escape routes (corners are good because the edges of the board limit Mr.X's escape options). Sometimes, (this seems to happen a lot) Mr.X will make a move to get around a detective and the detective will have a 50/50 chance of landing on Mr.X's space (Mr. X keeps a log of where he went and how he got there).

I hope you enjoyed this quiz. Detectives, good luck in finding that crook.