Is Cluedo a British or American game?

We all like a good old fashioned ‘Who dun’it?’ and what better game than Cluedo.  But can you answer the mystery of who invented it and whether it was in the United States of America or the United Kingdom.

Who Invented the Cluedo game

It was invented by Anthony Pratt, a Midlands based solicitor’s clerk from the United Kingdom in 1944.

Anthony and his wife Marjorie were enthusiastic ‘gamesters’ whose favourite activity was playing board games with their friends.

It was Marjorie who designed the board itself, as the fictitious home of the victim, Dr Black.

For three years, they played their home-made ‘Cluedo’ among friends before they were urged to submit it to Waddingtons, the Leeds based games manufacturer, for possible commercial mass production.

The company liked the game, knowing thrillers and anything to do with crime always appealed to the public’s imagination, they launched it officially in 1948.

The game was so successful that the Cluedo characters of Miss Scarlet, Colonel Mustard, Professor Plum and so on became household names in the last 50 years.

When Reverend Green was defrocked to plain old Mr Green by Waddingtons, there was public outrage.

How do you play Cluedo

The rules of the game are that a crime has been committed in a country house where six guests are gathered and six weapons are concealed.

There are nine rooms, including conservatory, billiard room, library etc.  You must discover who, when and where, but never why, poor Dr Black met his grisly end.

As there are 324 potential murder combinations, it’s very hard to tire of the game.