Scotland Yard is a board game in which a team of players controlling different detectives cooperate to track down a player controlling a criminal as they move around a board representing the streets of London. It was first published in 1983 by Ravensburger and is named after Scotland Yard which is the headquarters of London's Metropolitan Police Service in real-life. Scotland Yard is an asymmetric board game, during which the detective players cooperatively solve a variant of the pursuit–evasion problem.

The game is published by Ravensburger in most of Europe and Canada and by Milton Bradley in the United States. It received the Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year) award in 1983, the same year that it was published.

Gameplay

One player controls 'Mr. X': a criminal whose location is only revealed periodically throughout gameplay. The other players each control at least one detective, all of which are always present on the board. In the Milton Bradley version, there are always five detectives on the board, so with less than six players, one player can control two or three detectives.

Setup

thumb|right|upright=3|Schematic network game board diagram for Scotland Yard (Milton Bradley version)

Each player draws one card for each piece under their control to determine their starting location(s), with Mr. X drawing first.

Movement

Movement is governed by using transportation tokens ("tickets"), which allow passage between spaces according to the following modes:

  • Taxis, which allow the player to move only one space per turn, but can be used anywhere.
  • Buses, which are spaced further apart and allow a player to cover more distance in a single trip.
  • The Underground, whose stations are spaced even further apart than the bus stops and allow long-distance travel.
  • Ferries, which only Mr. X can use with a black ticket, allowing him to follow routes along the River Thames between Greenwich and Whitehall.

Each detective begins with a finite mix of taxi, bus, and underground tickets.

  • 1 game board (a map of Central London)
  • 6 colored playing pieces
  • 130 transportation tickets
  • 1 label sheet
  • 29 start cards
  • 3 double-move tokens
  • 1 travel log and paper inserts
  • 1 storage tray to be used to store tickets, start cards and playing pieces

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|+Renumbered spaces

! R and 200 missing from the Ravensburger boards. Aside from the numbering differences, some of the routes have been revised since the initial publication. For instance, stations 198 and 199 are connected by a bus line in earlier boards,

NY Chase is a version based on New York City. In this version, detectives do not hand their used tokens over, and they have access to roadblocks and a helicopter, tilting the game more in favour of those playing as detectives.

A faster travel version called Die Jagd Nach Mister X exists that functions quite differently. In this version, Mr. X's location is only hidden when a black travel token is used, and the game is essentially an open chase around London. Evasion is accomplished with black tokens and using the fastest travel to distant locations. In this version, each player takes turns as Mr. X, and points collected (in the form of the detectives' used travel tokens) determine the overall winner.

Alternative rules

In 1986, Alain Munoz and Serge Laget posted an article in the French magazine ' suggesting alternative rules to balance and expand the game.

Spanish company Cefa published Alerta Roja (Red Alert) in 1986, which is generally a remake of Scotland Yard with minor variations to the rules and a different theme (secret agents chase a nuclear terrorist though the sewers of a futuristic city).

Beginners

Ravensburger has published rules designed to introduce new players to the game. In the "beginners version", Mr. X starts on space 82, and the detectives start on 41, 46, and/or 124, with 142 added if four detectives are playing. The number of turns is reduced to 13, underground tickets are not used, and Mr. X is limited to one concealed-move ticket and one double-move ticket.

Adaptations

The game was first adapted for the Game Boy in 1990, and then as Scotland Yard Interactive for the Philips CD-I in 1993. It was adapted for Windows by Cryo Interactive in 1998, for the Nintendo DS by Sproing Interactive in 2008, as well as for iPhone (2012) and Android (2015) by Ravensburger Digital.

Reception

Games included Scotland Yard in its top 100 games of 1986, calling it "a suspenseful chase through the streets of London in this game of deduction and bluff." The reviewer noted "Trapping Mr. X requires logic and teamwork; eluding the detectives takes sneakiness and an occasional risky move by Mr. X." A review from Lautapeliopas praised the game's accessibility and functionality, but said the playing as detectives is less engaging.

Reviews

  • ' #21
  • 1983 Games 100
  • Family Games: The 100 Best

See also

  • Captivade - a 2022 board game with similar mechanics

References

21. https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:AP:9dd9a0bb-2dd5-425a-bf4d-d62a84c99839 (Apex Predator variant)