Bob’s 2020 Christmas Puzzle Card
Santa Doesn’t Have A Clue
The card, suitable for printing:
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Who Ate Santa’s Snack?
Three French Hens (Antoinette, Bridgette, and Claudette) are playing a special
game of Clue™. Antoinette has asked you to help her, and so you are
standing behind her and get to see everything she sees. She expects you to
figure out whodunnit for her.
In the game, players try to figure out who ate Santa’s snack, what the
snack was, and where it was eaten. The suspects are Frosty, the Grinch, Mrs.
Claus, and Rudolph. The stolen snack was brownies, cookies, fudge, gingerbread,
peppermint, rice pudding, or sugarplums. And the location was either the mall,
the North Pole, a toy store, or Santa’s Workshop.
The first eight turns of the game are shown below. You may find it helpful to
record information in the solving worksheet.
The eight turns are enough for you and Antoinette to pinpoint the winning
solution.
Rules of the Game
The 4 suspect cards, 7 snack cards, and 4 locations are shuffled separately.
One of each is taken and they are hidden somewhere.
The remaining 12 cards are shuffled together and dealt to the three players.
Antoinette will play first, followed by Bridgette, then Claudette, then back to
Antoinette, and so on.
On her turn, a player makes a suggestion by guessing a suspect, snack, and
location. The next player must disprove this, if she can, by showing one of the
guessed cards to the player who made the suggestion.
If that player doesn’t hold any of the guessed cards, the next player must
disprove the suggestion, showing a card to the suggesting player.
Once the guess has been disproven, or if none of the other players is able to
disprove it, the player’s turn is over.
At any point in the game, a player may claim she knows what the hidden cards
are. She announces the suspect, snack, and location, then secretly looks at the
hidden cards. If she is correct she shows those cards to the other players. If
not, she puts the cards back and the game continues. A player can only make one
announcement — if she is incorrect she has lost. If two players make
erroneous announcements, the third player is automatically the winner.
Unlike the commercial version of Clue™, players do not move on a board,
and are free to make any suggestion on their turn.
The Game
Antoinette is dealt Rudolph, Cookies, Fudge, and Toy store.
(1) Antoinette suggests Grinch, Gingerbread, North Pole.
Bridgette disproves by showing Antoinette the Grinch card.
(2) Bridgette suggests Mrs. Claus, Gingerbread, North Pole.
Claudette disproves by showing Bridgette a card.
(3) Claudette suggests Frosty, Peppermint, Mall.
Antoinette cannot disprove this.
Bridgette disproves by showing Claudette a card.
(4) Antoinette suggests Frosty, Peppermint, North Pole.
Bridgette cannot disprove this.
Claudette disproves by showing Antoinette the North Pole card.
(5) Bridgette suggests Mrs. Claus, Fudge, Toy store.
Claudette disproves by showing Bridgette a card.
(6) Claudette suggests Grinch, Brownies, Workshop.
Antoinette cannot disprove this.
Bridgette disproves by showing Claudette a card.
(7) Antoinette suggests Mrs. Claus, Rice Pudding, Workshop.
Bridgette disproves by showing Antoinette the Rice Pudding card.
(8) Bridgette suggests Rudolph, Peppermint, Toy store.
Claudette cannot disprove this.
Antoinette disproves by showing Bridgette the Rudolph card.
Worksheet
Solution
(don't look if you don't want to see it!)
For other puzzle cards in this series, see www.bumblebeagle.org
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