Photo Crime: The Crime Club Party Game

Pepys, the same company that created The Crime Club Card Game also put out The Crime Club Party Game called Photo Crime.  The game came out about 1950, and there were a few variations of the box over the years, with the purple box having four different "crimes" to be solved than the green box.  The later red and white box contains two crimes from the green box and two from the purple (no new crimes). 

The game comes with 12 photo cards, which is made up of four photo scenes in sets of three. Therefore, up to 12 people can play four rounds in each game. The photos include a mystery scenario that can be solved by carefully looking at the photos and reading the witness report. The first person to get the answer in each round scores a point. At the end of four rounds, the highest score wins! 

The Photo Crime Scenarios

Included in The Crime Club Party Game are four mystery set-ups that you must solve by reading the short story and carefully examining the photo to see what the solution is.  Here are the Photo Crime sheets that are in a particular "green" box version of the game.  As shown in the photo of another green box above, the four scenarios in that version are different! 

Four Crime Scenes from a "light green" box: 

A different variation of crime scene photos from a "darker green" box:

All of these screens came from different green boxes, and because I do not have any examples from the purple box it is hard to determine the total number of photos scenes created overall. Currently, there looks to be eight, but the purple box "could" contain another set of four different photos. 

NOTE: My apologies for the partially obscured photo #4 from the second set; I don't have a good scan of that one.  

Instructions

Photocrime

Party Game for 2 to 12 Players

Description: 12 cards are provided, giving 4 "crimes" to be solved. Each "crime" is repeated on 3 cards.

HOW TO PLAY:  Give one card to each player. Tell the players they are given 5 minutes to study the information given on their cards, in conjunction with the picture of Inspector Cameron's interview with the Witness. The object is to discover why Inspector Cameron came to his conclusion that the Witness was lying. 

When the 5 minutes are "up" the M.C. calls upon any players who think they have solved the problem to come forward one at a time and tell him their answers, taking care that other players do not overhear them. Those with correct answers (see Solutions below) are the winners of that round.

Players then exchange cards so that each a new "crime" and play the second round. Since the 12 cards are made of 3 each of 4 different pictures, the game can be played 4 times by 12 players and each time every player will have a different crime to solve. 

 

Last Edition

The most recent version of the game maintains the four crime scenes format, carefully selecting the best from the earlier editions to ensure the best gameplay experience. Upon examining a photo of the contents from an eBay listing, it appears that the scenario labeled as #3 in the first set of cards (above) is now numbered as #1 in the later edition. Furthermore, the game includes scenario #2 from the later box, indicating that the creators have done their best to mix up the elements without having to create new "crimes."

While it would have been exciting to have all eight crimes included in the final set, the decision to curate a selection of scenes ensures that players can still enjoy a captivating and diverse gameplay experience, even if they had played one of the versions before.