Murder Manor Instructions:

Game Basics

1. Intro.
Mr. Corpse, a well-respected member of the community, has been murdered recently, and the local police are, unfortunately, not qualified to handle such a matter. They've rounded up some suspects and figured out only a few pieces of the puzzle. But it's up to you to figure out who did it, how, and why.

2. Concept.
You control a group of up to four detectives. Each detective will eventually have his own skills and special abilities, but all detectives begin the game as equals. Each time a game of Murder Manor is completed, points are awarded to the detective who solved the case and the runner-up who collected the most clues. As points accumulate, they can be spent on specific skills to help your detective in future games.

3. Quick Start Guide.
To begin, you first have to log in to nerdbucket.com. If you do not currently have a nerdbucket account, don't worry. It's 100% free and very simple to register. Once you're logged in, go to the games page, and choose "Murder Manor." As long as you're logged in, you will have a few options at this point. You can either enter the game lobby, view your detective list ("My Detectives"), or view the current list of best detectives. To begin, you will want to go to the detective list and create your first detective. Click "My Detectives" in the left navigation area. There you will be given the opportunity to name and create a new detective. Choose a name, but choose it wisely, as it cannot be changed!
Your new detective will now show up on the list. He will have no cases, no solved cases, no points, no skills, and no way to buy skills. At this point, we are done with this page and can move on to the game lobby, so click the "Game Lobby" link.
In the game lobby, you'll see a list of your detectives, and which games they're involved in. For now, this should be empty, but we will change that soon. Directly below your detective list is a list of games waiting for players. Find the game with the most players in it, select the detective you wish to join (there will only be one detective if you haven't created more yet), and click the "Join Game" button. Your detective will now be in that game when it starts.
The game may take a while to start, so at this point you will have to wait until you get an email at your registered email address. This email will tell you that your detective is ready to play and that you should log in. Once you receive this email and the game has started, the lobby will be a little different; the detective list will have a link to enter the game you recently joined. Click this link and you'll see the game area.
The game area consists of a log of recent activity, your basic game stats, a checklist of clues you have and clues you need, the game map, potential actions you may take, and a basic help window which tells you what a particular action button does. A simple game can be played simply by moving around with the directional buttons, picking up clues, and solving when you've found all the clues.
With this information, you can play the game; but to master it you should continue reading about some of the more advanced topics, such as buying skills, devious actions, etc.

Game Details

1. Hover Help.
The most helpful piece of information you should notice in the game is that there are many places with hovering help boxes. Most screens that have game terminology or special words and abbreviations will show up those words in green, and when you move the mouse over them you'll get some basic information about the word. In many cases, this is also used to look at the basic detective stats for your rivals.

2. Clue Finding.
The game is played by running around a mazelike area and gathering clues. When a game begins, the solution is randomly chosen from all available clues: suspects, weapons, and motives. Each clue that is not "correct" is then put in three different places on the map. Two of these clues are considered normal, and can be found by anybody entering the room. One is hidden, and requires a successful skill check in order to be found. If found, a second skill check is performed and, if successful, the player gains a "bonus" clue, giving him a total of two clues from the hidden clue's room.

3. Action Points
Action Points are basically a measure of time. Each day, all detectives are given a certain number of action points to play that turn. Action points also can be stored, and each player can have up to triple his base action points stored at any given time. This allows for people to stop playing for up to three days without losing too much of an advantage.
All game actions take action points. Some take a set number, others take all actions you have left for the day, and some take all your actions for this day and the next. No actions can be performed when your action points are at zero.

3b. There are two actions which use up another attribute: the steal. Each player begins each game with the ability to steal once. This action can be used to either steal points from another player, or to steal evidence. More information on these actions is below, but remember that you can perform only one steal action per game!

4. Skills and Skill Checks
Each detective gets points from winning or placing second on a map. When your detective has enough points and is not involved in any games, these points can be spent buying skills. Your first skill will cost 5 points, your next is 10, and each subsequent skill costs 20 points, up to 3 skills or 4 if you're a premium player (see below).
Skill checks are done for various activities in the game. These checks are either observation checks or devious checks. All characters have a base observation of 40% and a base deviousness of 30%. When a check is run, these values are your chance to succeed.
Certain skills are designed to improve these values. Below is a list of all the possible skills in the game, and their effect on skill checks and other game aspects.

Skill		Effect
Efficient / Expeditious		Adds 5 action points per day to your detective or 10 if you purchase both.
Devious / Cunning		45% devious skill, or 60% if you purchase both.
Observant / Intelligent		60% observation skill, or 80% if you purchase both.
Inside Info / Criminal Psychologist		2 free clues at game start, or 5 if you purchase both.

5. Playing the game.
When you are involved in a game, you will see the game interface. This area shows your character's basic information (actions, skills, name, etc), players currently in the room, any messages received from your last action, a clue checklist, the game's automap (with hoverable legend), the buttons for currently available actions, and an area for information about whichever button the mouse is over at any given time.
The first time you open the game interface after being away, you'll also get a log of what's happened since your last login.
The buttons represent all possible game actions that are currently available, categorized into movement, devious actions, and miscellaneous. Movement should be self-explanatory. The availability of devious actions will change depending on a few factors. First, no devious actions can be performed until the third game turn. Second, certain devious actions require no players in the room, while some require a target detective, who must be present. Third, all devious actions take up some amount of action points and therefore can become unavailable when you run low on action points. The final category of actions is miscellaneous, which encompasses refresh and solve. Refresh simply reloads the map in case a player has entered or left the room recently (in case you left the computer for a few minutes while remaining in the game). Solving is explained below with the detailed description of all actions.

5b. Possible Game Actions.
Movement: Cardinal directions are valid, and Up/Down are available if you're on a staircase. Each movement costs 1 action point.
Steal Points: Attempt to steal points from a detective in the room. To do this you must successfully pass two consecutive devious skill checks, which gives the average, unskilled player less than a 10% chance of succeeding. If successful, you will gain anywhere from 1 to 4 points and your target will lose those points. These points are exactly the same as the points you get for winning and placing second, and can be used for purchasing new skills. Stealing points uses all your actions for the current and next turns.
Steal Evidence: If you're in a room with unhidden evidence, you will have the option to steal it. A regular devious skill check is performed, and if successful you remove that piece of evidence from the game permanently. This can be very useful if you suspect you're in an area that other players have not yet entered. This cannot be attempted with other players in the room! Stealing evidence costs 3 action points.
Snoop: Snooping gives you a chance of finding evidence that another player in the same room has already found. A regular devious skill check is performed and, if successful, you gain a clue that the target player already has, which you don't have. Obviously if the target player doesn't have anything new, your time is wasted. Snooping costs 3 action points.
Set Trap: You can set a trap anywhere on the map that doesn't already have a trap. Whenever a player walks into a trapped area, the game does a skill check based on your devious skill. If your skill check succeeds, the player who entered the room loses 2-4 action points. Warning: you can hurt yourself on your own traps! Once a trapped room is entered, the trap is disarmed even if it was unsuccessful. Trapping costs 2 action points, and must be done in a room free of other players.
Obstruction of Justice: This is the ultimate attack. You lose all actions for this and the next turn, but the target player (who must be in the same room as you) loses 1 or 2 actions for the rest of the game! Your target is guaranteed to lose one action point, but a very high devious skill gives you a fair chance at taking away two. Given that the average player has only 10 action points per day, taking two of those away can be devastating! No player will ever be down below half of their normal actions, so it's not likely to be worthwhile to hit the same player multiple times.
Solve: If you have gathered most of the evidence, you will be allowed to attempt to solve. This will cost you all remaining actions for the day, so it's probably best to do this sometime toward the end of your turn. Once you choose to solve, you'll be given three lists. You'll have to choose which suspect, weapon, and motive you believe are correct. If you choose the right ones, you will win and the game will end. If not, you'll have to wait until the next turn to try again.

6. Premium Mode
Murder Manor is a free game, but in order to keep it free I need to drive traffic to my website. More traffic equals more advertising revenue, which in turn equals a better, faster site. To ensure that Murder Manor can bring in traffic, I have created this "premium mode" system. A normal player can have a detective playing only one game at a time, where a premium player can have each detective involved in three games at once. Also, premium players' detectives can purchase up to four skills instead of the usual three.
So how do you become a premium member? Simple. When you see the message "You are not a premium member…" on top of the detective list or game lobby, simply click the link and follow the instructions. I basically need you to vote for my game so that it gets more traffic from the game directories it is listed on. Shortly after you vote, your account will be updated to give you premium status for exactly 7 days. This system will insure that I get the traffic I need, and that you get new players to keep the game fun!

7. Gameplay tips and tricks
If you want to be successful, you have to look at the long-term. A normal detective will need to buy skills in order to stay competitive for very long. Choose these skills wisely. There are combinations that make more sense than others. For instance, getting both speed boosts for 20 actions a day plus getting both observation skill boosts for 80% observation can be a great combination. You move quickly as well as having a great chance of finding all clues, hidden and otherwise. And each hidden clue has a good chance of giving you a double clue since your observation is so high.
When you play a map, you want to try and be efficient with your movements. For instance, walking into a room with a single entrance requires careful planning. If you spend two days' worth of actions searching the room and then double-back on yourself, you're wasting time. Instead try to find a way to move that causes you to hit unsearched rooms on the way in and on the way out.
Keyboard play: Use the "alt" key on your keyboard, combined with the direction you want to go, and it will be the same as clicking the appropriate button. For instance, ALT-U is up, ALT-N is north, etc. The exception is Down, which is ALT-O, because IE sucks and doesn't let the browser override ALT-D like it's supposed to.