Creating clue cards can be one of the most challenging parts of a jubensha, but the also the most critical. Even one bad clue can make players dislike an otherwise amazing game. It may have been too obvious, revealing the murderer or another big secret too early, or it may have been too confusing, throwing players completely off the investigation or ruling out legitimate possibilities.

Here are a few ideas I consider when creating clue cards.

A timeline is a classic component of many jubensha games. Designing a timeline is essentially designing a puzzle, so I can’t tell you exactly how to do it. There are, however, some basic components to consider first. Next consider elements that make solving the timeline interesting and fun.

I was recently asked about how I start writing a jubensha game and it got me thinking. Perhaps I start with an eccentric cast of characters, or maybe how the murder happens, or even the interesting secrets that a character could be hiding? But after some further thought, I realized the first step to creating a jubensha is much more fundamental: