Mr. Jack - Tips & Strategies

From my experience, winning as Mr. Jack tends to happen more often by having the game run the full number of rounds, as opposed to escaping.

Your goal as Mr. Jack should be to minimize the number of people the investigator can eliminate each turn. Early plays that I’ve seen tend to have the investigator cut in half the number of remaining suspects each round, eventually outing your identity.

My plays as Jack have me paying less attention to getting away, and more to forcing everyone on each turn into the light, or into shadow (I find the light to be preferable). Especially early, I try to bunch up as many people as possible, making it hard for the investigator to learn multiple people are not Jack. If one person is standing in the light, I’ll aim to pull another person next to them. This way, generally only one of them can be determined, not both.

I tend to worry less about moving police cordons and manholes, and more with moving lamps, Watson, and Goodley.

As you get closer to the final rounds, you’ll want to start separating the characters from each other, making it tougher for an accusation.

If there is a chance to escape, certainly take it, but my experience says you’ll be better off focusing on waiting for daylight.

If you are looking for a Mr. Jack fix, or just want to see what the game is about, you can visit:

http://mrjack.hurricangames.com/games_1.php?sid=KSTSGJGHFIHIHQIINOQSPOTPSJEOKOEP&cat=gf

This website requires you to register, but it is completely free. It gets decent traffic, although you may need to wait a little while after creating a game to get going. Or, even better, have a buddy join you and get going right away.

You can choose the flavor of the game you would like to play. The expansions are included, so if you wanted to play test those before purchasing, that option is available as well. In my experience the game runs rather smoothly. The games will sit for some time as well, so if you and a friend want to play a move when you have a chance during the course of the day, that is an available option as well.

When Jack is leaving a character in the dark that is within range of escaping, especially when that card is going to be picked next round and Jack gets to pick first that round, strongly consider putting that character in the light to prevent a possible quick-win for Jack.

My first game, I lost in the second round because round 1 Jack left Miss Stealthy as the only person in the dark. He then had first pick of characters on round 2 and had her leave the map and win. The only way I could have prevented that win was to move another character to be adjacent to her, putting all 8 characters in the light. Since this was my first game, I thought the best move would be to get another character in the dark to eliminate more suspects. I wouldn’t have gained any more guaranteed information, but I could have had a suspicion and kept the game going.

My daughter prefers to play as Jack, but becomes frustrated because of the difficulty of it so we’ve adopted a house rule to help her out.

HOUSE RULE: when it’s Jack’s turn he has the option of using any of the characters in play (with the exception of himself) instead of just the current characters who’s cards are up.

I wouldn’t recommend doing this with a more “mature” player as it can make it too easy for Jack to escape, but it’s worth doing with younger or first time players.

The rules are unclear on whether the character cards should be kept in consistent 4-person groups throughout the game (ie: if you draw Holmes, Watson, Stealthy, and Bert on the first round, you will always have those characters on every odd round of the game.)
To make the more dynamic, we like to reshuffle the character deck every two turns, after each character has been played. It may hinder long-term planning in some ways, but it offers more immediate excitement through a variety of character combinations.

If you play the role of Mr. Jack and draw Miss Stealthy, move quickly toward one of the corners. Stop three or four spaces short of the exit to minimize your opponent’s suspicion. Her ability to move four spaces AND through structures makes Miss Stealthy tough to catch. She has escaped arrest more than any of the seven other characters through 25+ plays.

When playing Mr. Jack, wins by escaping are much less common, (especially against an experienced player). It is easier to keep characters in the light than in the dark, even in the end, try to keep suspects grouped with other characters to avoid discovery.