I read on the rules book:

"When a suspect is killed, return all of the evidence, hit , and alibi tokens on his suspect sheet to their respective piles , and then turn the suspect sheet facedown.

After a suspect is killed, hit tokens may not be removed from that suspect (although some game effects do allow hit tokens to be removed from a suspect before he dies)."

Is anybody able to help me to understand better if I have to keep or remove hit tokens from a killed suspect?

Thank you

Talking about killing suspects:
Since Testimony Lead Markers represent suspects, is the corresponding Testimony Marker removed from the game if a suspect is eliminated (through hit tokens)? I think it would be logical, but I didn't find anything in the rules on this topic.

This question has come up multiple times - though no official answer that I know of.

I believe the rules are not in conflict and the key is in the terms used.

Hit tokens are accumulated on suspects. Certain effects must allow you to remove those hits from suspects. This means they can "heal" I guess. However, once a 3rd hit is placed on him, he is dead and no more tokens can be "removed" from his sheet to save him. The term "reduced" might have been better if that was the intent. So once a suspect has 3 hits, he's dead dead and nothing can save him.

Once he is dead dead, then you "return" the tokens back to the supply to be used again, and return his sheet to the box.

So it would be like this:

1. 3rd Hit token placed
2. Suspect is dead and no cards can be played to save him
3. Return the tokens to the supply and the sheet to the box

That is how I interpret the rule. Perhaps Kevin can put it to rest though with an official answer.

ColtsFan76 said:

This interpretation is correct. And yes, you remove the corresponding testimony lead from the board as well. This will go into the FAQ.

here's what i've been wondering:

is there a limit to how many suspects can be killed? can they ALL die?

If there's only one suspect left alive, then no more hits can be played, and that suspect will be the murderer at the end of the game. This is pretty severely unlikely to happen (except for the murder which makes suspects die with only 2 hits, but that has its own rules for only 1 surviving suspect), but within the realm of possibility, so this will be added to the FAQ.

I suggest keeping the hits on the suspects even after being killed, to prevent all the suspects being killed.

For instance, 6 suspects, 3 hits to kill them (so 18 to kill everyone) but only 15 hit tokens provided. This means that after all 15 tokens have been used no more hits can be placed, therefore guaranteeing at least one suspect will survive to the end of the game.

How boring! I'd say let them all be killed! Then nobody's hunches resolve.

Mike said:

You can houserule it however you want. You can back it up with a story eitehr way. 1) The suspect was the last man standing and won't commit suicide or 2) a vigilante avenges the murder and finally takes out the final suspect.

ColtsFan76 said:

Yeah... like Rachel. Or Tanaka. Or others. Obviously, though, such a house rule will bring down the vengeance of many a player on the suspects. After all - if your guilty hunch can't be correct anymore, why should somebody else's? I think you might end up with a lot of dead suspects eventually.

Which is pretty cool.

/wicked.

//slashies!