What is the advantage of taking your time to get a jump on the case. It makes you first player but thats it.

Also did I misuderstand how to get a jump on the case. Is it spend 1 time anywhere to become first player(or choose first player). Or do you have to be at the murder location and spend one time?

p.14

If a player’s detective is in the same location as the scene
of the crime marker, he may pay 1 Time to get a jump on
the other detectives on the case.

Thank you. My first thought was correct than.

So again....What's the point? Why would a character waste his time going there and waste 1 time to become first player. How many times could you get lucky and have leads next to that location after you become first player. Other players would make sure not to put that many near you. Besides getting leads first what's the point.

Probably the main reason is that you can also get events first, but there are various other situations in which it can be useful. For example, if you're last player, it might be to your advantage to go first next turn and thereby take two turns back-to-back. Also, first player gets priority when resolving simultaneous twilight cards, and so on.

Even so, yeah, it's typically not the best use of your time, especially since there are often occasions when it can be beneficial to be the last player (e.g. when plots are resolving). For this reason, many people prefer to play with the variant recommended in the faq, in which Getting a Jump lets you assign the first player marker to whomever you want.

I thought a possible variant might be that detectives have to get a "jump on the case" before they can start placing evidence on suspects.

I'm reading "Free Fall" and it makes a big deal out of the main character going to the crime scene first to gather as much direct evidence as possible before expanding his investigation and uncovering conspiracies etc.

But yeah, i don't get it either. Doesn't really hurt the overall game tho...

Yeah. I agree. Getting a Jump on the Case does not seem to have much value.

I play a variant version of the rules myself. This alters the this quite a bit. I will try summarize this here:

SETUP

Remove any hunch card for suspects not in the game, shuffle the remainder into the innocent(blue) deck, and deal one of each face down to each player. Place the remaining hunch card by the murder sheet face down. This represent the real murderer. Place the guilty (red) deck near the murder sheet.

GET A JUMP ON THE CASE (cost 1 AP)

If a player is in the same location as the scene of the crime marker, he mail secretly select any guilty (red) card from the stack. If he already has a guilty card he may replace it for another. At any point he may only have one guilty card. He may also remove the hero marker there and replace it with one of his own. If it is still in place at the end of the phase, he becomes the new first player.

CLOSING THE CASE

Turn over the hidden innocent card by the murder sheet. This is the real murderer. A player with a guilty hunch card matching the real murderer receives 2VP (even if he was killed my a hit).

Convicting the real murderer awards the player further 5VP (not possibly if he was killed by a hit)

… so with this variant, players will need to Get a Jump on the Case in order to pick who they think are the guilty. You can still get your usual points for winning the conviction of your suspect, but if you manage to also pursue and even convict the real murderer, you are awarded well. Since everyone knows for sure that their own innocent card is the innocent, you can consider if you want to let one or 2 players get their Jump on the Case first, and then try deduce the guilty. Finally, I think adding a few more points for solving the case, really put just a bit more focus on the mystery, which is nice. I use a few more variant rules, but this one can easily be applied on it's own.

Our group just plays with the rule that when you spend a time to get a jump on the case, you can choose who will receive the first player token. You thereby determine your own placement in future turns which can be more useful than claiming it for yourself (which you still can if that´s to your advantage)

subochre said:

This. You're not going to need to get the jump on the case that often, but sometimes situations pop up that could benefit from doing it.

For a given day, if you are first, you have all of the other players to play twilight cards during the same day, before your next turn (and the next day). This is particularly important for people who need a certai. Amount of light or dark shifts in order to play certain light cards on the subsequent day.