Welcome to Lucky Mansion, a sprawling country estate filled with unusual weapons, good hiding places, and craven killers. Lucky Mansion is home to a certain Doctor J. Robert Lucky, and everyone — including you — wants him dead.

Your reasons vary. Janet Principle wants to kill Doctor Lucky because he stole her family’s recipe for paint remover, while Quincette Small is convinced that the doctor is the King of the Vampires. Your methods differ. Mumfort Consequence hopes to stab the good doctor with the pinking shears, while Gail Russo plans to startle him to death with a loud noise.

No matter who succeeds, the result is the same. Doctor Lucky will be dead, and his cat Patience will not particularly care.

Kill Doctor Lucky, one of the most iconic Cheapass Games titles, is a “pre-mystery” board game about a handful of devious villains trying to kill a very lucky old man. Originally released in 1996, it has returned in a new edition to celebrate its 19.5th Anniversary.

“Kill Doctor Lucky is rooted in the traditional mystery genre,” says James Ernest, President of Cheapass Games and designer of Kill Doctor Lucky. “It seems like in all these stories, everyone in the mansion has a motive, or else it’s not a very difficult mystery. So why not just make the murder into the object of the game?”

The original black-and-white edition of Kill Doctor Lucky won the Origins Award for Best Abstract Board Game in 1997 and was featured in GAMES Magazine’s Top 100. The game has been popular ever since, spawning several sequels and variations including the board game Save Doctor Lucky, and the card game Get Lucky.

In 2015, Ernest decided to use his 20 years of accumulated design experience to revisit Kill Doctor Lucky and improve the core rules.

“If you love the original, don’t worry,” says Ernest. “The game feels very much the same; it’s just that we’ve changed… everything.”

One of the biggest rules changes is that to draw a card, you must now be in a place where no one (including Doctor Lucky) can see you. This replaces the rule requiring that you did nothing else on this turn. The upshot: sight lines become more important throughout the game, and also you can't draw a handful of cards while “riding the Lucky Train.” Remaining hidden also protects you from pesky, interfering witnesses.

The packaging is also updated. Kill Doctor Lucky now comes in a Victorian-style game box, reminiscent of games from 100 years ago, and bears the note “Originally released in the late 1900’s.” The character artwork was created by Israel Evans, who also illustrated Get Lucky, and features some famous faces like Patrick Rothfuss, Phil Foglio, and Angela and Aubrey Webber of The Doubleclicks.

The 19.5th Anniversary Edition of Kill Doctor Lucky is already garnering glowing reviews:

"The new edition of Kill Doctor Lucky is both familiar and fresh. If you love the original, the silly humor shines through even more with back stories and motives provided for each character. As a game, the pace and mechanics have been streamlined to add more tension and tactics,” says Stephen Conway from The Spiel. “Put simply, you get to the fun part faster - finding ridiculous weapons like the Tight Hat or Bad Cream and trying to maneuver yourself into the perfect position for murder and mayhem.”

“Much moreso than Clue, Kill Dr. Lucky gives players a chance to enact clever strategies, to plot out their moves, and to gnash their teeth in frustration as another player heads to the room where you were planning on doing the titular doctor in,” says Colin O’Boyle from Geeksmash. “The cards are clever, the gameplay is engaging, and I can say, without the shadow of a doubt that I would recommend this game to anyone who wants to play a combination of Clue and Munchkin."

Kill Doctor Lucky supports 2-8 players ages 12 and up, plays in about 20-40 minutes, and is now available at friendly local game stores worldwide.