January 12, 2003
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Click here for back issues of Guilty Parties. January 2003, Issue #3
Table of Contents
1 News: A Broken Elbow
2 Murder Mystery Game Tips: Allocating Prizes
3 Featured Murder Mystery Game Review: Cudham Riding Club and Murder at the Four Deuces
4 Your Questions
1 - News
A Broken Elbow
2002 ended with a bang for me as I slipped and dislocated and fractured my elbow. I'm now well on the road to recovery, but typing with one hand is proving to be somewhat laborious, so please forgive me if some of my replies have been a little terse.
2 - Murder Mystery Game Tips
Allocating Prizes
The best way I have found when allocating prizes is to let everyone vote for them. I usually include a voting form in each character envelope, and at the end of the game the guests hand them in for counting.
You can have several different prizes - for example:
- Best Costume Most Valuable Player Best Roleplayer Most Outrageous Accent Most Impressive Death (for those games like Death on the Gambia and All at Sea where the characters might die)
The prizes themselves might be a simple certificate (you can get these from office suppliers), a box of chocolates, bottle of wine - or something more suited to the game itself.
Some of the games have specific prizes. For example, in The Last Gasp the player who has the most money at the end of the game wins a prize. However, those who start out with money aren't eligible for the prize. If you want everyone to be eligible, you could calculate how much everyone has increased their wealth by. So if you end the game with £200 but started with nothing, you've done better than someone who ends the game with £300 but starts with £400. (This does require a small amount of maths - but not much.)
Prizes add a fun element to a murder mystery party and can help draw the event to a satisfactory close.
3 - Featured Murder Mystery Game Reviews
Cudham Riding Club
Cudham Riding Club is a modern-day murder mystery game from Murder Mystery Games Ltd. Cudham Riding Club is what I call an "interactive" or "freeform" murder mystery (much like All at Sea and The Auction). In a freeform murder mystery everyone has a complete character with background, friends and objectives. Each guest decides how he or she will approach the murder - and the murderer must try to avoid detection.
Cudham Riding Club is for 14-40 players, although to make the best of it I recommend at least 20 players. In the game Lady Amanda Cudham, Chairwoman and Benefactress of the Cudham Riding Club has been killed in a riding accident. Is it foul play? Of course it is.
The guests play the members of the riding club - and given their appalling behaviour, it's a wonder that the whole lot of them aren't locked up. After all, they cheat, steal, defraud, take drugs, lie, blackmail and have affairs with one another. They really are a truly awful bunch - but that only makes them even more fun to play (there's something very satisfying about being rotten to others - particularly when you're just pretending).
Of course, there's more to Cudham Riding Club than just the murder:
- There's a new Chairwoman to elect.
- There are horses to be bought and sold.
- There's the outcome of the Isle of Man handicap to bet on.
- There's money to make.
Plus all the normal blackmail and skulduggery that you'd expect from an interactive murder mystery game.
As with other interactive murder mystery games, Cudham Riding Club suits a buffet meal or finger food (rather than a sit-down meal) so that everyone can talk quietly with each other.
Like The Auction and The Last Gasp, the person hosting Cudham Riding Club has to print everything out and "run" the game. However, as the name of the murderer is mentioned only on the murderer's character sheet and in the solution, the host can still join in the fun as long as they don't read the character sheets.
Murder at the Four Deuces
Murder at the Four Deuces is the first murder mystery game from Dinner and a Murder Mystery Games, a Tennessee-based company specialising in murder mystery events. They have just started turning some of their games into downloadable games that can be played at home - and Murder at the Four Deuces is the first.
Set in 1920s America, Murder at the Four Deuces is set at the opening of The Four Deuces, a lavish gangster nightclub/speakeasy. During the evening a murder will be committed and the guests (playing the part of gangsters, molls, gamblers, congressmen and other important figures) will be in the thick of the action. Everyone will be a suspect - but who is the murderer?
Murder at the Four Deuces is a "freeform" or "interactive" murder mystery. As well as solving the murder, each character also has a number of things that they have to do to progress the plot. The game isn't scripted, but these interactions need to take place - and apart from the murder, it doesn't matter when they take place.
Everyone in Murder at the Four Deuces has a complete character with background and costume suggestions. These sheets should be sent out to those attending at least a week before the game so that everyone has time to find the appropriate costume.
A second sheet (containing secrets, dirt on other characters and actions that must be carried out during the game) is then handed out after the murder.
Like most interactive murder mystery games, Murder at the Four Deuces suits a buffet meal or finger food so that everyone can mingle.
The cast of Murder at the Four Deuces includes:
- Don Wannabe: gangster and co-owner of The Four Deuces.
- Madam MeMe: successful businesswoman and co-owner of The Four Deuces.
- Carrie Crooner-Ravioli: glamorous singer.
- Capo 'Toto' Tequila: self-proclaimed Boss of Bosses.
- Congressman Darrin Toosteal: potential future US president.
- Inspector Neville 'the Nose' Nutella: a police inspector.
- Eva de Chalons: dilettante and art connoisseur.
- Baroness Ravioli: Not a real Baroness, but acts as if she is.
Murder at the Four Deuces needs a host, someone to organise the game. They can play any of the characters, but it might be best if they play Don Wannabe - the character detailed in the free introductory pdf file. Alternatively, the host might choose not to play a character and just make sure that everything goes like clockwork.
Like most murder mystery games, Murder at the Four Deuces can be played out over a single evening. The game itself should take no more than a couple of hours, but you will need time at the beginning (for everyone to settle down) and the end (for solving the murder and prizes).
4 Your Questions
Some of your recent questions:
We recently played Death on the Gambia and really enjoyed things like health points, ability cards and weapons - and the fact that the characters can try to kill each other. Not all games are like that (we have also run The Auction) - what other games are like Death on the Gambia?
Death on the Gambia is produced by Freeform Games. Their other games are All at Sea and Curse of the Pharaoh (with more lined up for 2003). All of their games include ability cards, weapons, and the opportunity to kill other characters.
(While characters can die, the players playing them are unharmed. Also note that character deaths are allowed only in the final stages of the game, so that everybody has a full game. Sometimes having a good death scene is more fun than not dying!)
Click here for more details on Death on the Gambia, All at Sea and Curse of the Pharaoh.
I would like to use these games commercially. Can you tell me how to get a commercial license?
Commercial licenses are available for most of the games, but the vary according to the publisher - email me for more information.
I am not sure yet how many people will be attending my party - and it probably won't be equal numbers of men and women. Can these games be played with uneven numbers?
Most of the games have optional characters that makes it easy when you don't know exactly how many people are coming. (Unlike the How to Host... games where you have a big problem if someone drops out.)
Having uneven numbers of men/women shouldn't be a problem either. Most of the freeform (or interactive) games have characters that can be played by either sex. (If you want to check, when you see the cast list in the introductory pdf files, look for characters called "Chris" or "Alex" or "BJ" or something similar. Usually they're the ones that can be played by men or women.)
The Tailor Made Mysteries game are also very flexible - they do lots of different versions of their games for different numbers of players.
Of course, if you have extremes, you may have a problem. But even then, you don't have to worry if you don't mind cross-dressing!
That's it for this time. Have a great party - and tell me all about it!
--steve
Comments? Ideas? Feedback? I'd love to hear from you. Just reply to this zine and tell me what you think!
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