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March 2003, Issue #5

Table of Contents

1 News: Murder Game

2 Murder Mystery Game Tips: Preparing a Murder Mystery

3 Featured Murder Mystery Game Reviews: Death on the Gambia

4 Your Questions

1 - News

The Murder Game - BBC1

The Murder Game is a new game show on BBC1, BBC3 and BBCi. Ten contestants have the chance to win £25,000 if they solve a terrible murder. The contestants are guided through the case by a real-life detective, and each episode have to endure the "Killer's Game" where one will be eliminated.

You can find out more about The Murder Game here.

2 - Murder Mystery Game Tips

Preparing a Murder Mystery Party

I'm in the middle of preparing for The Final Curtain as I am running it for a few friends this weekend. As it's fresh in my mind, I thought I would include a few tips on preparation this month.

Preparation Time: Perhaps the most important tip I can suggest is to give yourself enough preparation time. I started printing out and stuffing envelopes (with character sheets, cast list, background, money, and so on) a full two weeks before the evening itself. That's so if there are any problems, I have time to fix them. Luckily, everything has gone smoothly.

Casting: Casting has been interesting as I only know three of the people at the evening - I've been given a list of names, but little else. I believe that most of the guests will be in their mid-thirties, but I'm not sure.

Ideally, you should try to find out as much as possible about your players - particularly their ages. For example, in The Final Curtain one character is the daughter of another, and if you don't know who you're casting for you could end up with a 20 year old playing the mother, and a 50 year old playing the daughter! (I've got my fingers crossed!)

Of course, if everyone plays their role properly, it shouldn't matter.

I've cast this a good two weeks in advance to give everyone time to get a costume. The game is set in the 1920s, so a little warning is essential.

Printing: I've had to print out quite a bit for The Final Curtain. I've printed 14 copies of the background information and cast list (one for each player), plus their character sheets, plus assorted paper props and ten copies of the script. I've put all of this in envelopes to keep it all organised.

I've also created my own name badge labels. Rather than use the ones in the game, I've typed the names onto stickers, which I find easier to manage.

Catering: Luckily I haven't had to organise the catering - the person whose house we are playing in is sorting that out. The Final Curtain timetable is set around a dinner meal, and I think we're having a chinese banquet takeaway - so I will need to fiddle the timings, but I'll have to do that on the evening itself.

(This happens in many games, I find. There's usually something that doesn't quite go as the authors have envisaged and some ad-libbing on my part is necessary. So remember - you'll need to be flexible.)

The murderer: Unfortunately, I know who the murderer is. Although it's mentioned only on the character sheet and the solution, I wasn't careful enough and I know. I don't really mind knowing as it means I can concentrate on other things, but it just shows that it can be difficult. (It's possible - you just have to be more careful than I was!)

Anyway, those are my preparation tips - next time I'll review the game.

3 - Featured Murder Mystery Game Reviews

Death on the Gambia

Death on the Gambia is produced by Freeform Games and is an interactive murder mystery party for 7-10 players, plus one host.

Set in 1939, Death on the Gambia follows a tramp riverboat as it sails along the River Gambia in Africa. Aboard are a curious mixture of passengers - a big game hunter, a missionary, a doctor, a journalist, an archaeologist and more. All of the passengers have secrets, and the journey will be one to remember.

Death on the Gambia is an interactive murder mystery game - much like Freeform Games' other games All at Sea and Curse of the Pharaoh. Death on the Gambia also shares many of the same features - it has the item cards and the ability cards that those games have. (Item cards are used to represent all sorts of things - from a mysterious bone idol to handcuffs or a codebook. Ability cards, on the other hand, provide rules for things like pickpocketing and detecting secrets.)

Rather unusually, Death on the Gambia doesn't start with a murder - and a murder might not actually take place during the evening. That depends entirely on the players - the characters have reasons to attempt murder. And of course there's a detective to keep an eye on everyone.

Death on the Gambia has a number of different plots to keep everyone busy. For example, htere's a stolen artefact, ruby smugglers and German and British spies. Plus an Assassin, secret jungle experiments - and more.

The cast of Death on the Gambia includes:

• Jane Carter: an American journalist working for the Gambia Tribune.
• Dexter Fairchild: an intrepid big game hunter from England.
• Katanga: a native of Gambia and First Mate aboard the Christabel.
• Joseph Keene: one of Gambia’s finest detectives.
• Connor McDouglas: a rugged Scottish archaeologist, adventurer and finder of antiquities.
• Marie Renard: a famous French artist.
• Emily Schwartz: a brilliant German doctor bringing aid to the peoples of the jungle.
• Caroline Tanner: an English widow seeing the world.
• Alex Thomas: chief buyer for the Happy Peanut Spread Company.
• Matthew Townhill: an English missionary bringing the word of God to the peoples of the jungle.

Death on the Gambia needs a dedicated host, someone to organise the game. They play the Captain of the riverboat the Christabel. (Of course, the Captain doesn't know who the murderer is - because that's up to the players.) I really enjoy being the host - you know what's going on and can watch your friends scheme and plot and be devious to one another.

Death on the Gambia is available from Freeform Games and cost £20.

For more information, click here to download the free introductory pdf file which includes more details - including background, a full cast list, costume guide, invitations and how to pay. (The file is 43KB, so it may take a few moments to download.)

4 Your Questions

Some of your recent questions:

Do you know of any providers of murder mystery dinner parties - I don't want to host my own, but I want to organise one for work.

The best resource that I've found for finding providers of murder mystery dinners/events is this one: www.mysteryinternational.co.uk

We're planning a murder mystery evening next month. However, we can't be certain about numbers until close to the event. I expect there will be about 50 people but it could be anywhere between 40 & 60. I know St Cakes caters for up to 200 people, but I wondered how flexible the other games for up to 40 players are. Could they be stretched if necessary?

Well, you have a couple of options.

First, you could pick a game for up to 40 people (say, The Auction or The Last Gasp) and use the extra character packets that are available from Dinner and a Murder Mystery Games. (I reviewed these last issue.)

Or, pick one of the Tailor Made Mysteries for that size - say, Greek Tragedy or Celebrity Celebrations.

The games are very flexible - there's a core number of characters (ie, the minimum number) but above that everyone is optional.

I would like to host a murder mystery party for my co-workers. Are the game "G" rated? It would be very inappropriate to put anyone in a situation that would make them uncomfortable.

Thanks for your query. I find the question of "suitability" very difficult as what I find offensive or inappropriate is different from the next person. However, to answer your question. The games don't contain explicit violence or sex. They do, however, involve a murder (er, obviously) and quite often they have characters who are having affairs, and sometimes have drug takers or users. Plus there's usually treachery of other sorts. This is to ensure that there are enough people with dubious backgrounds who can act as suspects - it would be too obvious if everyone was a saint apart from the murderer! To help you decide, all of the games have a free pdf download with more information. Some games also come with a money-back guarantee (Curse of the Pharaoh, Death on the Gambia, All at Sea - and any of the Tailor Made Mysteries).

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!