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August 2003, Issue #10

Table of Contents

1 Murder Mystery Game Tips: Hosting Death on the Gambia

2 Featured Murder Mystery Game Review: Happy Birthday RJ

1 Murder Mystery Game Tips

Hosting Death on the Gambia

I recently ran Freeform Games’ Death on the Gambia for the third time, so the following is a brief explanation of what I did and why I did it. (I’m very familiar with this game – it’s a lot of fun.)

Preparation: The first thing I did was to print out a copy of the entire game as I find it useful to have a copy of the full game to hand when I’m running a murder mystery game. However, I don’t like wasting paper – so I printed it out at four sheets to the page (if your printer doesn’t do this, you can get something like Fineprint (www.fineprint.com) which does the same).

I also printed out the Captain’s Quick Reference Sheet at normal size as I knew I would be referring to that on the day.

I then printed out all the characters and their abilities and items. I put the characters and their items in envelopes (sealed so that the items didn’t fall out). The other sheets (the newspaper, the rules, the introduction) I left in piles for the players to read on the night.

For name badges, I didn’t use the badges in the kit, but used sticky labels and hand-wrote each character’s name on those.

I started preparation a good week before the game was due to be held. If I’d not run the game before, I would have started at least two weeks before so that I had time to familiarize myself with everything. (I don't like leaving everything to the last minute.)

Guests: I didn’t know how many players I would have until the night of the event itself. That meant that I couldn’t really cast in advance. In the event I had eight players. Death on the Gambia can be played with only seven, but it doesn’t play so well with that many. It played very well with eight, and my experience is that it plays even better with more. (It can cater for up to 11, if you include “Ginger” Roberts, Freeform Games’ free sample character.)

We also didn’t worry about costuming. Some people had travelled some distance to play, and costuming would have been difficult.

In the end, I had five experienced players and three newcomers to interactive murder mystery games. The experienced players were very experienced, while the newcomers were very inexperienced, so it made for a good mix.

While I was initially slightly concerned about the newcomers, but once the game started they took to it like a duck to water and appeared to have a wonderful time. The “Tips for Beginners” included in Death on the Gambia certainly helped. (The tips provide suggestions for things that each character might do at the start of the game.)

Food and drink: Death on the Gambia recommends finger food during the game, but we sidestepped this by eating before the game actually started.

As for drink, everyone (except those driving!) had a couple of glasses of wine before the game started, but once the game was in full flow most people were drinking soft drinks to quench their thirst. Interactive murder mystery games require a lot of talking, so soft drinks are necessary. Whether you wish to serve alcohol, however, is an entirely personal preference.

Starting the Game: I planned to run the game according to the suggested timetable in Death on the Gambia. In the event, we started 15 minutes late due to a couple of late arrivals. It was no great problem, though, and it just meant that the first part of the evening was 15 minutes shorter than normal.

My introduction was brief – I thanked everyone for turning up, quickly introduced everyone present (using just the one-line description on the casting sheet – which as I hadn’t cast in advance nobody had seen), and started the game.

The players seemed to get into the game very quickly, due in part, I think, to the “tips for beginners”. Even the experienced players found them useful as it meant that everyone had something to focus on from the start.

During the Game: Much of my enjoyment from running an interactive murder mystery game comes from listening to the players scheme and plot as they try and achieve their goals. Unfortunately, I was foiled some of the time as one of the characters is French and several of the players spoke fluent French!

I had a couple of decisions to make during the game. At one point one of the characters asked if they could get hold of any beads or other antique trinkets. There’s nothing in the rules that covers this, so I applied Death on the Gambia’s three golden rules:

• Is it fun? Well, I wasn’t sure what the beads were going to be used for, but it sounded like fun.
• Will it spoil the game for someone else? At worst, the character might sell the beads to another character for some cash. So I didn’t think that was a problem (ie, it wouldn’t ruin another person’s game).
• Make it up! It seemed reasonable that the character might have some beads, so I created an item card for that character and just wrote “beads” on it. What he did with them, I never found out.

Death on the Gambia is split into three sessions, two aboard the Christabel and a short break at Manso Konko. By the time the break arrived, the detective had identified a villain that he wanted to detain in Mansa Konko. (Again, there’s nothing in the rules that covers this kind of situation – the rules can’t cover everything!) As the rest of the game would be aboard the Christabel, if the detective had his wish it would ruin the rest of the game for that one person. Luckily for me, before I had to intervene, the detective dashed off a telegram to his superiors asking for advice.

The detective handed the telegram to me, and I then wrote the reply from his superiors. (Death on the Gambia has some blank telegrams you can use.) So I told the detective to bring the villain to Bathhurst (the Christabel’s destination) as soon as possible – which meant back aboard and in the game.

(If the detective hadn’t telegrammed his superiors, I would probably have told him that Mansa Konko had insufficient facilities to keep anyone locked up.)

Ending the Game: I ended the game about 30 minutes before the suggested timetable as there had been a fierce shoot out between four of the characters that resulted in three players being knocked out and another two keeping busy watching over them. (Death on the Gambia is an unusual murder mystery game in that while there are no murders at the start of the game, there are often murders by the time it finishes.)

I checked with the other players and as they had either achieved their goals or had no hope of achieving them at all, so they were content to finish early. I therefore announced that the Christabel had arrived at Bathurst and the game was now over.

Following that I asked everyone to assemble and briefly describe who they were and what they were doing, and whether they thought they were successful or not. As they described whether they succeeded in achieving their goals or not, I handed out the epilogue cards, which is a brief, humorous description of how each character fares in later life. For example, if they have been successful in the game, they are successful in later life.

Following that, all that was left was to thank everyone for playing, and to tidy up.

Overall I had a great time, and judging by the players’ reactions, they did too.

Click here if you would like to learn more about Death on the Gambia.

2 Featured Murder Mystery Game Review

Happy Birthday RJ

Happy Birthday RJ is an interactive murder mystery party game by Freeform Games for 12 to 16 people, including the co-ordinator.

Set in the world of the oil soap operas (along the lines of the Dallas and Dynasty television shows), Happy Birthday RJ concerns RJ Harrington’s 30th birthday and coming-of-age party. It’s a world of glamour – of big money, big hair and big shoulder pads. And with the dysfunctional Harrington family and their scheming friends and neighbours, it’s a birthday party that anyone is unlikely to forget.

Luckily for everyone, the local deputy sheriff is also attending the party (he’s a close friend of Bobby Harrington, RJ’s brother). That’s just as well, as Happy Birthday RJ includes a horse theft, a murder before the game and a murder during the game! And that doesn’t include anything that the players might want to get up to!

The full cast of Happy Birthday RJ includes:

• RJ Harrington: the birthday boy himself
• Dixie Green: RJ’s long-time girlfriend
• Jack Harrington: RJ’s father and oil tycoon
• Crystal Harrington: Jack’s wife
• Bobby Harrington: RJ’s half-brother
• Lucille Harrington: RJ’s half-sister
• Ali Fields: a lawyer
• Billy Joe Butler: the neighbour
• Sue Helen Butler: Billy Joe’s wife
• Sam Bond: a family friend
• Rick Harper: an old school friend
• Deedee Taylor: Dixie’s best friend
• Dolly Douglas: close friend of Lucille
• Drew Morrison: the town doctor
• Randy Coltrane: the deputy sheriff
• Plus the person organising the evening.

Like other interactive murder mystery games, the final outcome of Happy Birthday RJ is up to the players themselves. They each have their own character with their own desires and objectives – and it’s up to them to interact with the other guests and try to achieve their goals (not everyone will succeed, of course!). Happy Birthday RJ suits a buffet meal or finger food (rather than a sit-down meal) so that everyone can talk quietly with each other.  Of course, you’ll need a birthday cake!

Like Death on the Gambia and other interactive murder mystery games, the person hosting Happy Birthday RJ must print everything out and "run" the game. They’ll know who the murderer is, so they won’t be able to participate in the same way as their guest. (Instead they will be able to enjoy watching their guests scheming and double-crossing each other as they try to achieve their goals.)

Happy Birthday RJ is available from Freeform Games and costs £20.

For more information, click here to download the free introductory pdf file which includes more details - including background, a full cast list, invitations and how to pay. (The file is 95KB, so may take a few moments to download.) Click here to discover more about Happy Birthday RJ.

That's it for this time. Have a great party - and tell me all about it!

--steve

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