You are receiving this newsletter because you or someone you know subscribed you to our mailing list. This Newsletter is 100% Opt In Only! If you liked this e-zine, please to pass it on to a friend. If a friend did this, and you like what you read, please subscribe by visiting Great Murder Mystery Games.

If you feel that you have received this newsletter in error and wish to be removed from our mailing list, you will find easy removal instructions at the bottom of this newsletter.

Click here for back issues of Guilty Parties.

November 2003, Issue #13

Table of Contents

1 News

2 Murder Mystery Game Review: St Cakes

3 Your Questions

1 News

Der Fluch des Pharao

Following on from Death on the Gambia, Freeform Games have launched a German translation of their Victorian Egyptian archeology game Curse of the Pharaoh. Click here to visit www.krimispiel.net - a German murder mystery games site.

New Mystery for Kids

Mysteries on the Net has just released The Sticky Case of Chuckles the Clown, a mystery for 8 to 20 kids aged 10 to 12. The mystery (no murder!) concerns an addictive video game that has been smashed - and the kids have to solve it.

Click here to go to the Mysteries on the Net site and find out more.

2 Murder Mystery Game Review: St Cakes

St Cakes is a murder mystery game for 40 to 200 guests (yes, that's right - up to 200 guests), and it plays a little different to most other murder mystery games.

In St Cakes everyone takes part of the pupils and staff at St Cakes, an English boarding school. As there are so many people involved, St Cakes puts everyone into teams of 7-10. Each team represents a "house" in St Cakes, and each house includes three roles - the Head of the House, the House Swot and the House Prefect. It doesn't matter who plays these three roles, as long as they are filled. The roles each have an objective - for example, the Head of the House has to keep everyone in line, while the House Swot is in charge of organising the new school song (a bit more on that below).

There are also several named roles - including the headmaster, secretary, bursar, a detective and more. Apart from the detective these are the suspects - and one of them has committed murder.

As well as solving the murder, there are other challenges. Each team has brainteasers to solve and has to write (and maybe even perform) the new school song. As each team has only some of they clues to the murder, they will have to trade and negotiate with other teams for the other clues.

As there are so many teams (up to 20 if you have the full 200) St Cakes is ideal for team-building exercises. Solving the murder and completing the tasks will require teamwork and negotiation.

St Cakes requires two people to host it - although if you have all 200 I'd be tempted to have a couple more.

As you can see, St Cakes is a little different from other murder mystery games, but there are few games that cater for 200 guests.

St Cakes is available from Murder Mystery Games Ltd and costs £49.99.

Click here to download the introductory pdf file.

Click here to to to the Murder Mystery Games Ltd site and purchase St Cakes.

3 Your Questions

I am looking for a murder mystery game that last for no more than two hours - is there such a game?

If you mean two hours from the moment your guests arrive to when they leave - phew! Just the meeting and greeting will take about 20 minutes (and people will be late, that sort of thing). And food can take take 30 minutes out of the evening easily! If you really can't find more than two hours however, you might want to look at some of the Mysteries on the Net - they can be played in less time than some of the other games - for example The Disappearance of Death typically takes about 2.5 hours to solve - but if you're efficient you can speed that up!

Do you ever host these murder mystery games for other people? Does anyone host them commercially?

I just run the games for my friends, but there are people out there who run them commercially. There are a couple of things to consider when running them commercially, including:

• Getting a venue - I know that some places that run the games are hotels and guest houses already, so they have a ready-made venue.
• Commercial Licence - All of the games on the site are for home use only. You'll have to purchase a commercial licence to run them commercially. The cost of the commercial licence varies from company to company.
• Insurance - you'll have to make sure you have the right insurance.
• Plus marketing (domestic or business?), expenses and everything else.

There seem to be three different companies offering interactive (or freeform) style games: Dinner and a Murder Mystery Games, Freeform Games and Murder Mystery Games. However, I'm having a hard time distinguishing between them. What are the key differences?

Good question! There are a few differences between the games, I'll try to summarise them. All three of them are very popular, and often it's a matter of taste.

Murder Mystery Games Ltd (The Auction, St Cakes, The Final Curtain): Probably the simplest of the three. There's not too much for guests to absorb (each character is a single sheet of paper) so they are great for really nervous beginners.

Dinner and a Murder Mystery Games (Murder at the Four Deuces, Class of '57): Their games are a little more complex - characters are two pages long. They don't tend to have quite so many sub-plots as the others.

Freeform Games (All at Sea, Way out West, Death on the Gambia): Definitely the most complex of the three (but not *that* complex) and in my opinion worth the effort. But I would say that - I'm a partner in the business, so you might want to take what I say with a dash of salt. The Freeform Games include abilities and more sub-plots than the other games, but they (we) also often have rules for combat which mean that the characters might try to kill each other, but that makes them more complex.

The big disadvantage that Freeform Games have is that their games require someone to run them who isn't involved in solving the murder (where there is one). The organiser usually has lots of fun, but it's different to playing. With the other games the organiser can get away with playing, if they don't read the characters/solution as they print it out. (That's harder than it sounds.)

Which of the murder mystery games allow characters to murder other characters? I believe Death On The Gambia is one of them. Are there any others as I'm looking for a game for about 20 guests?

As I mentioned above, the Freeform Games murder mystery games often have rules that allow characters to kill each other. (I shouldn't have to stress that you don't want your guests killing each other!) They only have the one game for 20 people currently, and that's All at Sea.

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!

Guilty Parties is powered by Site Built It! - the one-stop e-business solution for everyone. Click here to learn more about Site Build It!

I accept no responsibility whatsoever for the content, profitability or legality of any published articles or advertisements contained within Guilty Parties.

And, although all of the articles have been selected for their content, the publishing of such articles within this newsletter does NOT constitute a recommendation of the products or services mentioned or advertised within those articles.

Be responsible! Always do your own Due Diligence before responding to any offer.

I respect the privacy of my readers. I will NEVER supply or sell your personal information to any Third Party!