Well, my life is changing beyond all recognition because my daughter, Megan, was born earlier this month. Welcome to the world, Megan! What I suspect that means for everyone else is that I will have a little less time to devote to the website - so if I'm a bit slower responding to your queries, please forgive me...

Anyway, in this newsletter I have some casting advice and a couple of new games - one just in time for Halloween.

By the way, if you've enjoyed this newsletter or you've found www.great-murder-mystery-games.com useful and you have your own website, please support my site and put a link on your site... Thanks!

Halloween Lies

Freeform Games have just published Halloween Lies - their first murder mystery party for Halloween...

Set in the modern day, Halloween Lies takes place during the Halloween-theme costume party for The Vampire Detective, a fabulously successful horror movie. However, all is not well as the star, Tom Speed has died suddenly in a car crash last night. Was it foul play? (Go on - take a guess...)

Halloween Lies is for 16 to 22 guests, plus one host. It's also suitable for kids - Freeform Games have produced a kid-friendly version as well as one for grown-ups. (You get them both when you buy the game - you just choose which one to print out and play.)

Click here to learn more about Halloween Lies.

And if you think all that sounds familiar - well it is. Halloween Lies is a Halloween version of Hollywood Lies, the freeform set at an "Oscar"-style party. The main difference is that while Hollywood Lies is a black-tie occasion, you can dress up as your favourite Halloween monster in the new version!

(And of course, you don't have to wait until Halloween to play Halloween Lies. You can play it any time you like!)

So who gets to play the murderer?

I've just updated my Casting your murder mystery game page to include more details on how I decide who is going to play which character.

Previously I had only really covered when you should cast your game (ie, on the day or beforehand), but following a couple of questions I've expanded it to include tips for how I cast my parties:

I have two methods for casting - random selection and letting my guests choose which character they would like.

To cast randomly I separate the characters into male characters and female characters. (Gender-neutral characters are split between the two pile depending on my actual guest-list.) I then assign the characters completely at random. Surprisingly, this method of casting works 90% of the time. The 10% of the time when it doesn't work is when you have a player who just doesn't "get it" - and they get one of the crucial roles. Or they're so shy that they find it hard to interract with everyone else. So if there's a danger of this happening, this is what I do:

If there are any obviously extrovert people in your party, cast them in the "larger than life" roles - they are inevitable one of the core roles. If, on the other hand, you have some very introverted people coming, give them a more minor role.

The other thing I do is send out the cast list to everyone beforehand and ask them to tell me which three characters they would like to play. I will then try to cast as close as possible to people's preferences. Naturally, I never guarantee that everyone will get who they have chosen.

(Recently I have used both methods for the same game. I tested a prototype game at a games convention and for those that signed up in advance, I asked them to choose their favourite three characters. I then tried to cast them as close as possible to their selections (but I was constrained by the fact that I needed to cast the minimum characters). Those that turned up on the door were cast at random - and everything worked fine.)

I almost always give a guest the character they ask for if they are planning on wearing a spectacular costume. If they are going to make that kind of effort, then they should be rewarded with an appropriate character.

Click here to read Casting your murder mystery game.

Freeform Games revamp Death on the Gambia

Freeform Games have revamped Death on the Gambia - their very first game (first published back in 2001).

Freeform Games have made a few improvements to the way they put games together since then, and they've given it a facelift.

As well as these structural improvements, they've made more of the characters playable by male or female players, and they've added an extra character to the game; Captain Sam Ironheart.

Click here to learn more about Death on the Gambia.

That's about it this time - have a great murder mystery party!

Steve

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