Extra CharactersDinner and a Murder Mystery Games have produced a number of character packets that can be used with their games (currently Murder at the Four Deuces and The Santa Clause). Each character packet consists of ten stand-alone characters, and costs $10 - but how good are they? Physically, each character is generally a single side of paper. They consist of a little bit of background, some suggestions for things that character would do at a party, and things they might say. The first thing to note is that because each character is a stand-alone, they don't tie into any of the "main" plots. (Update: Since I wrote this, Dinner and a Murder Mystery Games have produced a pack of secrets for each of their games. These are distributed to the extra characters and allow them to get more involved in the main plots. You get access to the secrets when you buy the extra character packets.) The things they have to do are often character quirks - for example, one of the characters in the first character packet is an absent-minded professor, who can't remember where he left his glasses (they're on his head). The characters all look like they're quite fun to play (and I should point out that I haven't tried them), but I'm not sure that they'd last the entire evening. I could be wrong - and I am certain that it depends on who is playing that character. (Personally, I like to be a little more deeply involved in a plot, but I know some people who are happy just to have a wacky character to play with.) To be fair, some of the characters do have more depth to them - they're generally in the second character packet. So far Dinner and a Murder Mystery Games have produced two packets of extra characters. The characters in the first packet are:
As you can see, it's an ecclectic bunch. There's no doubt that some of the characters appeal to me more than the others - they're the ones I'd use first. The second packet are equally diverse:
Theoretically the characters can be used to add to a game set in any era, but some are more modern than others. You would want to pick and choose. The other question is whether they can be used in other interactive murder mystery games such as The Auction or All at Sea, which aren't produced by Dinner and a Murder Mystery Games. The answer is a qualified yes - use them, but with caution. I'd certainly be wary about using them in a game with fewer than 20 people (that's because the smaller games tend to be more heavily plotted - and a stand-alone character will stand out more). There's one thing that's missing that I would like to have seen - and that's some kind of plot linking some of the characters. While it's obvious that the characters can't know anything about the main murder, they could have their own plot. Maybe three or four of the characters could be linked somehow, so that they would have more to do and would fit into the overall game better. Overall, while some of the characters seem a little too light, you can't go far wrong for $10. If I was only getting one packet, I'd start with the second.
The character packets require Acrobat Reader - it’s free and lets you read the "pdf" files, no matter what kind of computer you have. If you’ve got an old version of Acrobat Reader, you might want to upgrade. Click here to download Acrobat Reader. |