Welcome to Guilty Parties

Welcome to Guilty Parties, the murder mystery party newsletter from Great Murder Mystery Games.

Last month I went to the Box Northern Larp festival in Leeds (in Yorkshire, UK), where I played in one murder mystery game and playtested another.

I’m going to talk about both.

Arsenic & Lies

Arsenic & Lies is a murder mystery roleplaying card game set in a grand house at a New Year’s Eve party on 31 December 1919. A new decade is about to start – but not for everyone! Players create characters by drawing relationships and secrets, then choose a persona with enough depth to plausibly commit murder. One player is randomly assigned as the killer.

The game unfolds in two acts:

Act 1: Players roleplay, interact, and gather information while the murderer secretly selects a victim using a hidden mechanic. At midnight, the victim is revealed.

Act 2: The victim returns as a new character, and players continue investigating before collectively accusing someone of the crime.

I played Arsenic & Lies recently and had a great time – my review is here.

A Haunting in Hartwick

Freeform Games has just launched a new murder mystery game: A Haunting in Hartwick.

A Haunting in Hartwick is a 1920s-themed murder mystery game for 11–13 players plus a host, set in Hartwick Manor. The story centres on the planned sale of the manor and the testing of a ghost-capturing device (EGADS) – and the game includes ghost characters!

As part of its development, I playtested A Haunting in Hartwick at Box, and it went really well. My players seemed to enjoy themselves, and I found only a few things that needed adjusting.

Learn more about A Haunting in Hartwick.

Box Northern Larp Festival

If you want to learn more about the Northern Box Larp Festival, where I played and ran these games, I wrote about it on my personal blog.

Okay, that’s it for this time!

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