Murder Mystery Party!

[Amanda Joy "AJ" Lane]

Hello, everyone! I've had an idea brewing in my head for a while now, and I finally just mentioned it in the cbox to see people's reactions and it seems that so far they are collectively positive! So yay to that!

I want Hammel to host its first Murder Mystery Party and hopefully for it to become a thing that happens annually during the summer at the Hammel Institute. This would be a fun and hilarious IC event that would for sure bring about chaos and fun as everyone tries to discover the murder or murderers.

Basically, I have the foundation figured out:

-Members would sign up their characters to participate in the event.
-Characters will each be given a fictional name and a short biography/description of who they are and how they know the victim who was murdered.
-Murderer(s) will be chosen at random and their character accounts will be PMed telling them that they committed the murder, how, where and why.
-The party will take place IC in a thread where characters will talk to one another and try to figure out who has killed the victim.

Problems I'm having in development include:
-Will members be able to sign up more than one character of theirs? Because then that character will know who the murderer is and they wouldn't be able to find it out.
-How to give clues, hints, as to who it could be (I'm thinking that there would be a new clue given out once a week by the host, which will most likely be me until someone figures it out. These clues/hints would help narrow down who the murderer could be.
-What exactly to include on the card that each character is given. So far I have: Name, occupation, if/how they knew the victim. I don't know what else would be helpful or help determine who the killer is. I don't want it to be too easy or too hard. I was thinking that maybe the cards have some sort of prompt on them so that characters have to divulge some information about themselves. As the point of the party is to talk to everybody to get to know who they are and if they could have killed someone. (Ideas/help is appreciated)
-Doing all of this myself (I need helpers!)

If you have any ideas, comments or questions, you can post here. I also need people to help me develop this and possibly one other person to help me host (whose characters as well as mine would be exempt from the party as I don't know how else to do it).

I could use help including:
-Designing identities
-Coming up with how the murder happened and why
-A background story, where these people are, what time period it is, and what may have you
-Developing rules for the game/party
-Clarifying/improving this idea

Thank you!!!

-Sydnee

Post here, or PM sydneewrites on chatango!

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sydnee, IC I volunteer Sean to play the first corpse or any other non-solving the mystery role you would like for him. He doesn't participate as a potential sleuth because he has an unfair advantage.

Going hand-in-hand with that, OOC, I volunteer to help you however you would like with the planning. Since I only play Sean, there is no worry about cross-contamination between my characters.

[Amanda Joy "AJ" Lane]

Sean, I was acually talking about Sean being the first victim! My guess is that after a certain amount of each time, another person would be killed off at random or we would vote in a poll to kill someone off who we thought was the killer, but it would be interesting to start with the Psychiatrist being killed off! ;D

If you have any ideas for a plot set up, let me know! We need a setting and story for this murder mystery party!

[Odion Martins]

I've hosted a few RL Murder Mystery parties! I've never thought about making one, but I do know that there's a few scripts that need to be read out (in this case, maybe they simply could be written out by you?), and otherwise 'characters' IC can play out their part. The murderer doesn't usually know they're the murderer until the last round. (Usually there's 3 rounds in between supper: soup/salad, main course, dessert).

These are all suggestions of course!

Perhaps if a plot/script was developed beforehand by Players who are interested, then the story could just be inputted into the thread every week or so, as you suggested.

Not sure if this helps or not, I feel like I'm rambling now lol.

[Amanda Joy "AJ" Lane]

This is very helpful that you've done this before, Bre! I always thought that the murderer knew they were before it started. However, we could it that way as well. I think it's done both ways.

As for scripts, I've seen that you can buy them online and I'm trying to figure out how to write one myself as I'm not exactly sure what it needs to include. I can write a story like a champ, but including everything that needs to be in it so that the game stays on track? Not so sure! Have you written one or know of scripts?

[Kamillia Engel]

I think it would be a good idea to have LGBT center host the game IC. That way locals can join in too.


I also think that players having at least two characters could be fine. Cause the (characters) person has to give facts, and reasons why they think someone is the murderer. If the facts don't add up to what that character is suppose to know, then the character gets killed for cheating... (well in the game)... I think the same can go for the characters that are the OOC host's.

Or maybe there could be like two different parties? One at Hammel, then one somewhere else, Like one for students, and one for adults (which can include college and hammel staff). And different players can OOC host each one. That way Everyone can get a chance to play. (Even you Syd), I can volunteer OOC hosting one of them.

[Amanda Joy "AJ" Lane]

I love the idea of having it hosted in the community and I think it would be easier to just have one party--but that's just me, it's something we could vote on when the time comes! I personally find joy in hosting!

Also, I am a little confused on being able to have more than one character. Yes, you need facts and evidence to back up your claim, but I just feel like it kind of ruins the effect if they know. However, by what Bre said, the murderer often doesn't know until the third round, sooo it could be possible.

[Kamillia Engel]

Well you have a point, it might not be as fun for the players. I still volunteer to help host anything if you need me too.

[Salem Hirch]

Just saying, Salem would love to help host/be a part of this. It will give him reason to put on his "deerstalker" hat.

Also, um...and this is just a personal thought, I think the person who is to be the murderer should know the entire time and as they "kill off" characters send them a pm with how/where they did it...and of course tell them not to spill the beans...lol

just a thought

[Amanda Joy "AJ" Lane]

Jonnay, that's a really cool idea about the murderer! I'll keep that in mind!

[Salem Hirch]

side note....I'd LOVE to help with backstory!

[Yasmine Hawthorne]

The thing about the person knowing they are the murderer is how is that going to work for the player? What is that character going to do throughout the thread? And how is the player going to be able to work around not 'spilling the beans'? I'm not trying to knock the idea, I'm just curious as to how that would be played out... And how they should hide it is a bit of a concern. Especially from other characters who can cheat through powers... These are just some things I was thinking about... And how they would effect things.

[Amanda Joy "AJ" Lane]

After reading up more on these parties I've seen that the murderer doesn't usually know they are the killer until the third round or so. So that would alleviate a lot of those problems. And powers won't be allowed to be used in this game. They're playing other people.

[Yasmine Hawthorne]

What about the powers that can't be turned off? Or can't be turned off easily, like empathy? Or for students that can't control their powers? Should there be NPCs that have power suppression around for this?

[Amanda Joy "AJ" Lane]

I will note that for the rules.