Murder Mystery for multiple people, who all play a roll?

[twztdwndpipe]

So, I thought something up, but I'm not quite sure how to go about it or if it's already been created.

Is there such a murder mystery, where one or two players play the police investigating, other players play the witness's or those somewhat involved.

My theory is that each player would have to have things given to them that they know. But at the same time they'd have to have some way to not know everything. Or even know false information. It's almost like a dinner party, but each person is a player rather than a person trying to figure out the problem.

Does that even sound feasible? It was just a random thought.

[Phil K.]

You might want to check out boxed murder mystery dinner parties. I've been to a few and they seem to be along the lines of what you describe. Each guest is given a packet of information about his or her character; that forms the basis for discussion during the event/game.

At some point, usually during the pre-dinner drinks, a host winds up "murdered" and the game is afoot!  Some friends in Iowa did one a number of years ago that was Wild West themed, complete with period dinner menu. None of us were old enough to drink, so we substituted apple juice for whiskey and root beer for the good stuff.

Another one was roaring 20's or 30's gangsters; the genres are fairly closely related. I don't remember much of that one, other than I wasn't the killer (we were old enough to drink and had real whiskey, hence the lack of details).

Everyone was encouraged to be in character and there were remarkably few rules. At the end of the night, the mystery is resolved whether or not anyone was enough of a sleuth to solve the case; I would prefer some sort of mechanic whereby the guests must actually solve the murder in order to have resolution or be left with a "murderer in their midst" at the end of play.

Related, but not the same at all, are murder mystery dinner companies. These are a team-up of actors and caterers who come out, serve you dinner and put on a whole murder mystery in front of you. There is usually some audience participation (i.e., one of the guests is the "victim" while another is the culprit) but most of the heavy lifting of the story and exposition is done by the performers.

[RichD]

You might want to check out A Taste For Murder by Graham Walmsley.  It sets out to recreate Agatha Christie style murder mysteries.  Everyone starts off playing a role and by the end of act one of those characters is murdered.  The player of the murdered character then takes of the role of Inspector Chapel investigating the death.  The interesting bit is that no one actually knows who the murderer is until the very end.  You simply continue playing your role and reacting to the exposed secrets and motivations until an end game is triggered and the murderer is revealed to all.

[Ron Edwards]

Hi there,

Please take a look at the sticky post at the top of this forum. It's crucial that you post a link to some kind of design document that we can use for reference. Without it, I will have to declare the thread closed. The current format of the Forge no longer includes "hey, an idea" posts.

Best, Ron

[Paul DuPont]

I started toying with this idea years ago. I liked the murder mystery box sets but they seemed to rub me the wrong way. Even if I was the murdered, I did not know it. That bugged me. Last week, I started designing some 'casual' RPGs. One of them went back to the concept of a murder mystery; however, the I designed it so that each character has a goal they want to achieve since this is a political murder in a corrupt system. The 'GM' plays the role of an investigator (he can choose from a few so the game has replay value), from a corrupt cop (wants to accumulate favors) to the vengeful son of the deceased (wants the culprit killed whether he has proof or no). The characters likewise have driving goals other than saving their necks, a butler who wants to protect the pride of the household, a general who wants to use this to advance his bid for power, a politician who wants to clean up the corruption, etc.

I explicitely took the route that it doesn't matter who really did it, but rather can you accomplish your characters goals. The person who actually did it may or may not get blamed for it, but someone is going to get it. Of course, each character has their own secrets and knowledge that could lead to uncovering the secrets or knowledge that could be used to manipulate the other characters. Of course, this requires completely designed characters to fit the story, but if created properly, it could be modular (i.e. you could change up the number and types of attendees to the 'murder' and still have fun). If you have a dedicated murderer, you'll have to work a lot harder for modularity.

Oh, almost forgot. A way to add extra player is by having 'extras' who have hints and all that but all have proper alibis or are devoid enough of suspicion that they are not suspects for the murder.

[Ron Edwards]

Everyone, please pay attention to all posts in a thread, not just the top.

In this case, I've made a moderator request. Please refrain from replying to this thread until its originator provides an external link.

Best, Ron