Ok, murder mystery. Hmm. I just finished reading The Long Goodbye. Some good stuff there but not to venture too far into noir. Off we go!
Tom, I love murder mystery. I've actually just written a murder mystery game myself (which I won't talk about too much, because it'll put you off).
Keep us updated on how you're getting on.
Graham
May I put in a vote for "Murder, She Wrote?". Jessica Fletcher, although she had a checkered past (in the episode with the FBI agent, she hurriedly changed the subject when he mentioned he'd been reading her surprisingly thick file, and he was startled to learn that—at which point she cut him off), was about as anti-noir as it's possible to get, really.
Genre: Murder Mystery
Themes:
- accusation, paranoia
- close group dynamics
Rules:
A fixed number of players is just fine, and 4 is a good level to set it at.
Because the killer and victim are preset, there is something to discover, but there is a curious problem in revealing the murder victim at the end of the game. It’s an easy fix, though, just make the deceased a non-player character and let all the players accuse one another. The game should still end before reaching the final face card, which I’ll get to in a moment. So, assuming you fix that, does this game have the two elements of mystery: foreshadowing and discovery?
Discovery is that “Aha!” moment when someone realizes who the killer is. For that to happen, the identity of the killer must be determined at the start of the game, which it is. Foreshadowing is a little more difficult. Players’ “clues” are actually a descriptive way of hinting who they think is playing the murderer. This provides the sense of misdirection that murder stories have, but it is not purposeful, and that’s a bit of a problem. It is possible that all four players provide clues towards the wrong person, in which case the game was a bit off.
What will help is that certain suits may exhaust themselves. When the fourth card for a suit comes up, it should provide two things to the story, a clue, as normal, and an alibi for that suit’s character.
At any point, a character may make an accusation (involving all clues), proposing who and how, then looking at the bottom card while hiding it from the other players. If successful, reveal the card and the murderer is caught. If wrong,
The goal of the game now becomes to figure out who the murderer is before the third alibi is revealed. How to structure the results on a failed accusation is a little tricky. If everyone fails to guess correctly, or everyone but the murderer gets an alibi, the murderer escapes. If the murderer misses an accusation, maybe he gives himself away?
'Discovery is that “Aha!” moment when someone realizes who the killer is. For that to happen, the identity of the killer must be determined at the start of the game, which it is.'
I thought I had included this in the version sent but it probably came in later. Thanks for confirming the change. This is a competition rpg.
'This provides the sense of misdirection that murder stories have, but it is not purposeful, and that’s a bit of a problem. It is possible that all four players provide clues towards the wrong person, in which case the game was a bit off.'
Yes. This is one of the issues I was having. I'm working toward solving this but it is difficult. There is a good thread on Story Games addressing some of this.
I like your suggestion of the suit providing a clue and an alibi for the suit's character. I'm confused by the 'fourth card of a suit'. Do you mean the fourth face card of a suit? If so the alibi idea is implied by the text though not explicit. I should have made that more clear.
Having an accuser peak at the end is a doable thing. I will consider it and the results mentioned.
Thanks for the feedback. It really helps.
Thanks for the contest too.
tomg