Murder Mystery!

niniane arranged a murder down in santa clara this past weekend. you can find her post about it here. we all had a lot of fun!

the gist of the idea was that the twelve of us each played a character who had incentive to kill our wealthy employer/lover/friend/business partner. the goal of the murder mystery was to figure out who the killer was. to do this, we each learned about the various characters as they introduced themselves, and we gained more clues about motives as the night progressed. at one point, we divided into teams and performed a scavenger hunt where our discoveries gave us clues as to who couldn't have done it. via a process of elimination, we were able to determine the likely killer (thank god the justice system doesn't work this way -- well, i guess sometimes it does -- and that's scary).

in any case, i had a lot of fun, but i'd like to log here some of the things that i think we could change next time to help improve the game. one of the biggest problems was that there was really no incentive to stay in character, and most of us weren't very good at staying in character. one reason for this is because we all knew each other, and as such it was hard to dismiss the other life.

however, the game itself didn't really try to push us to stay in character. i think a better model might require that people learn their character, and particular features, that can be revealed upon questioning as the night moves along. it'd be nice to have a facilitator in the game that could help lead discussion in the "right" direction, ie the direction that puts more information out there.

hmm that's just one thing i was thinking, but i'd like to say i had a blast and would do it again! great work niniane!