There are NO RULES!
One of the most common questions asked on a live murder mystery night (aside from, ‘Do you do this for a living?’) is, ‘Does the murderer have to be someone on this list?’
NO.
The whole point of a ‘Failed Case’ (failed as far as George Butler was concerned) is that the killer could be anyone. Just like in real life. Butler missed SOMETHING. Possibly, there was someone else in the village, although that is unlikely. You have to accept the village was crawling with police and it is hugely unlikely they missed anybody.
The facts are all there (it would be unfair to rely on a fact that the audience wasn’t aware of) but something must have been overlooked. So, as is often asked, George Butler WAS NOT the killer. He was in bed in London at the time of the shooting. He received a phone call and he was instructed to get to Shallow Bottom to solve the case. Yes, he was at the scene of the crime, but only eight hours later.
But how did you play it?
This is the second of my Lockdown Murder Mysteries (I wrote this one before the COVID lockdowns and set it in a cut-off village).
Naturally, the differ from our live events. We have no way of add-libbing during a show, for example. I have left the HOW TO PLAY decision, to some extent, to you, the audience. As I say, there are no rules.
But I would love to know how YOU played it (if you have. If you haven’t yet, change to ‘How you intend to play it’) because I’d like to tailor any future mysteries, should there be any, based on this information.
As we move away (and hopefully continue to do so) from the ‘Keep Away from Me’ society towards a ‘Let’s meet and Party’ model, it may be you play out your evening on a large TV screen. If that works for you, I’d love to know how you did it (was the TV online or did you connect it to a computer?, what worked and what didn’t work.
But you may have chosen, as many did with the original Lockdown Mystery (which is STILL available) to play remotely. Some played with people who were abroad. How did that work? Did you both set your computers to watch the videos at, roughly, the same time, or did you share your screen with your fellow detectives?
Leave a comment
Now that I’ve got my Akismet up and running (I hope), I am confident enough to leave this comment box. Please leave a comment about how you played. I’d love to know how you got on.
If you don’t want to go public, simply drop me an email;
And if you have any idea for improvements (other than, ‘Give up and get a proper job’), I’d love to hear them as well.
Thanks.