Interest Check: Murder Mystery

[Blinkin]

This is not a completely written out concept. If enough people show interest, I’ll flesh it out and present it in more detail for the game/ooc threads.

Samuel Hastings is a media giant. The owner of 2 publishing houses, several large newspapers and radio stations, he’s a moving force in the business… and he’s the cause of your own ruin.

When you receive a telegram inviting you to a gathering at his vacation home and strongly urged to attend, you start thinking that maybe it’s time to even the scales; an opportunity to confront the man who destroyed everything that you worked for. Can you really refuse the chance?

But, suddenly, you’re stuck out on a lush tropical island, cut off from land and there’s a murder in your mist! Hastings is dead and if you don’t discover who the murder is… you may be next! Who can you trust? Who do you suspect?

In the finest traditions of such amateur detectives as Perry Mason, Sherlock Holmes, Jim Rockford, Columbo and Agatha cristie, your character must find the clues, put it all together and learn the truth behind the murder of your most hated foe. You’ll have to figure out who you can trust and who you can’t as each character will have information that others may not and some vital piece of the puzzle could be in the hands of another.

How clues are discovered and information gathered will depend on what and how your character does things, how you decide to investigate the crime; remember that the closer you get, the more dangerous things could get if you confide in the wrong person… the murderer!

A few things to keep in mind:

1.   All of the characters have been wronged by the victim in some significant way. How that is up to you, but it must make sense and be a motive for wanting Hastings dead.
2.   The killer WILL be one of the characters played by the participants
3.   What your character knows or learns is entirely dependent on what he or she does in play. This means how he/she looks for things, interacts with others and puts things together. There WILL be false clues and leads so it’s up to you to figure out who did it.
4.   Both PC’s and NPC’s may have information, but they may also be helping the killer, if not the killer themselves.
5.   To keep things interesting and moving, a lot of information will be conveyed via PM and it’s up to the players to decide what to share with characters and what not to. If you want your character to be the one to break the case… or even survive… you will have to help each other. I will ask that anyone interested be able to post at least twice a week.
6.   To make things a little different, this will be a period setting. The spring of 1934, but I’m not going to be overly critical on accuracy of the setting.

[MzHyde]

What happened to the other topic?

[Blinkin]

Not sure. I did a search for it this afternoon and couldn't find it.

[angelic traces]

I would love to be in on this!

[MzHyde]

Someone killed the old topic! That's pretty meta.

[Blinkin]

I still have the names of the other 2 interested people. We'll see if anyone else pops up interested and I'll start on a more detailed opening and threads in a few days.

[angelic traces]

Cool beans. I've got this thread bookmarked so that I won't forget about it. ^_^

[Blinkin]

Ok... I thought that I had everyone's name. I just seem to have London's from the first thread... let me look for the other.

I would like a bigger player pool so we had more diversity.

[duchess85]

Color me interested!! I love this idea!

[Occident]

Sounds good. Count me in.

[Blinkin]

Excellent!

Welcome to the gang and hopefully, I'll have the threads up in a few days. If you have any questions, fire away.

[Occident]

Sure. Why do you list a bunch of professionals as amatuer sleuths?

[Blinkin]

Good question. The original list held more "non-paid" names, but I realized that many of them might not be known so I cut it down to the ones that might be more recognizable. In many respects, some of them are still not professional as they never made a living at their jobs, or at the particular task of detecting or had official training as such.

But, I should remove the word. The characters would be anything but detectives, and if they have much in their background about solving myseries, I'll have to talk to the individual player about it.

The idea is that people are put into a situation where they may have some ideas from radio programs, popular books and so on, their wits and not much more to figure out who's killing people. If someone has training as a detective, that unbalances the field and gives an obvious advantage... even if some of us may actually have training in investigation and crime scene work, the characters should not.

[Occident]

Alright. Do you have the media magnate's political leanings planned out?

[Blinkin]

To some extent. Nothing that has been made public yet He leans heavily toward conservative causes and against anything that goes against his own personal interest.

[Innocence]

Murder mystery, gotta love that
Count me in =]

[Humbugearthquake]

This looks great, would love to be a part of it!
I've bookmarked it and will be checking in later :)

[Blinkin]

Welcome to the two of you. :)

That makes 2 men and several women. I'm going to leave it open another day and see if we can pick up another male. I see a certain direction that the wrong doing has gone though. *wicked grins*

We had a request early on to move the date up a little. I said that I'll leave it up to the group. The date of 1934 was pulled out of thin air and the reason for the early date was to limit the technology and to make things a little easier for me. You have to do more thinking and actual interaction when you can't hop onto the internet or make a phone call to find things out.

So, the dates that I'm willing to entertain are from 1934 to 1946. I'll go with the popular opinion. Knowledge of, nor being particularly accurate in the time setting are not high priorities and I can fill people in on the broad strokes of what to expect from the era. There's an abundance of information on line about dress, technology and events of the time.

[Jecht]

I might be interested if this is still up.

[angelic traces]

I'm willing to play a man as well if that will help. =)

Also, I vote for earlier but the year won't be a deal breaker.

[PigPin]

You've hooked me in as well.

Since we know who, when is being determined, what will follow and will bring why along; now may i ask where?

[Humbugearthquake]

I kinda like the idea of having it set between the first and second world war.
But that's just my humble oppinion :)

[Blinkin]

The game is still open, so welcome. :)

I would also prefer to keep the time frame between the wars as I see the 30's as an important turning point in history in so many ways and it's a good time for these kind of storylines.

I will not ask anyone to play anything that they don't want to play. Although I am relieved to see a few more guys as it provides a balance and IF the killer is male, not give everything away. lol

As a side note, I have had several offers to play the murderer and I'll make the decision when the game starts.The actions of the murder will be written out via PM and then I will post it. That keeps the murderer's identity quiet and everyone can take guesses or figure out based on the story. There will be clues left by both the murderer and myself. Some will be the real thing, some will be red herrens to throw someone off. Information sources will be each other, NPC's clues and whatever you can deduce from the story. If a character discovers something on their own and are alone, I will likely convey the information in PM and it will then be up to the character to disclose it. I feel this promotes interaction and little surprises in the game.

[Innocence]

I'm find with any date really but I'm just wondering where the place will be set?
Places like England, France, or Europe in general would be more affected by the wars than other parts of the world.

[Blinkin]

Ok, fair enough of a question. The locale will be a private retreat on a tropical island in some location I haven't settled on. Beautiful, pleasant and green are the only things set in stone at the moment.

Arrival will be by either sea plane (really fancy, huh?) or fair sized sea vessel. IE, a yacht or similar private craft. The retreat has all the latest conveniences like shore to shore radio, telephone, indoor plumbing (couldn't resist) and the newest thing... home air conditioning!

Each person (are couple if players decide to play a couple) will have a luxurous bedroom with private bath and large feather bed among other items.

I'm thinking a large scale plantation house or similar structure for the main house, complete with staff and so on.

Help any?