Reddit reviews How To Host A Murder - The Chicago Caper

So, it's set up kind of like the typical murder mystery party you would buy from a game store.You write a scenario (Dinner party, train ride, mafia, whatever theme you like) if you can find an old board game version like this( https://www.amazon.com/How-Host-Murder-Chicago-Caper/dp/1878875000 ), it's pretty easy to adapt it to be played ingame.

​

We set up the FC house or one of our personal houses as the crimescene. Once everyone's signed up ad confirmed that they can/will make it for the specified date, we write characters for them. We give them a general idea of the type of character they are (sleazy merchant, haughty noble, hooker with a heart of gold, whatever) beforehand so that they can put together a costume for the night. We assign the character to the player and give them some basic information about the character's defining traits with some introductory text they can adapt and use to introduce themselves to everyone. On the night of the party, each character is given some information on why they are here, their relationship to the deceased, their relationship to a couple of the other guests, a secret they don't want anyone to know, and an alibi. There are conditions for revealing some of the information (they can't reveal their alibi until they've been accused) The murderer knows they are the murderer. EDIT: All guests must tell the truth, but this doesn't mean they can't be sneaky about how they word things. The murderer is allowed to lie.

So once everyone is together, the host finds the body and announces what has happened and that the house will be locked down until the murderer is caught. The players are then free to engage with other guests, ask each other questions, investigate the house (Officer "NPCs" usually reveal information about the crime scene that isn't delivered by other players. So, like, the Chef might be an NPC who, when players inspect the kitchen, might mention that a certain knife is missing from his rack) After a set amount of time once the players have mingled and interacted with each other, they are gathered in the dining room and the host asks the players to present their theories on who committed the crime. Players are invited to present their theories, the accused are allowed to defend themselves, etc. The party decides on who do convict and that person is led out. And the game ends with the host revealing who the actual murderer is. We usually award prizes (crafted glamour gear, gil, pets, orchestrion rolls, occasionally mogstation items, etc.) for a number of different things (Correctly catching the murderer. Successfully evading being captured as the murderer. Best glam. Best job playing their character. Funniest line. Any number of things to try and spread some fun prizes around)

​

We've done these about 4 times now and we've run them in different ways. A couple times, we adapted an existing party game to FFXIV, the other times one of the officers wrote the scenario out themselves. We did the first couple in text only and we did the last two in discord over voice. Each option had its benefits. The text version was a lot less chaotic, but the one over voice chat was incredibly fun because everyone was laughing and trying to voice-act their characters.

​

EDIT: I should add that for any kind of events you plan, you should expect erratic participation levels. Sometimes our events were super popular and tonnes of people showed up. Other times, it was a smaller group. We've found that being encouraging (especially with new or shy members) without making players feel like they "have" to attend these things or like anyone will think less of them if they don't want to come (Some people just want to do their dungeons or craft or whatever and that's 100% a-ok) has worked out the best.

some of us are so crazy buying and selling that we don't have time to post to reddit any more.

Come over to http://www.reddit.com/r/FulfillmentByAmazon/ and spend your time reading and asking questions.

Meanwhile, when the garage sales dry up, try Craigslist, local Facebook groups and test the waters with Retail Arbitrage.

And here are some of my recent flips
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009PMMKTI/

http://www.amazon.com/How-To-Host-Murder-Chicago/dp/1878875000/

http://www.amazon.com/Hollywood-Squares-by-Parker-Brothers/dp/B00000JPU6/

Oh, sure, that's understandable. LARP can be an intimidating hobby - there's a lot of social stigma attached to it.

If you just want to get people used to the idea of playing characters in a live setting, murder mystery parties are a good training tool to consider. There are board games out there that give you instructions on how to run one.

You can also just consider coming out to NPC for an event. It's often less of a commitment than making your own character, and frequently an easier way to learn (depending on the specific game). Most local games allow you to NPC inexpensively or for free.