Sites and Resources for Construction.
Murder Mystery Dinner Party requires many short and simple plots. The perfect site I found which is full of them is:
http://www.mysterynet.com
http://www.orchardpressmysteries.com/
http://www.handheldcrime.com
Historical settings , backgrounds and characters can be found at wikipedia.
I am also toying around with the idea of setting my own wiki site to weave my plotlines... Aaah, too many things to dream about, not enough time to pursue...
The problems with a Large-Group Murder Mystery Party
Why do I have to create my own Murder Mystery plot for my party? Typically Murder Mystery Party (MMP) is done in much smaller setting. Back in 2001, when I found "The Auction", I went through all options available. Most of the plots were for smaller setting like the "How to host a murder" series. "The Auction" was the biggest set at the time, for 12-40 people, and I had to write extra plot to accommodate 45 participants. Of course, technically you can accommodate more in the Murder Mystery Dinner Theater format, like the large group set from host-party.com, but the setup is different:
The large group murder games are designed for parties with 15 or more guests. You'll need to provide 6-8 people willing to take part in the mystery as the primary suspects, victim(s), detective and killer. They'll have full knowledge of the script, which means they'll know whodunit. The rest of your guests will take on the role of detective and it will be their job to solve the case. Essentially, everyone will have a crucial part in the mystery.
"The Auction" on the other hand, is a "Free Form" style. Everybody has a part to play, but no script to memorize. The Murder happened before the party, therefore everyone at the party could be a suspect, and everyone was trying to solve the murder. But underneath of all that, each one also had their own plot line that they were trying to accomplish.
It was almost perfect, especially since all of my participants were from our youth group, they have known each others for years, so there was no problem get in characters and interact among themselves. It was a huge success.
Except for the ending. It seemed kind of rush. Even though we went through the process and nailed the murderer, but I felt sorry that all the personal sub-plot lines were glossed over at the end. It would have been better to linger on those for a while longer.
In retrospect, what happened here is the economy of scale. A big event but have no depth (where people don't know each other and don't participate, Dinner Theater style) then the event was suppose to be just a rock throw in the lake making a splash in the water. But if we have much more depth (where people know each other, where they personally committed some stakes into the event like researching character backgrounds, gathering clues, dressing/playing the part) then the rock will grow into a boulder, and the effects of the splash would even be bigger.
Principle: The impacting Splash would be the result of: 1) How big is the rock, 2) How deep/wide is the water body, and 3) The appropriate contact point (don't miss the middle of the lake). Then there also need to be enough space for the aftershock waves to be subsided.
Application: So, what I have right now is a big lake (my estimate attendance for my event would be 70 people who know each other well already). What I need is the big rock (the event itself), a target (how could the people invest themselves to the event, how the event come into contact with the people), and the environmental space (how are they going to anticipate and process this event; an on-line system could be used to facilitate this).
1952Hollywood Design Requirement: Have an on-line site so everyone can do pre-Game prepartion and post-Game processing.
This is why I need to take a blog space to think through this stuff. At the end of the event, I can even offer this as background commentary for the party.
Theological Implication: The big lake is the community of faith, we can continually foster the environment space to anticipate and process rocking events. Rocks got thrown from heaven into the lake all the time to make waves. Really big one like asteroid, once happens will change the landscape forever. Smaller rocks could be thrown by individuals, or even groups, or God's hand and the impact could be estimated by studying the contact point.
Interesting huh? I wouldn't have guessed that I arrived at that implication above...
Setting: Hollywood, 1952
From the cookbook of
how to write a murder mystery dinner theater, I was supposed to select a setting, then develop a cast of characters, then create motives, then design the plot-lines, then take care of clues/props, scene progressions, and resolutions. So we start with the setting.
Why did I pick 1952 Hollywood?
I thought that it would be great for people to come as famous people. The easiest location to pick would be Hollywood, plenty of stars and entertainers for people to imitate for fun. Then I asked my wife what would she want to be? (She's one of the socializer who hates to solve murder mystery plots, has no patience!) And she said Audrey Hepburn.
So that determine the time period. Then looking at that time period, I think the
McCarthyism time would lend itself so well for a multiple murder-mystery environment I want to create. Then looking at the specific years, I like to have the death of
King Goerge VI as an anchor point for a possible motive for my Audrey Hepburn's sub-plot
So there you have it.
But a lot of people have started to pester me not to wait until 2006 to play the game, so perhaps I should find something in 1966 to do a smaller pilot of this party. But can I really do a "smaller" party? The dilemma that I am in right now is either I will have to do a big one, or not doing it at all.
I am going insane...
I need a place to write all this down. My head is exploding. For the past 4 days, the plot line consumed my every thoughts and distracted me from doing anything else. I woke up thinking about the plot, go to sleep still reading all these researched materials, and could not even do anything else at work all day...
OK, let me back track a bit of how do I get here. For a coming birthday party of mine, I want to do a Murder Mystery Party. In 2001, I hosted one by purchasing
"The Auction" and it was fun (for me, to organize all these plots and characters). As I plan for the next one in 2006 (probably the last one), I would like to create one from scratch to make it fit whatever I want it to be.
So I started day dreaming for the last couple of weeks, and now the dreaming wouldn't stop. I need a place to spill all this stuff out as I work on this project. This blogspot is as far as possible from the context I live in, so hopefully no one that I know will ever discover this before they come to the event. I also hope that some strangers would enjoy reading this, and perhaps even help refining the murder mystery plot lines, and other stuff as well.
That's it for now - I really need to get back to real life work now...
