Tag Archives: tips

From our mailbox: twins

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Recently we were asked a question about having two people play the same character. (It might have been a mixup, and by the sounds of it the game was oversubscribed.)

Our answer was that while it was tricky, it was doable – particularly with the character she had chosen.

What we recommended was to make the characters twins.

To do this:

  • Give each player the full character pack, and explain that they are twins. (They can have the same name badge if you like – you could say that they look so alike that people can’t tell them apart.)
  • Tell the twins that they can work together or not, as they prefer.
  • Announce that the characters are twins that at the beginning of the game so that everyone understands what’s going on.
  • Don’t make any other changes – so don’t double up on (say) items that they might be looking for. Instead they will both be searching for that same item, and it either of them finds it, that counts as a joint success in the goal if they are working together (or a success for one and a failure for the other if not!)

In sides with distinct sides, creating a twin can unbalance things, but in this case it didn’t matter.

If you like the idea of trying this, here are a few things to consider:

  • It should be sensible for the character to be a twin – so we wouldn’t recommend twinning a parent, or anyone in a romantic relationship, or the Captain of a ship. That wouldn’t make sense.
  • We wouldn’t recommend twinning the murderer (!).
  • They shouldn’t have any unique items.

And of course, we don’t recommend doing this unless you absolutely have to – use all the characters (and free extra characters) first!

Note – we’ve not tested this – let us know if you try it out!

From our mailbag: absent characters

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I am preparing Hollywood Lies and I have 27 or 28 students coming to play. Many characters are supposed to interact with a certain person, but they are character number 29. Am I missing something?

Unfortunately, running the game with a few characters missing does result in gaps. This shouldn’t be a problem as everyone should have enough other contacts that the missing characters won’t impact on the game too much.

However, if you are concerned that your guests will want to talk to the missing character, then you can do what I do and tell your players (during the introduction) that if they want to contact any of the absent characters, they can simply talk to you.

To make this happen, you need to print out all the absent characters and bring them with you. You can either have them in envelopes, or in a folder. Then, when someone comes up to you and asks to speak with an “absent” character, you can quickly scan the character sheet and role-play that character.

(I also talk about this here.)

What you have to watch, however, is players who then try to “cheat” by using the absent characters to achieve their goals instead of interacting with the players present. I try not to let players do this – it’s better for everyone if they are talking and negotiating with the other players rather than with the host.

(For other ideas about using the absent characters, see here and here.)

Help with hosting

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In our larger games we recommend an assistant host to help run the game. For example in Spellbound, it can be particularly useful to have another host run the library while the “main” host deals with the rest of the game.

Similarly with the larger games having another host to help with pickpocketing or combat can be helpful – particularly if the several players need the host at the same time.

However, some rules can be managed by the players themselves (perhaps overseen by a trustworthy player). For example, combat doesn’t require secret knowledge, or an awareness of the plot, and so could be something that the players manage themselves. On the other hand, I wouldn’t recommend allowing players to manage pickpocketing – that’s something a dedicated host needs to do.

Tips for players managing combat

Death on the Gambia
Death on the Gambia

Here are my tips for getting your players managing combat.

First, I wouldn’t get everyone to manage combat. Not everyone needs to know anything about combat – generally only the “dangerous” characters need to know something about it. so I would choose a small number of trustworthy players to become helpers. Ideally they would be playing characters that I didn’t think likely would be involved in combat to keep the relatively neutral in the conflict they are overseeing.

Second, I would share our standard combat rules with those players.

Third, I would encourage them to practice the combat rules before the party itself, so that they understand how they work and any problems and misunderstandings can be ironed out. Ideally I would do this a couple of days beforehand, but if that doesn’t work you could simply schedule a training session before the party. I would also explain that I wouldn’t expect them to adjudicate combat that they are involved in themselves – they should either find me or one of the other helpers.

Fourth, during my introduction I would ask the helpers to identify themselves. That way the other players know that they can ask them for help if I am busy.

Fifth, I would just keep an eye on combat during the game, just in case there are problems.

Sixth, as part of my debrief speech I would thank the helpers for their help.

Other standard rules

We’ve also included other standard rules, including capturing player and poison, but I think that it’s combat that has the most potential for getting other players to help with hosting.

Adding Skype and cryptography to The Spy Who Killed Me

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We’ve got something a bit different this time – a story from customer Mark Lemay about adding Skype and simple cryptography to The Spy Who Killed Me.

Here’s Mark:

When I ran The Spy Who Killed Me I created two additional characters who were only contactable by Skype. The players playing the characters were remote from the party, and I had two hidden laptops at the party.

The two characters were spymasters – the Soviet Heracles, and the British ‘S’. They joined the party 30 minutes after it started (which allowed the other players to start playing properly). Neither knew about the murder (until they were told about it by their agents).

The Spy Who Killed Me

I wrote full character sheets for the two spies, with background, goals and information about other people. The main difference between these characters and the other characters is that they would have to do everything remotely, through their agents.

Heracles’ contacts were given a telegram that said: “Comrade, We have established a secure line of communication. In the back of the kitchen there are stairs to the basement. At the bottom of the stairs go right. At the back of the of the basement I will be waiting. Don’t arouse suspicion. Be sure you are not followed. Heracles”

(Those players who needed to talk to ‘S’ were given a similar note.)

I also sent Heracles the telegram on page 17 of the cards file when the party started. The two agents texted me messages that they needed to send to their ‘agents’. The only way the agents to contact Heracles or ‘S’ was by Skype.

I set the Skype ringtones to the appropriate national anthem, and Heracles set his Skype up so that only a silhouette could be seen. Neither ‘S’ nor Heracles knew that there was another spy Skyping into the party, and none of the players (with the regular characters) suspected that their out-of-town friends would be making an appearance.

At about 9pm I gave Heracles’ contact details to ‘S’ so that she could try and trick some information out of him.

It was fun for the people involved, and went surprisingly unnoticed by the people who weren’t. The biggest issue I had was not making the strict deadlines of the party clear to the remote players. Also, if I did it again, I’d give ‘S’ a few clues as to how to trick Heracles (such as pretending to be an Indian spy).

Feedback from Heracles

My friend who played Heracles was nice enough to write up his thoughts on the experience:

It was always clear that my participation would be more limited than that of guests physically attending the party, but I still enjoyed my role. Like a normal character, I had secret knowledge, relationships with characters, and abilities. Despite my separation from the party, I felt that Mark gave me enough choices that I could still employ strategy and influence the course of events. I had a means of contacting other guests at the party, and an incentive to strategically hide certain information from some of my associates, which was fun to roleplay.

There were a few things that could be improved. I was slightly discouraged from speaking with guests too frequently, because Mark was worried that I would give away information too quickly and take them away from the rest of the guests. It turned out that I probably could have spoken to more guests, and more frequently. Because I was isolated I wasn’t entirely in the loop about the timeline, and when the party was ending.

Cryptography challenge

Instead of using the mechanics suggested in the instructions, I modified the item cards to have an actual encoded message – the message encoded with the reverse alphabet. I added an additional book to the library that had an explicit key.

This was the perfect level of difficulty and while one person solved it quickly, nobody took longer than ten minutes. Instead of disengaging from the party to solve the problem, the players could work together in small groups. It was also one less thing I had to referee.

The encoded journal

I tried a similar puzzled with the journal, but I didn’t want it to be too easy. I used a different substitution cypher on each page (but following a simple pattern) and left out spaces. I modified the key so it contained the information to decode the text.

A group of ‘student’ worked together to try and decode the journal. They became invested in solving the puzzle. Unfortunately, it was a little too hard (especially after all the drinks) and I had to give them the solution after 15-20 minutes. I think It would have worked out if I had left the spaces in the journal.

(A note from Steve and Mo: We don’t usually include codes like these to our games because it can be very difficult to judge player expertise. We also know how frustrating it can be to play an expert in codes but not be very good at it yourself. So we make sure we have other rules for dealing with codes. However, we’re always delighted when our customers change their games for their groups and incorporate these kinds of details.)

Staging the scene of the murder

I designated one small room as Beth’s room (the victim). This was mostly decoration, but the guests got pretty into it. First I thoroughly cleaned the room so there was nothing distracting – just a bed and a desk. On the floor, I made a roughly human shape out of (clean) laundry and covered it with a blanket. I put the description of the body under the blanket in case anyone looked. I decorated the room according to the description in the instructions. On the desk I put an assortment of math textbooks, and small photos of the boyfriend and best friend character.

At the beginning, after the introduction I announced that, “Beth’s room is up the stairs in the second room on the left… the police have asked the scene not be disturbed. So don’t go up there and try to investigate.”

It was good because even though only a few people would have thought to ask about the details of the room, everyone went up to see the room. Except the murderer, who purposely stayed away from it the entire night.

The Russian memo

I used Google translate to make a very Russian looking memo with the names and addresses in English and the names in bold.

I hid the telegram in a book and added its location into the encoded journal.

Playing two characters

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Murder at Sea
First class passengers in Murder at Sea

I recently played in UK Freeform’s annual weekend game. Last year it was Cafe Casablanca (Mo played and I helped run it). The year before we both played in The King’s Musketeers. And this year it was Lullaby of Broadway: Into the Woods.

As you might guess by the title, Lullaby of Broadway: Into the Woods was based on Broadway musicals – lots of them!

I played two characters – the baker (from Into the Woods), and an assistant to the King of France (a generic “flunky” character and good friend of Cinderella’s Prince Charming).

I’ve mentioned playing more than one character in passing at least twice: once when talking about creating a crowd and also when talking about bit parts. So I thought this would be a good opportunity to talk about playing two characters in a bit more detail.

Playing more than one character at once

About 20% of the players at Lullaby of Broadway: Into the Woods were playing two (or even three) characters.

The reason for this is that the game was undersubscribed, and rather than cut out ten or so characters and rewrite the game, the authors asked if any of the players would be prepared to play more than one character.

And because I thought that sounded like fun, I said yes.

Busy busy busy

In playing two characters, I had no time to be bored. Both of my characters had plenty to do – and doubling up just made me busier. (This is a good thing – I like to be busy in my games!)

In terms of how it worked, I only played one character at a time. Other players could tell who I was playing by my namebadge. If they needed my other character, they just asked me.

One consequence of that was that I didn’t achieve all my goals – there were just too many for me to do in the time. But I had a go at my main goals – and I had a wonderful time doing it.

And as far as I can tell, so did the other players who were running two characters. In fact, from asking around, most of them enjoyed the experience and would do it again.

So given that playing two characters is a lot of fun, how do you make it happen in a Freeform Games murder mystery? I’ve put some thought into that.

Tips for giving players two characters

Playing A Heroic Death - a freeform games murder mystery
Superheroes plotting in A Heroic Death

These are my tips for giving two characters to a player.

  • I would check with the players first. I wouldn’t try this out with an in-experienced player, but if you’ve got a murder mystery veteran, they may enjoy the challenge.
  • Limit the number of players with more than one or two characters. I would only have one or two players (possibly three with a big game like Murder at Sea) playing two characters. 20% of the players with more than one character was probably a bit much!
  • Think about costuming. I was able to switch quickly between assistant’s frock coat and my baker’s apron. Depending on the game, switching name badges might be enough. You need to leave it up to the player to decide when they switch between characters.
  • Money and items: I kept money and items for each character apart by storing them in different pockets. (Although to be honest, it probably didn’t matter all that much.)
  • Selecting characters: I would probably use optional characters for those who are doubling up. I would definitely try to avoid giving someone two core characters (unless I absolutely had to). And while I might give someone playing two characters the murderer, I don’t think I’d give them a detective character.
  • Separate plots: You don’t want characters who are in the same plots. At one point in the game I got a bit confused between my two characters. It didn’t really matter, but most of the time the two characters were doing very different things which helped keep them separate.
  • Tell everyone! If you’ve got people playing two characters – don’t forget to tell everyone at the start of the game! And you will need to explain to your other players when they are talking to those with two players, they need to check their namebadge to see which character they are playing.

Try it for yourself!

So next time you don’t quite have enough players for all the characters in one of our games, maybe you can persuade one of your players to play two characters.

When to end a murder mystery game

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We provide a timetable with all our games, covering the murder mystery party in detail. The timetable typically includes the briefing, key events (such as when clues are released), the point at which characters can die (for those games that involve fighting), and the end of the game.

Casino Fatale playtest
Casino Fatale playtest in full flow – I’m monitoring the energy in the room to judge the best time to end

We estimate that our games take about 2.5 to 3 hours to play through. However, these times are approximate – some groups will be faster and some will take longer.

Experience and size

The main variables on the length of game are player experience and size of group. In general we’ve found that a larger group takes longer to play one of our murder mysteries than a smaller group. (Even the same game takes longer with more players.) The main reason for this is that is simply takes longer to find those you need to talk to in a larger group – and you may be drawn in into other people’s stories.

As for experience, less experienced players tend to take longer to work out what they need to be doing. An experienced player can read our character sheets and quickly work out what they need to do first. It takes an inexperienced player a bit longer to figure that out, and so the game will take a little bit slower.

So given those variables, when do you draw the murder mystery to a close?

A mixture of chemistry, character and personality

Towards the end of the murder mystery, you will start to find players who have achieved all they are going to achieve, while there will be others still chasing around trying to finish their goals. In my experience (as a player and a host), this always happens and is a natural result that arises from mixing of the following:

  • What the player has brought – their personality and how they are feeling.
  • The character they have been given – whether it “works” for them.
  • The chemistry between them and the other players.

So this variation means that some people will “finish” their game sooner than others. So when do you end the game?

When to end the murder mystery

My preference when I’m playing is that I would rather run out of time (and not quite finish everything I need to do) than have too much time (and be waiting for the game to finish).

As a host, this therefore means that once all the other timed events have passed and we’re in the last segment, then I am monitoring the game. It’s hard to explain exactly what I’m looking for, but I am monitoring the overall energy in the room. I’ve found that as a game progresses towards its climax, some players become less involved because they have achieved all their goals (or some of them have become unachievable). And as more players become less involved, the energy drops – and that’s the time I draw the game to a close.

Sometimes I’ll see players who appear to have stopped playing the game. If that happens, I usually check with them to see if they have actually stopped, or whether they are just taking a break for a couple of minutes before resuming.

It can sometimes be challenging to monitor the energy in the room, particularly if the murder mystery involves combat. If I’m not careful, overseeing combat involves so much of my attention that I can forget check the rest of the game. (This is an excellent job for a co-host, if you have one.)
So of course this means that I can’t predict the exact end time of the game – it will be an approximation. So if the scheduled end time is approaching and the game still seems to be going well, then I will let it continue. Conversely, I will draw the game to a close early if things have slowed and some people have stopped playing.

Once I’ve decided to end the game I make an announcement that the game will be ending in ten minutes. This gives those that haven’t finished sufficient warning that the game is ending – and quite often the ten minute warning creates extra activity (and energy!) as people suddenly realise that they are about to run out of time. (That’s not a reason to keep playing beyond those ten minutes, though!)

Art not science

Timing the end of a game is an art, not a science. Ultimately it comes down to a host’s judgement – but it’s worth remembering the old adage “Always leave them wanting more…”

Dealing with late guests

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Despite the best laid plans, sometimes real life intervenes and a guest or two may turn up late to your murder mystery party. Here are some ideas for how you can deal with latecomers.

Unplanned latecomersPlaying Curse of the Pharaoh

The worst situation is when you don’t find out that someone will be late until they don’t turn up on time. In this situation I would delay the start of game by 10-15 minutes to give the latecomer a chance to arrive.

If they still haven’t arrived, then I’d start the game anyway (although see below). As part of my starting announcement, I’d explain which character was running late and explain that they would join in later. Then, when they do enter the game, I’d make another announcement so that everyone knows they have arrived.

I would also check the game timetable and delay any game events that they need to be involved in.

Very small games

For very small games (say running Curse of the Pharaoh with only six players), losing one character can be so unbalancing that it may be better to delay the entire game. Similarly, if several guests are late then I suggest delaying the game as long as possible. There’s no hard and fast rule on this – it’s a judgement call.

Planning for latecomers

If a guest has already told me that they will be late, then I can plan for that. For example, if I know who will be late before I cast the game, then I will try not to cast them in a role that is critical during the first part of the game.

Getting up to speed

It’s worth remembering that anyone who arrives late will be at a disadvantage to everyone else. They won’t have had the same time to settle in to the game and get to know everyone. As a result, I might give them a little bit more guidance than normal. If they look a little lost, then I wouldn’t be afraid to step in and give them some advice as to whom they should talk to.

Creating a crowd out of unused characters

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Note – this is a thought experiment for experienced hosts and players. I’ve yet to try this out – so I don’t know if it works.

There’s a style of freeform/larp known as a “horde” game. These normally involve six to eight “core” characters and typically dozens of smaller roles. The players playing the fixed characters stay with those characters for the whole game, while the other players take on the other roles, usually playing them for a much shorter period of time. It’s not unusual for a “horde” player to get through a dozen characters.

A crowd playing The Night Before Christmas murder mystery game
A crowd of players

A good example of a horde game is Victoria Junction: All Change Please! This was written at Peaky in 2009 and the six core characters consist of the staff of a railway station in Victorian Derbyshire. They have to cope with guests trapped in the hotel, missing travellers, troublesome orientals, a military train, and even a royal visit.

So is it possible to use the horde idea in one of our murder mysteries? I think it might be.

Creating a crowd

Let’s imagine that you’re running Murder at Sea and you have 22 guests. Normally you would use the first 22 characters, leaving 11 left unplayed. Murder at Sea works perfectly well with 22, and you should have a great time with it.

But if you’ve got some players who feel up to the challenge, you could create a horde (and I think I prefer the term “crowd”) instead. So cast the core 17 players as usual, and let the remaining five players play the other 16 characters. This is how I’d do it.

First I’d divide the unused characters into four sets of three characters and one set of four characters. Where possible, I’d arrange it so that linked characters are in different sets (so the husband and wife team of Mr and Mrs Dumlop are in different sets).

Then I’d give each of the “crowd” players one of those sets – those will be their characters for the evening. (So in this example, four of the crowd players would have three characters for the evening, and one would have four.)

If you wanted to, you could give all the ship’s crew characters to one or two players, which might help with costuming.

It’s likely that some of the crowd’s characters will clash a bit with each other. For example, one character in a set may have information that another in that set needs. That’s okay – it’s just something you’re going to have to live with. It’s doesn’t really matter if some of the crowd’s characters can easily achieve a couple of their goals – it’s not as if they will be short of things to do!

When starting the game, I’d introduce those playing the crowd and explain who was going to be playing which character so that the other players know who to talk to. (A cast list might also be a good idea.)

Playing the crowd

As someone playing the crowd, here’s how I would do it:

  • Play the characters one at a time, and keep everything separate. So I’d keep money and items separate for each character, and try not to get them mixed up. (But it wouldn’t be the end of the world if they did get mixed up.)
  • Set aside a space where the crowd can keep the character packs, plus any costume changes they might want to employ.
  • Start the game by playing each character in a rota, one after the other, for about five to ten minutes each. After that I would then play the characters as needed – so for example when another player asks if they can talk to one of “my” characters, I’d go and change into that character.
  • I would remember to interact with the other characters playing with the crowd. It might be tempting just to interact with those who are playing the “core” characters, but I would try and make sure I talk to everyone.
  • I would also play to lose – by which I mean I wouldn’t worry if my crowd characters didn’t fulfil all their goals. In many ways I would consider myself as helping the host make sure that everyone has a good time. And besides, losing can be a lot of fun.

We have a “no deaths before a certain point in the game” rule to make sure that everyone has a satisfying game. For crowd characters, I might be tempted to remove that rule and let them be killed earlier than normal. After all, a crowd player has other characters they can then play, so being killed is much less of a problem.

Key to crowd success

The key to making the crowd a success is having players who are prepared to step into the role and try it out. I would only try it with players who have already played a couple of our games – I wouldn’t try it with newcomers.

Playing the crowd might also be a useful role for players who have played the murder mystery previously but still want to be involved.

Is a crowd better than a horde?

One of the dangers of a horde game is that they are very frantic. That’s partly because the characters in the horde are minimal – there really isn’t much to them. The sometimes consist of little more than a paragraph, and the expectation is that you will normally play them once and then move on to another.

Using unplayed characters may overcome that limitation, as each crowd character has as much information as any of the core characters.

But as I’ve said above, I’ve not tried this out. So if you do give it a go, please let us know in the comments or on our Facebook page. (And I promise that if I give it a try, I’ll report back here.)

Raise money for charity with Freeform Games

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We’re always very happy for our games to be used to raise money for charity. While we have commercial licences available for people who want to run our games commercially, if you want to run one for charity, here’s what you have to do:

  1. Choose a game. We suggest that you pick one of our larger games such as Murder at Sea, Casino Fatale or Hollywood Lies. That way you can maximise the number of guests you invite and therefore how much money you raise.
  2. Get in touch with us, letting us know how you want to use our game for charity (ie, to play, or to use as a prize. We’ll add your event to our site.
  3. Advertise and run your game. All we ask is that you mention our name in your publicity.
  4. If you put photographs of your event on your website, send us a link as we’d love to see them! (And we’ll link to them as well.)
  5. And that’s it!
Way out West
Choose a game with lots of characters to raise as much money as possible!

If you’re not sure whether one of our games will work for you, then download our free version of Way out West. You’ll get a good idea of how our games work and whether they are suitable for your fundraising event. (The free version of Way out West probably won’t be big enough for  you though.) This is what Vicki, one of customers did:

“Thank you for allowing us to read Way out West. Our non-profit is wanting to host a game like yours but since I have never attended one and have NO IDEA how they work, I was thrilled to be able to actually read and understand the mechanics of running such a game. I have put this off for years because I could not discover how it is actually organized and carried out. Now I know and we will be choosing one of your games for our fund-raiser in September. SO EXCITED!! Thank you!!”

Here are a few suggestions for raising money with our games:

  • Take plenty of time: While your friends may forgive you the odd mistake, when you have paying guests then you need to take a bit more care. So make sure that you thoroughly understand the game (and maybe try out the mechanics first). You’ll probably also want one or two co-hosts to make sure the evening goes smoothly.
  • Finger food or sit-down dinner: We always recommend finger food for our games, because it allows your guests to eat while continuing to mingle and play the game. However, for a charity event you might want to create a special meal – in which case we suggest that you schedule plenty of time for the meal and the game.
  • Raise as much money as you can: Some of our games include opportunities to raise a bit of extra money within the game. For example, in Hollywood Lies the players can use money to increase the likelihood of their movie winning. You could allow the players to use real-life money (to charity of course) to increase the chances of their movie winning! (We wouldn’t normally recommend doing this – but it’s in a good cause!)
  • Have plenty of prizes: End the evening on a high by awarding plenty of prizes – best costume, most outrageous accent, best actor, funniest moment…

When you’ve hosted your event, please tell us about it, either here or on Facebook.

Customising our murder mystery games

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Dazzled to Death re-themed for a Mad Hatter's Tea Party

Our games aren’t always perfectly suited to your exact needs. Perhaps you want to set Casino Fatale in the 1920s, or perhaps you want to change the names of the characters in A Dead Man’s Chest to those of your favourite movie. Or perhaps you want to run Curse of the Pharaoh for children and need to rewrite the inappropriate plots.

Some companies won’t let you change their games, or they will charge you a fortune to make those changes themselves. And while we would have to charge for alterations if you wanted us to make them, we have a simpler solution: we’re happy for you to do it.

We’ll let you have the files in MS Word or OpenDocument (.odt) format for you to amend. Here’s how it works:

  1. You buy the game that you’re interested in.
  2. Then, drop us an email asking for the Word files and explaining why you want them. Please include the email you used to purchase the game so that we can check that you really have bought the game.
  3. We’ll then email you the files and you can amend them to your heart’s content.

If the changes you’re making are more extensive than simply changing names, we’d love to hear back. That’s partly because we really love hearing about our games are received, but also because we might want to consider whether we want to make those changes to the original game.

Some of the changes that have been made to our games include:

PS: If you just want to customise your game by adding an extra character, then simply download the template – and see these tips for writing extra characters. If you send the character back to us and we publish it on our site, we’ll give you a free game in return.