Small Town Folks – a 1960s midwest Peaky Games freeform for 12 guests plus a host

Recommended for ages 15+

(we don't have any photos from Small Town Folks yet, so this is from one of our other games)

1962 Macy, Nebraska is a small town like any other. But when the tornado approaches, twelve people are trapped in an underground bunker. As the storm rages overhead, tensions rise, secrets spill, and long-buried rivalries erupt. If they survive the tempest, the lives of these small-town folks will never be the same again…

Small Town Folks lasts 3 hours (including setup and debrief). It is published by Peaky Games and was written by Tracy Bose, Rob Harris, Mo Holkar, Tony Mitton, Mike Snowden and Cat Tobin.

These are the characters in Small Town Folks:

Mark Mussler: Mark owns and runs the Jenner farm to the west of town.
Valerie Jenner-Mussler: Valerie helps run the Jenner farm and the general store.
Dave Mussler: In his last year at Macy High, Dave (Mark and Valerie’s son) is star quarterback of the Macy Cowboys.
Ray Stephens: Ray does most of the town’s construction work, heads the volunteer fire department, and coaches the Macy Cowboys.
Norma Stephens: Norma is in her final year at Macy High and works at the “San Francisco” diner.
Victor Willis: Victor runs the town’s small Savings and Loan.
Randy Willis: Randy allegedly dropped out of college and drives a hot rod.
Helen Morrell: Miss Morrell is the Vice-Principal of Macy High and runs the library.
Pat Morrell: Pat was an army nurse in Korea ten years ago, and came back with shellshock.
Doc Channing: Doctor Sam Channing is the town doctor.
Alicia Perrine-Edwards: Mrs Edwards has run the town’s small funeral parlor.
Alex Leatherman: Alex is a studious kid who works part time at the family garage and gas station.

Small Town Folks has 4 female, 5 male, and 3 gender-neutral characters.

How Small Town Folks works

Small Town Folks works like many of our normal murder mystery games, except that there’s no murder. All of the characters have their own goals and objectives. Like our other games, how you achieve your goals is entirely up to you.

On the evening of the game the players are given their detailed backgrounds - including dark secrets, objectives and money. When everyone has arrived the game starts in the storm cellar with the tornado raging overhead. The real fun then begins as everyone questions each other and tries to achieve their goals. Finally, the game concludes and everyone finds out how they did, and what secrets everyone else was concealing.

Small Town Folks is published by Peaky Games and assumes that you have hosted a murder mystery game before. While the instructions are fairly clear, if you haven't already played or hosted one of our murder mystery games, we recommend you do that first.