Creating a Mystery

Creating a mystery is a bit like peeling an onion. You build it, or deconstruct it, layer by layer. In our Murder Mysteries the characters start out as respectable members of society. Often they will be aristocrats, business people or professionals, for example solicitors. In fact they are all deeply flawed and these flaws are revealed as the mystery deepends. For example they might be alcoholics, adulterers and fraudsters. Suspects will point out the flaws of other suspects to take the heat off themselves and clues will be fed into the plot which hint at subplots. In the end all of the clues come together to form a plot jiggsaw which teams solve. They must decide which of these flawed individuals is most likely to be the murderer.

Marble Millionaires is a different sort of event. Teams have a stock of their own marbles, each of which has a different value, and the aim is to trade with other teams to pool together the most valuable possible collection of marbles. News is fed into the game bit by bit which changes the value of the marbles. Sometimes it's good news for your collection, often it's not. Teams can follow these value plots and use skill and judgment to guess what's coming next and sell out or hold on to their stock. The technique used to create this game has much in common with writing a Murder Mystery.

We can also create bespoke role play games to achieve specific objectives using these techniques. Examples include learning about a new product, company values and we have even created a game to bring annual accounts to life. The key is to create fun games that people want to play which have the earning as a by-product.