We are currently developing our system for hosting a murder mystery dinner party with a flexible guest list.
If you’ve ever hosted or attended a murder mystery party before, you might be asking yourself “How is this possible? Isn’t there always only one story?”
To get a peek behind the curtain, you can grab a free download of our current rules set. We’re in the process of playtesting, so we’re frequently making improvements to the system. If you grab the rules set, we’ll also send you updates as we progress.
Once the mystery framework is fully dialed in, we plan to create multiple party themes using the same system. For now, we have one primary theme we’re working with during the development period.
Night at Higsley Manor
The Place:
Higsley Manor on the outskirts of Salisbury, England in September, 1932.
The Plot:
Twenty-four guests received invitations to Higsley Manor to bid in a silent auction for the belongings of Lord Byron Higsley, a renowned archaeologist, recently declared dead after having been missing for several years. The guests have never met one another before, and they are all rather surprised to have been invited to the auction.
No one has entered the mansion since Lord Higsley disappeared 10 years ago. Who knows what awaits within…
The Players:
Antonio Giradi, owner of a vineyard in the countryside near Naples, Italy
Bruce Hoffman, a disgraced and disgruntled physicist, formerly of Oxford University
Chloe Delaurier, assistant curator at the Musee Carnavalet in Paris
Dorothea Strong, secretary to the President of the Nelson Gamble Manufacturing Company in New Jersey
Erika Reinhardt, a German military nurse assigned to care for General Baumgartner
Francesca Lunati, a saleswoman for a high-fashion clothing store in Milan
General Heinrich Baumgartner, a comfortably retired German general
Hank Carpenter, a handyman for Oxford University
Irina Federova, a wealthy matriarch of a proud Russian family and notable patron of St. Petersburg State University
Jane Sawyer, a seamstress for an Atlanta, Georgia garment factory
Karolyn Porter, an investigative reporter for the Western Daily Press in Bristol England
Lydia Troyer, a Mennonite homemaker, wife to Phillip
Malcolm O’Niel, a well-to-do banker from Ireland
Nigel Chaudhury, a mysterious and wealthy philanthropist from Karachi, India
Oscar Hall, and Australian bushman and tour guide
Phillip Troyer, a Mennonite farmer, husband to Lydia
Robert Newcastle, a young archaeologist from Lincoln Nebraska who idolizes Higsley and his work
Sylvester Merivel, owner of a curiosities shop in Budapest, Hungary .
Tabitha Hopkins, formerly of Scotland Yard. She recently resigned her position unexpectedly and moved to Coventry, England
Umair Al-Kandari, a wealthy sheikh from the region of Baghdad, Iraq
Victor Alvarez, bookkeeper for his family’s import business in Spain and amateur author of historical fiction based on the Incas
Wendy Skiles, a biologist at University College London who briefly worked with Higsley when she was in graduate school
Yasmine Massari, keeper for her family’s curio stall in the markets of Cairo, Egypt
Zita Cordova, archaeologist and world traveler hailing from Mexico