Murder! Murder!

Baroness Dead - Let's Party!!!

And so it was that Baroness Audry von Munchen had been done in. Who dunnit? Who would inherit her estate and gounds? Who would receive the monies raised by the auction of her rare relics?

The gathering started at 8pm on Friday night, 11th March. I greeted the guests as Freddie Farr, the Baroness' lawyer, as they arrived. Some came quietly, a little unsure about what this was about, and others came loudly and in full character, ready for fun. I handed each their name tag and a very secret envelope.

The secret envelope contained information about their character, their background, their secrets, clues, secrets about other characters, and other juicy information. At the beginning of the night everyone was pretty quite as they read their character sheets. I was worried that it might be a little too quiet, a bit dead actually, but as it turned out I had nothing to fear. They just needed some time to absord all the new information. Soon they would pounce...

Then it was time for Freddie Farr to get up and give the opening speech. He introduced himself and explained the objectives. There were two: to find the murderer and to make the most money by any means. Mr Farr then introduced Inspector Clu d'Eau to read out the pathology report.

To my absolute delight and pleasure, I found that as soon as Freddie Farr had concluded his little speech the guests moved swiftly into action and began interacting with each other as their characters. The party and game had well and truly begun.

There was a lot of drinking, laughter, accents, silliness, and also some very strange and entertaining behaviour from some of the guests. I won't name names, but Ms Kim Chapman you know who you are. The game worked extremely well in getting people to mix together and interact. Each character was interesting in his/her way, and the characters were tied together through various plots and histories. It didn't matter if you were single or a couple. No one was left out.

We spent about two hours drinking, eating, talking, and getting up to all sorts of no good before the auction. The relics that were auctioned off were the Cross of Unity, Crown of Salaar, and the Japanese Sword. The Brooch of Salaar went missing during the murder and was not returned. The charming Alison Williams assisted by displaying each relic for the audience. There was some strong bidding, and a total of £140,000 was collected.

Then the inspector read out the solution, revealing quite a few surprises about those present. No one managed to pick the murderer, but the award for the best solution offered was given to Mr J. J. Sly, who was very sly throughout the night indeed. The award for becoming filthy rich went to Cardinal Bowden, who accepted most gracefully. The third award for best played character was put to the vote and decidedly won by Ari Salom, the money lender.

We ran a little over time, ending the evening just before midnight but there were a lot of happy and excited faces, and warm congratulating handshakes. It was an excellent result for a first attempt. Thank you everyone there for being my guinea pigs, and getting into the spirit of the game so well.

From the feedback received verbally and in the survey forms, I have some very good ideas on how to make the next one even better. Next time there will be a waitress to serve food and drink, more food, clearer instructions & objectives, a tighter agenda, display exhibits/clues found by the inspector, and the room will be more ornately decorated.

I was so busy during the party that I forgot to take more photos. But below some more that I did remember to take.