Killer Theme

[Chad Manning]

So after speaking to a couple of people and thinking about it some more, here's my idead for a mystery theme so far...

One person is the "killer" and has a bundle of light red ribbons or scarfs. His job is to discreetly kill every body at the party; one at a time. The idea is to have our own scary/horror film. You know like Friday the 13th, Scream, or Halloween. When he makes a kill, he descibes the death and gives them a red scarf they wear the rest of the night. Each hour the scared party members gang up and kill the person they think is the killer. If they succed, then the killing stops. If they are wrong, then sooner or later someone will die again.

As for the people who are killed, they come back as "ghosts". As a ghost you can fully interact with the rest of the party guests, but you can't talk about the killer or ruin the game by giving hints about the killer.

By the end of the night either everyone will be dead or the killer would have been dispatched. And... everyone can still drink and eat and have a great time while the game runs in the background.

Garrett also suggested a variant in which everyone has a target they are trying to kill and the. When you kill your target, you take their target as your next target. The one that has made the most kills wins. I like the idea, but if someone is really not interested in playing, then it could "break the chain", while in teh above scenario I descibe, if you die and don't want to play, it is no big deal.

Anyway, what are your thoughts? Do you like this? Do you want to do one of these or just have a fun party?

[Vable]

I like it

But only if we make the ghosts wear something to show they are ghosts :-P hehehehe. jk. That'd be funny, but might interfere with costuming.
Unless theres an easy way to mark them as 'ghosts' so both the killer and/non killed yet know when they are with people who can witness, or with people who are not 'really' there etc. Or did you mean the red scarves as that mark? IE...once you've been slain you have to wear the red scarf?

[Rabbit]

Pretty good idea, but my only problem is that it enables just one person to be in the 'spot light' so to speak. Last year, some people complained that there were not enough 'fun' roles. Of course, others didn't really participate at all. The great thing about this idea is that it allows those people who don't really want to get invovlved to sit back and simply enjoy the part; but there again, this idea really only allows one person to be the active player.

I think we'll have time for a couple of games, which is one of the reasons I suggested the idea that Chad mentioned lastly in his post. The variant idea definitely has some problems as well, but it would allow everyone the beneift of being the 'active player.' The biggest problem I see (as Chad pointed out earlier when we discussed the matter) was that some people won't want to participate; but in the past when I've played this game, it hasn't been that big of an issue, because people still try and avoid being killed even if their killer isn't really palying, which is part of the fun. Remember, no one knows who their killer is. I've really had a blast playing this game before. It may not be entirely balanced unless everyone is active, but even so, the game is very fun. There are options for incoroporating newly arrived guests as well, which we can get into if we decide to play this game.

[Vable]

If we go with Garrett's option, we'll need nametags so people know who people they've only just met at the party are. Especially if that is their target. Unless of course, the fun of the party is having to do investigative work to find out 'who' exactly it is your supposed to kill? hehe

Also, some clear victory conditions.

[Rabbit]

Yeppers,

And, I really think that we can do two games in the interim of the evening.

[Chad Manning]

Keep teh discussion going...

Ty - Yes, the red scarves mean you are dead. In my version, only the killer would have access to them and would give them to the victim. In Garrett's version, there would be a pile of them that the dead could wear when they are killed.

[Adonna]

We could have a bowl of names. When you get to the party if you want to participate you put your name in the bowl, if you don't, no worries. When the game begins you draw from the bowl, your enemy, and one slip in the bowl will indicate the "killer" who can choose their first victum, thus starting the chain reaction of death.

[grant]

Ok, having done the round robin killer game there are several things that you need to do to make the game work and some thing that add to the fun of it.

First of all this is the take off of Garrett’s idea:

One person is required to moderate it, this person set the game up and is not playing. It is very important that they don’t play. They will set up the ring of players so that it makes a single loop. For instance:

Garrett has to kill Grant
Grant has to kill Chad
Chad has to kill Ty
Ty has to kill Brian
Brian has to kill Garrett

The moderator will have the master list and when a kill is made the killer has to report it to the moderator. Any disputes are to be taken up with the moderator.

Now other things that are important: How are you allowed to kill someone, in the past I have seen it work two ways (not that a different way wouldn’t work, but these are just how I have seen it done and have it work)

1) Guns (I have seen nurff and water used) you must shoot your target with an appropriate gun, rules on what qualifies as appropriate can be hashed out and I have ideas on that if this is what you use.

2) Object there is a type of object that must be used (I.E. a banana, key, sthingy, etc.) to touch the target to kill them. This way is nice since it doesn’t really require any financial investment

When you kill them you must tell them that they are dead and they then tell you the next target.

When you are dead you can’t talk about the game any more, even with other dead people because things get over heard.

There can be no witnesses, now in the past this has been with people playing the game (dead or alive) but this may need to be tweaked a bit since it will all happen over one night and not over a semester long period.

If you do it this way then you would specifically NOT want to use scarves or something else to mark them as dead. This is because when it comes down to the last few people you don’t want them to know that it is just them. They have to figure that out themselves.

I would also suggest not using name tags. That adds to the intrigue of the game, also if you are asking around about someone then it may give you away as their killer and that can be a fun aspect of the game.

That is all that I can think of that is particularly important at the moment.



The problem with the bowl is that it will not come out with a chain of names there will be several smaller chains and not one big one.

[Adonna]

It will make a chain and keep it random. The "Killer" kills the first person.

Person one kills person 2 they have drawn from the bowl.
Person 2 kills person 3 they have drawn from the bowl.

so on and so forth

NO pre aranged lists with expectations for everyone to show up. If you show up you can put your name in and play or not play.

[grant]

By drawing from a bowl it will not create a single loop...here are some examples:

the following names are in the bowl: Grant, Garrett, Chad, Brian, Ty, Pac

Grant draws Pac
Garrett draws Chad
Chad draws Grant
Ty draws Brian
Brian draws Ty
Pac draws Garrett

Now here are the loops: Grant -> Pac -> Garrett -> Chad -> Grant
Then there is the seperate loop of Ty -> Brain -> Ty

The more people that you have the less likely it becomes that there will be a single loop.

[grant]

Also you put everyone’s name in the game, if they don’t want to play then they just get killed by their killer and they don’t have to go after anyone.

If at the end of the night (or the deadline) there are more then one killer left then who ever has the most kills wins. If someone leaves the party early then they are automatically counted as dead and the moderator gives the name of their target to the person who was going to kill them.

[Chad Manning]

I think Adonna and Grant are discussing 2 different things.

Adonna is suggesting that you become the killer and choose a random (bowl) victim when you are killed. There is always just 1 killer and 1 victim, it just changes everytime a kill is made. One issue here is how does the killer hide his identity if he was just the one that was killed? Won't people see him draw from the bowl? If even a few people know who the killer is, it makes his job very difficult.

Grant is suggesting that at any given time you have somone you are hunting & someone who is hunting you (or you or dead). To make sure that everyone can keep playing, he suggests a big loop. In his last example, if Ty kills Brian, then Ty no longer has a target because his chain is dead.

I could see both working well.

[grant]

Ahhh ok I see what she is talking about...ok my bad...either way...

[Adonna]

everyone draws together at the begining of ever game.

But really, I'm up for either. I was just trying to think of a way for it to work if extra people show up last minute or don't come at all. Otherwise we will have to have a specific guest list and anyone else that shows watches.

[grant]

I don't see it working if everyone draws at the begining of the night...it will be totaly random and it will not allow for equal opertunity