Hev and I just threw our first Murder Mystery Party for years, and it was the biggest one ever. Way back in the 90s we did quite a few of these, writing parts for up to 8 guests, often getting them dressed up. This time we just extended a party invite to a larger number of people (expecting a few to cry off and have other commitments at this busy time) and wrote the parts accordingly, handing them out to them when they arrived. Most didn't know there was a Murder Mystery element to the party. Thing is, we'd anticipated a few people not being able to make it, and everybody could. So it was that Hev and I wrote parts for 18 characters in our Circus based game - Death At The Circus. (Apologies to our friends who weren't invited, we really were trying to limit numbers, that was all).
Here's the rather mammoth page they had to chew through over first drinks.
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DEATH AT THE CIRCUS – Murder Mystery Dec 2018.
There has been a fire at The Hippocambrian Circus. It
started in the animal cages and threatened all the animals. All have been saved
except for the Animal Trainer THE GREAT BARTHOLOMEW and almost all of his
Famous Performing Monkeys (one has survived). Bartholomew has been burnt to
death, destroying any other clues on his person.
Once the fire has been put out we see that hidden
beneath the monkey cages was the circus’s safe, the location of which was a
secret to most of the performers, as was the identity of the keyholder (while
the boss was away). Because of the heat of the fire, the safe was too hot to
touch or open.
An insurance policy has shown up, insuring the lives
of the Performing Monkeys. The name on the policy has been burnt off.
There are no footprints leading up to the monkeys cage,
despite it being muddy all around.
You all have individual notes with the secrets you
know, suspect, or are hiding. Here are the facts we all know.
GUEST
|
CHARACTER
|
JOB
|
NOTES
|
Kev
|
Andy Le Petomaine
|
Proprietor
|
Not involved, away at the time
|
Hev
|
Madame Le Bon Bon
|
Proprietor
|
Not involved, away at the time
|
-
|
Bartholomew
|
Victim, Animal Trainer
|
Someone had taken out insurance policy on monkeys.
No footprints leading up to cage. Safe was under
cage, who knew? Too hot to open.
|
Felicity
|
Ava Gopopalegover
|
Trapezist
|
The mistress of the air, her feet never touch the
ground.
|
Tom
|
Ivan Gopopalegover
|
Trapezist
|
The legendary catcher, known as The Great Receiver
|
Imogen
|
Dang
|
Siamese Twins
|
Novelty act of the show, they speak in unison &
are a century too early to know how politically incorrect their title is.
|
Jenica
|
Piti
|
Siamese Twins
|
Ditto
|
Ben
|
Monstroso
|
Bearded Man
|
Less popular novelty act, jealous of other more
interesting acts, with a fiery temper
|
Sarah
|
Mme Chevalier
|
Equestrienne
|
The ballerina of bareback riding. Has she an
equestrian equal? Neigh.
|
Steve
|
Mr Muscle
|
Strongman
|
Can lift any weight, his showpiece is lifting all
the rest of the performers above his head while burping Champagne Charlie
|
Oscar
|
Zapata
|
Human Cannonball
|
Flies from a cannon, which he can self-operate. He
is also resident fire-eater, fire-juggler, fire-breather, and Health &
Safety Officer.
|
Laurence
|
The Great Oobliay
|
Magician
|
The master magician and card sharp, makes his money
with sleight of hand and loses it as quickly at poker.
|
Harry
|
The Little Oobliet
|
Assistant
|
Training to follow in the Great Oobliay’s footsteps.
Also a trainee pickpocket.
|
Polly
|
Birdona de Wyre
|
Wire walker
|
Can balance on the head of a pin and walk record
distances on the high wire
|
Chris
|
Leo Slayer
|
Rival Animal Trainer
|
Less popular than The Great Bartholomew, he has so
far trained fleas but they ran away. So he trained mice, who also ran away.
Then dogs, who ran away. Then goats, who ate his tent, and the mice, then ran
away. Is working on training cats.
|
Tilly
|
Fenella Freud
|
Trick cyclist
|
The fastest thing on wheels, this brother and sister
team joined the circus recently and no-one knows much of their background.
|
James
|
Ferdinand Freud
|
Trick cyclist
|
East European siblings, mysterious & secretive.
|
Vince
|
Widdecombe
|
Clown
|
The circus’s ever popular clown, everyone loves him
|
Alex
|
Mme Hoopla
|
Juggler
|
Does the books for the circus, good at multitasking.
|
Then each person got their personal sheet to read, with secrets they knew, and their suspicions, like so...
In addition to these notes they got extra clues - a message from Madame Futura's Crystal Ball and a look at something the surviving monkey wanted to show them. These looked like this...
So, have you solved the crime yet? Don't worry, neither did anyone else at this stage. Each person got to ask one question, all of us gathered together in a group, then they wrote down and handed in their guesses. Nobody had the correct answer.
Then we relaxed and partied for a bit, which is when the party started to sound like our usual entertaining event (Hev & I were worried that, rather than being an ice breaker, the Murder Mystery had led to a first half hour of everyone sat round silently). The party looked a bit like this (but really, you had to be there)...
Then after the food had come out we had the final round up. People got to compare clues with each other, then made their final guesses as to whodunnit, how and why. And this time, though 14 people got it wrong, two people (Chris and James) guessed the culprits, for widely varying and incorrect reasons. Here is the full selection of Crystal Ball clues, do they point to a killer yet?
I'd love to show you all the individual players' sheets, with all the different clues they had, but life's too short and I can't imagine anyone would ever read them all. So stop reading now if you don't want spoilers.
Here is the explanation of the crime, as read out by the surviving monkey (played on the night by me).
FINAL EXPLANATION
Hi, I’m a Performing Monkey. My name’s Uncle
Tom Cobley.
You know my fellow Performing Monkeys - Bill
Brewer, Jan Stewer, Peter Gurney, Peter Davy, Dan’l Whiddon and Harry Hawke. We
were called that after Widdecombe Fair. Cos our boss, The Great Bartholemew,
came from Widdecombe.
And his brother, Stanley, named himself after
the town. He called himself Widdecombe The Clown. Widdecombe the Clown is Stan
Bartholemew, the Great Bartholemew’s brother. That is, Jack Bartholemew’s
brother.
So on the night we were doing what we always
do, nicking stuff off each other. The stuff we nick from the punters usually.
And watching you lot, having your rows, and combing your horses and whatever.
And playing with fire. You all do that. The fire bloke taught you, and he even
taught us. Dunno why, we couldn’t see the point.
Fire bloke taught Bartholemew - he’s the monkey
who can’t speak proper monkey - how to
make fire come out of his trousers. Brilliant, we pissed ourselves every time.
And he taught us some fire tricks, and we could never work out why. Breathe
fire, throw fire, set fire, that sort of thing.
So we Monkeys nick stuff off each other, and
there’s nothing more valuable to us than these tags. They’re called name tags.
They’re our treasure. Cos, well, they seem to mean a lot to everyone. I mean
you lot. You do the ah-thing when you see the tags. “Aah”. Don’t know what the
rest of what you say means, but it begins aah. We like aah.
So we were nicking tags. And, cut a long story
short, I won. I got everyone’s tags. And they’re like, we want them back. And
I’m like, seriously, this has taken me all night. Then I remembered the fire
tricks. So I torched them.
So I get to keep the tags. Look. I’ve got
everyone’s tags.
What’s your problem? Let me explain, I torched
everyone, so I win tags. That’s A Good Thing. Cos I have All The Tags.
What bit of winning don’t you understand? I’ve
just beaten Bill Brewer, Jan Stewer, Peter Gurney, Peter Davy, Dan’l Whiddon,
Harry Hawke - and Bartholemew The monkey who didn’t speak proper monkey, and
all -
(Sung)
and Bartholemew The monkey who didn’t speak proper monkey, and all.
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THE
END
