Murder Mystery: Difference between revisions
(Created page with "A '''Murder Mystery''' is a genre of games or theatrical events in which the primary story centres on the investigation of a murder. The stories are highly structured, often with the central murder taking place at the start of the game or before it begins; with the reveal of the murderer taking place at the end. In between, participants collaborate or compete to discover clues and solve the puzzle of what happened. Murder mysteries may typically take place over 2-3 hour...") |
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* [ | * [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_mystery_game Murder Mystery Game] on Wikipedia | ||
[[Category:Glossary]][[Category:Theater Style Game]] | [[Category:Glossary]][[Category:Theater Style Game]] | ||
Latest revision as of 15:57, 17 June 2026
A Murder Mystery is a genre of games or theatrical events in which the primary story centres on the investigation of a murder. The stories are highly structured, often with the central murder taking place at the start of the game or before it begins; with the reveal of the murderer taking place at the end. In between, participants collaborate or compete to discover clues and solve the puzzle of what happened.
Murder mysteries may typically take place over 2-3 hours. Though they vary in size, certain characters are required as a bare minimum to create the story:
- The murder victim
- The murderer
- The detective(s)
History
While stories of crime and mystery are in general much older, the modern murder mystery genre took shape in the 19th and 20th centuries through works such as The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841) by Edgar Allen Poe; and more famously, through Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's character Sherlock Holmes, and Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple series in the 1920's[1]. In 1949, this genre was adapted into social deduction game format for the first time via Cluedo (aka Clue in North America), though this was still a tabletop experience.
The first adaptation into an interactive theatrical event is credited to Joy Swift in England, who organized weekend-long interactive mysteries beginning in 1981.[2][3] After establishing in the UK, murder mystery events spread to the US, and then further to China in 2013[4]where they became known as Jubensha and took off in popularity, developing a playful sub-culture and format expectations of its own.
Example games
- Pervasive Clue - a Murder Mystery game based on the murder mystery board game, Clue.[5]
- Rock Band Murder Mystery by Live Game Labs
See also
References
- ↑ Masters of Mystery (2025) 1875 to 2025: 150 Years of Murder Mystery, How It Began and Why It Became Popular, blog post, Masters of Mystery website. Retrieved 17th June 2026.
- ↑ Harviainen, J.T. et. al. (2024) "Live-Action Role-Playing Games" in Zagal, J.P., & Deterding, S. (Eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Role-Playing Game Studies (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003298045-7
- ↑ Swift, J., and C. Livesey (2007) The Joy of Murder. London: Trinity Mirror Sport Media. ISBN 9781905266364.
- ↑ Jubensha on Wikipedia
- ↑ Schneider, Jay; Kortuem, Gerd (2001). "How to Host a Pervasive Game: Supporting Face-to-Face Interactions in Live-Action Roleplaying". Designing Ubiquitous Computing Games Workshop at UbiComp (position paper). Atlanta, Georgia, USA. pp. 1–6.
External links
- Murder Mystery Game on Wikipedia