Murder at Christmas - Introduction: About the game

Murder at Christmas was a special pbem (play by e-mail) that ran on e-groups (now Yahoo groups) from December 21st 2000 until 7th January 2001 (roughly the Twelve Days of Christmas. There were eleven players - all of whom had a character - and the GM. Each player had to promise to post at least once a day, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day excepted. In the event, most people posted far more often .. and by January 7th 2001 we had the equivalent of a detective novel written by twelve people.

Each player had, in addition to filling in a character sheet, to supply a secret. These secrets were used to give other characters hints about a character. No-one knew another person's secret; they only knew a couple of odd things ... possibly about different people. They needed to talk with others, question the person concerned (perhaps) and make guesses in order to establish the facts ...

Initially, everyone was supplied with the following information:

Murder at Christmas ...

A Murder Mystery PBEM just for Christmas and the New Year

It is 1924 - the height of the gay, roaring Twenties, when wit and wealth are at a premium; where women are beautiful and charming, and men are dashing and full of derring do (although perhaps scarred by their experiences in the Great War).

It is Christmas, and as Christmas Eve dawns, you are on your way through a snowstorm to Little Staughton Hall, a fifteenth century manor house deep in the heart of the Cotswolds in England. You have been invited for Christmas and the New Year as the guest of Wallace Emerson, a wealthy American industrialist, who made his fortune during the war, and his lovely wife, the former Swedish silent movie star Anja Ericksson (you can decide for yourself how you know either one of these two - and whether you like them, dislike them or want to murder one or other of them).

It is intended that the mood and style of the game will be that of the great British detective novels, as written by such people as Agatha Christie, Dorothy L Sayers, Margery Allingham etc. Your posts should therefore not contain content that these writers would have frowned upon.

On January 6th, the surviving guests will gather in the library and each attempt to reveal who they think the murderer is.

Ah yes ... surviving ...

Erm ... perhaps you might like to read the rules and background ...

Background

You may have heard rumours how Emerson came to possess the Hall. Some say he won it in a card game from old Lord Staughton, who subsequently killed himself. Others say he merely foreclosed on some debts. Whatever way it happened, the old Lord is dead, having shot himself in the library.

The Dowager Lady Staughton lives still in the Dower House in the village, but her two children left home when their father died, six years previously. The boy was twenty-one then ... and had spent two years in the trenches. The girl was nineteen. They are believed to have gone to Canada. Or Australia. Or America. It depends who you talk to.

Emerson made his money during the War ... but it is rumoured that he had ... or still has ... links to organised crime. Anja Ericksson is rumoured to owe her success in the movies to work she put in off camera with several leading directors ... (you can choose any of these characters to play)

Other than these, you can be one of the guests (one of whom may be a detective), and make up a character to suit yourself ... It should, however, be the sort of person likely to be invited to a Christmas houseparty at a Cotswold Manor House in 1924 ...