Murder Mystery Party!

Today was crazy.
I worked from 6-230, then I came home and was exhausted. Took a nap for a couple of hours. Then I woke up (barely) and threw myself into the shower so I could wake up properly. By the time I got wet and soapy I was wide awake, I don't know why showers always wake me up, but then I was ready to go toooooooo (suspense as if you hadn't already read the title) my friend from Indigo's murder mystery party!! I was Takey Takerton, a first class mooch. Then I realized my getting showered had taken too long coz I didn't wake up quickly enough, and I missed the bus etc so I hailed a taxi. This is kind of a big deal because Van to North Van in a taxi is gonna be $40, but I didn't want to be half an hour late to a party that you can't really be late to. So I had a ride that was, all in all, much more pleasant and comfortable than the bus regardless of the price tag, and enjoyed being back in North Van (she lives right by Lynn Valley Library) since I haven't been up that way in some time. As soon as I walked in the door I realized I had no cell phone. So that put a damper on my night. Heliya lent me hers since she's the perfect hostess and so I phoned all the taxi companies in vancouver that are yellow in colour and they all told me I was crazy. Especially Yellow Cabs who told me that they wouldn't know anyway until Tuesday (monday 11 nov is a civic holiday in BC LOLZ)since the offices will be closed and in slightly (but not much) more polite terms told me not to bother them. So i was bummed out, but the party was super fun.

Everyone is given a character beforehand. You are given an idea of who you are and what to do. I will copy and paste my character info here in case you have not encountered a murder mystery party before (i had not).


HELPFUL HINTS ON HOW TO PLAY A MYSTERY PARTY
GUEST INSTRUCTIONS
You’ve been assigned a character and you’ve come to the party dressed in the most awesome costume and have been told to play your role. Now what?
The mystery is separated into three main rounds of party play. During the party, you will receive an envelope that contains the clues necessary for your character for the round. The clues for the characters at the party provide everything that you need to solve the mystery. However, during the investigation segment of the game, you will need to ask the right questions and pay close attention to everyone’s clues to get the whole picture of what has happened.
In each of your clue cards, there will be some information that you can reveal in casual conversation with other guests. It is just like real life! You can elect to have some of those clues as information that you should be ‘asked’ by other guests in order to reveal. You can hide the truth but do not lie and make up clues. This could alter the mystery for the other guests. Some of the information in your clue cards might be for actions to perform during certain rounds or it might give you personal information to explain to you how your character feels about certain issues involving other characters or situations. This personal information is given to you to enable you to act as the real character. As in real life, each character should know a little more about their character above the rest of the group. Therefore, these types of clues do not need to be revealed to the other guests - unless you want to tell your secrets! Don’t worry, others will figure your secrets out on their own in later rounds if it is vital to the mystery.
Just as with any normal dinner party, most of the party play will involve mingling with the other characters and finding out about each other's characters and the clues you all have received. As the game progresses, you should have quite a bit of information to filter through to figure out the motive and whodunit! Read your clue cards thoroughly and take your time discussing issues with other guests. Make sure you speak to all guests in each round. Any guests that you feel might be hiding something - make sure to ask him or her loads ofor her loads of questions! You will be asked to submit a guess of ‘whodunit’ and why they did it at the end of round two. Watch out…YOU could even be the murderer and won’t know it until the end. Therefore, if you feel you are the guilty party by the end of Round Two – by all means, accuse yourself!
From this point forward, you are to remain in character until the mystery is solved. If you are playing a ‘hypocritical police officer,’ then that is who you are until the end! Undoubtedly, your host cast you into a character that you are comfortable playing. Some characters are designed to be played more reserved than other characters. Feel free to play your role in any manner that you feel comfortable. Embellish your character’s personality if you would like. However, if you are feeling more reserved tonight, you can opt to allow the other guests to approach you or you can simply listen in on others’ conversations to get your information.

your character: Takey Takerton has been unemployed ever since s/he inherited his/her great grandmother’s home years ago. Takey borrows money for living experiences and everyone is paranoid of Takey asking them for a loan. As ducks fly with ducks, Takey is rarely seen without his/her swarm of fellow mooches. This lazy group of friends has an irritating habit of getting joy out of impersonating animals.

costume:Too-sizes too small white sleeveless t-shirt with stains on it and jeans. An empty wallet as an optional prop.




round one clue: READ THIS BEFORE YOU COME!!

*Remember you are a lazy, unemployed moocher who borrows money from everyone…so have fun with that!
USE THE FOLLOWING TRIVIA QUESTIONS AS AN ICE BREAKER
Question: ‘Blackjack’ disease is caused by the felt on casino tables. What toxic substance is historically found in this fabric? Answer: Chromium.
Question: What is ‘CODIS?’ Answer: The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s database of DNA evidence.
CLUES TO REVEAL DURING THIS ROUND
During this round, mingle with other guests to discuss the following information with whomever you choose:
• Talk to everyone about how much you can’t stand Fiona Collins. She is annoying when she calls your house everyday and tries to sell you things. She should know you do not have any money.
• Ask everyone at the party if you can borrow some money or some items that they don’t need because you’re going to have another garage sale. Anything that they are not using is a welcome donation and a great cause.
• Confide in a few people about how you know that Betty Berger likes to blackmail people. She used to blackmail your late great grandmother before she died. You think the stress may have contributed to her death.
• This round, you (and your group) should randomly impersonate tarantulas and see if people can guess what you are.
PERSONAL CLUES TO CONCEAL You cannot stand Fiona Collins or Betty Berger. Do your best to ignore them. During the mystery, your character must be honest and not make up any potentially mystery-altering clues in addition to those provided to you. You do not, however, have to share the clues that you collect with other guests.


So that's pretty cool. The games are usually pre made and bought or you can find free ones online. A couple of things I found was that nobody really knew that much, for example me and some of the others didn't find out until later that we were supposed to be at a mardi gras party and that's how all our characters ended up together. Also there were no real 'clues' that we found, everything in the clue envelopes was basically telling you to confront someone or tell something about yourself (you gave us food poisoning! she's marrying my brother!) rather than getting to find clues around which would have been cool. of course all of us had a grudge with the girl who died (betty berger) so it was interesting trying to figure out who killed her. i got screwed up coz wil thought it would be fun to put fake blood on his face and i didn't know if it was part of the mystery or not so i said he did it but it wasn't part of the mystery at all. sigh. and yes, daddy, if you are reading this, one person did in fact blame the butler even though there was no butler. Heliya made us a feast of a dinner and desert which was amazing. she said not to bring anything so i brought an apple crumble. by around 1030 i was wiped and also anxious about my phone, especially since i couldn't text chris and pester him which is my general idea of fun most of the time. So i headed out.

The bus ride was great except between phibbs exchange and abbot st where all the drunkies were to get from north van to downtown. I was trying to read and they were noisy. Inexcusable.

Finally got myself home and hopped on facebook and checked my phone messages and lo and behold! Chris had messaged me worried because people were phoning him and Eric had left me a voicemail about having the taxi driver call him and return my phone! They were the last two I had texted so I guess the driver called them. And eric was worried about where I was and phoning Chris and Kailey and everyone was glad when I returned their messages. So it was a good feeling to be worried about, and I felt badly for putting everyone out, but was elated at the return of my cell phone/portable internet machine/alarm clock/game consul/everything in one device. i sent a message to the taxi company that their driver is great, not mentioning that he brought my phone to Eric because the dispatcher said I would have to wait til the lost and found office opened on tuesday and pay $50 for it's delivery; I think the driver just did it on his own and wasn't supposed to have. He asked Eric for $15 which sure beats the $50 and probably he can pocket all of it that way instead of the company. So i just wrote that he went above my expectations and he is surely a valuable asset to their company. Working in customer service teaches you how important it is to your job security to get good feedback.

So then I ate more halloween candy and need to be asleep by now. Tomorrow is karate and working at night, so another busy day. Today was great but I could have done without the hassle. But it worked out so no complaining and jinxing it, right?

Merry friday to all and to all a good night.