I’ve been thinking for a while of doing a small larp inspired by Agatha Christie murder mysteries, focusing on the prelude: the web of hatred, blackmail and deceit which in those sorts of stories inevitably leads to someone being stabbed in the study with the letter opener in the middle of the night. So, a wealthy 30’s family getting together pre-dinner, sniping at one another, with the game ending either on the dinner gong or when someone goes into the lord’s study, gets his Webley revolve from the safe, and kills someone.
However, there are obvious drawbacks.
- A 30’s game is pretty hard-gendered, which means it lacks flexibility. The fix for this is droppable characters, but that’s not exactly ideal.
- the core themes of the game would be bitterness and repressed emotions expressed through family arguments. And that’s something people can get in real life.
- while I can seed a web of hate, I’m not actually sure there would be enough drama (even subtle drama) during the game.
Any suggestions?