Murder To Go
The Murder Mystery
Participation Game

Game Review

Review by Derrick Bang


Written by David Landau
Ideal Company PO. Box 933, Madison Square Station, New York, NY 10159
Released: June, 1985
Catalog No.: 24486
Price: $35.00
Complexity: Intermediate
Solitaire Suitability: None
* * * * 1/2

All right, 'fess up; you've always wanted to take part in a murder investigation, right?

You scrunch back into your chair during a television mystery, turn to your companion as the detective wrings yet another confession from a polite-society killer, and claim that you had it figured out 20 minutes back. You devour murder mysteries and boast that no Agatha Christie or Ellery Queen novel ever has kept you stumped for more than three chapters.

Uh-huh.

Well, Sherlock, talk is cheap.

Thanks to the talented imagination of David Landau, who has built a career hustling folks through "murders" in isolated hotels and on fast-moving trains, you have an opportunity to stun us with your quick wit and deductive reasoning.

Or will you, like the rest of us, follow the wrong leads and point that accusing finger at the wrong suspect?

David Landau's Murder to Go is the latest in a series of parlor mystery games designed to provide an evening's entertainment for a room full of enthusiastic participants. Like other games in the genre, Murder to Go assigns a role to each guest, who must remain within character while solving an off-camera crime. Every character has a motive, of course, and the tangled web of hints, clues, and assorted bits of evidence will cast aspersions on everybody. There's only one true solution, though (but, perhaps, more than one murderer as Landau cautions in the instructions, "everything is possible, so keep an open mind"), so the various alibis must be sifted and probed to determine who actually did the dirty deed.

Unlike games from other companies, which put only one mystery in the box you buy, Murder to Go comes with three different cases.

That partially justifies a price tag hovering near $35.00, but it still seems a bit steep.

The proud owner, acting as host, selects which of the cases to use. Each is a bit more convoluted than the last, so it's best to start with the first: "Murder's the Game." (The last, "Circumstantial Evidence," is the best example of Landau's tongue-in-cheek humor; it involves a company which manufactures airsickness bags. It is, however, awfully complicated.)

At least six participants are needed to take the roles of the critical characters. The host may be one of those six, but be careful not to let your responsibilities as Guiding Light get in the way of your participation in the game itself. Six other optional characters are outlined, so the game can be enjoyed by anywhere from 6 to 12 people. The mix of men and women is even.

Your guests will not know what part they are to play until the game begins. (This sets Murder to Go apart from similar activities, wherein invitations include such information. This is a bit of a drawback, since your guests can't possibly dress the part without advance warning.) Each guest is briefed separately, in a room isolated from the others. At that time the host hands over a pencil and Whodunit Notes--for recording answers as they are learned--and a Character Guide, which explains who the player is, what he may have seen, and how he is involved with the others. This information goes into a slick little plastic folder, which resembles a black passport.

Special props may be fixed at this time. The host may require a handwriting sample from a particular character; to make things more mysterious, the host will have each person write the same cryptic note, and then keep only one for use at the scene of the crime. An article of clothing--a cuff link, an earring might be confiscated and later placed on the "deceased."

Once all the characters have been briefed, the host reads the Opening Statement from the instruction manual. This gives a rough guide of the question-and-answer format to follow and delineates the game's only rigid rule: questions must be answered honestly. In other words, your character must tell the truth... except the murderer(s), who may lie at will. It behooves the killer(s), of course, to keep any falsehoods as simple as possible, because complicated fabrications invariably collapse under their own inconsistencies.

A Police Report, also read aloud, establishes the nature of the crime. At this point, the players can visit the scene of the crime, a room (or rooms) prepared in advance by the host. A sign affixed to the door warns everybody that they're entering a "CRIME SCENE--All Evidence Property of Police Department--DO NOT REMOVE." This "dressed set" may include a life-size corpse outline sheet, facsimile airplane tickets, newspaper articles, business cards, and any number of other items. These props are a unique element of the cases in Murder to Go, and they put the player that much better into the proper mood.

Further facts may surface as the game progresses, but the players are essentially responsible for gathering their own information. Treat the other characters as you would in a genuine situation; you're trying to ferret out the solution before the host reveals the answer at the end of the evening. Although no scoring system is mentioned, you should count yourself a winner if you correctly deduce who carried out the murder, and why. If you're the killer, consider yourself successful every time one of the other players selects somebody else as the culprit.

Landau's instructions are not without flaws. It's not clear how everybody's "Second Thoughts" should be used. Each player gets a sheet of Second Thoughts toward the end of the game, and the instructions imply that this new information should be revealed as soon as each player gets the sheet. Does this mean the new facts should immediately be read out loud by each person, or should questions and answers continue as before? It's difficult to tell.

The first case specifies, at one point, that only one woman must wear lipstick; later, the instructions insist that all should have it. Better make sure all the ladies have something on their lips. The "Second Police Report," mentioned but not included in the contents of Case #2 ("Centerfold for the Coroner"), can be found in the first packet of material used by the host.

The instructions claim that these games can be played again, as long as a different roster of guests is used. Perhaps so, but some of the evidence is "damaged" (tickets ripped in half, messages written inside of matchbooks, that sort of thing) during the course of play. If you truly plan on more than one use, you'd better photocopy some of the accessories.

Such small caveats notwithstanding, Murder to Go is a clever and attractive package which makes a great evening's entertainment. It's the best yet in this new type of gaming, and that's saying a lot in a genre which has yet to produce any clinkers.

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© Copyright 1986 by Dana Lombardy.
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