Crime game
A crime game (also detective game , crime party , detective party ; in English murder mystery game , murder mystery dinner , murder mystery weekend ) is a term for different deductive board games . What they all have in common is a criminalistic framework in which fictitious perpetrators murder fictional victims. The task of the participants is to solve the case like the investigator in a crime thriller .
Insert / forms
The crime game comes in different forms and can be used in different ways. On the one hand, these games are also suitable for the team building process . They are often booked for company events and company outings in order to train communication skills, self-reflection and social skills such as tolerance, curiosity and flexibility, as well as to bring about team spirit. On the other hand, these games are also enjoyed by private individuals such. B. for birthday parties or as a replacement for classic city tours that are becoming increasingly popular.
Many detective game will not only in a fictional or real environment instead, but they are trying to bring the two levels for fusing and a so-called augmented reality game to offer a comprehensive experience. For example, the crime games from Tatort Citykrimi in Germany and Stadt-Krimi in Switzerland are offered in several cities and adapted to the respective city so that the surroundings are included in the case. Historic city centers, castles and old houses are of course particularly suitable as backdrops. With video messages from witnesses and suspects as well as the use of other media, a multi-layered crime world is created in which the participants visibly immerse themselves.
variants
Pure role play
With this variant, all participants have to take on given roles in a criminal case. Usually, as with most crime novels, the plot consists of solving a murder case or attempted murder. Everyone plays the role of a suspect, at least one is also the murderer. The roles, the motives and the plot are given as a script and are usually given to the participants in the form of written instructions. Depending on the game, there are different game rounds in which the players talk to each other in their roles and cross-examine each other. In each round, the other players receive different tips; this can be information in text form, but also photos, images, documents, for example. All players - except the perpetrator - are not allowed to lie. If one of the teammates has to reveal an unfavorable tip about their own role, they can play down the tip or blacken the character of the accusing figure, but they have to tell the truth. The game becomes interesting when the other players embody their role as accurately as possible. The game ends with all players being allowed to state their theory about the perpetrator. This is followed by a round of solutions, in which the solution to the case is revealed.
This form of crime games became known in the 1980s when the Schmidt Spiele publishing house was selling crime games in the series Krimi Party , but stopped doing so after a few years. Even the Dumont Verlag Cologne brought at this time four games out ( Murder by Death Souper v), as Manuel Lorenz and Kai. Schauroth under the title Silvesterexpress and the ASS-Verlag ( perpetrators among us ). This type of game was previously very successful in Great Britain, where numerous providers of so-called “Murder Mystery Dinners” have established themselves on the market.
Interest ebbed until 2002, when Freeform Form Games LLP released three English-language games that were translated into German. In 2003, Sat.1 broadcast the game show Cluedo , which was based on the game of the same name , which was first published in 1949. Moreover, a German student offered the self-developed thriller game Murder on the lighthouse for free on the net. Other publishers have been publishing new cases since 2004: Krimi total , Kupferberg Kreativ , Blaubart Verlag ( Murderous Dinner Party ), Samhain Verlag , tischkrimi , Krimi-Küche , Tatort Living Room , Culinario Mortale, krimifabrik and Cocolino Spieleverlag . In the cases of Blaubart-Verlag and Krimifabrik, at the beginning of the game none of the players knows who the killer is. Even the perpetrator himself only gets the hint that he is the perpetrator shortly before the case is resolved at the end of the game and then has to try to direct the suspicion to another person. In other crime games, however, the murderer knows from the beginning that he is the perpetrator and as such is allowed to lie. While in some games some of the texts are suggested (Blaubart-Verlag), in other games such as B. Krimi total and Culinario Mortale, free discussion in the foreground.
In Knaurs Spielbuch , published as early as 1953, a game called Murderer and Detective is listed as a conversation game, which is aimed at youth groups with a game leader with the age from 15 and the number of participants ten. A lot of space in the room and darkness are required to allow a randomly determined murderer to search for a victim and after whose death scream the detective rushing in asks all participants about the course of events. Everyone but the murderer must tell the truth in what they say.
Some of the crime games are very complex. The crime games, which are published in book form, go in the opposite direction. B. the series Krimiparty series of the publisher EPV Hattingen. Several criminal cases are summarized in one book for replay. The equipment is very reduced compared to other providers. However, this is also reflected in the price.
Mixed forms
Hybrid forms of the crime game consciously mix the theatrical framework plot according to the script and the role play.
Crime dinner
A crime thriller dinner (also a crime thriller dinner) is a form of adventure gastronomy . The guests are part of a crime game during a multi-course dinner. The degree of interaction can vary depending on the provider: while the viewers themselves take an active role in the game at some crime dinners, in other cases they are merely spectators. There are now around 80 providers in Germany who organize exclusive or public events. Crime dinners are also enjoying increasing popularity in Switzerland, of which DinnerKrimi by Peter Denlo ( Zurich ), Mord am Bord ( Basel ) and the crime dinners organized by the AVANTT theater association are among the most successful. There are differences in price and quality; In terms of content, it ranges from slapstick to tricky cases that require intensive research.
Improv crime dinner
In contrast to the staged crime thriller dinner, which follows a script, the improvised crime dinner works with improvisation and thus creates an entertaining bridge to live action role playing . The restaurant becomes a stage and the guest is a spectator and an extra at the same time. Each case is unique and is generated from the participants' specifications. The improv crime dinner requires the audience to accept the guidelines that have been set as the reality of their own “head cinema”.
Mystery weekend
Since 2013, the interactive crime game Tatort Jungfrau has been held annually over the Whitsun weekend in the Swiss Bernese Oberland . From Saturday to Whit Monday, over 500 participants look for a murderer at the foot of the Eiger , Mönch and Jungfrau . Actors mime the suspects and there are clues to be found at around 50 stations. This event is organized by Peter Denlo, who has also been producing the smaller weekend thrillers (from Friday to Sunday) in hotels since 2015 .
In Switzerland, crime games were held as so-called mystery weekends from 1993 to 2012 by the game inventor Urs Hostettler . In a similar form from 2015 by Nathalie J. Sameli. These are games that take place Friday through Sunday. The visitors are allowed to define roles themselves and agree with the game management beforehand so that they can be integrated appropriately into the action. The weekend also lives from improvisations by the visitors. But there is a fixed framework plot based on a script with various murder victims and suspects. A fictitious police force also investigates. Although the published facts of the police are always coherent, they themselves are unable to resolve the case correctly. On Saturday evening the game is over and the visitors are allowed to write down a solution to the case for about an hour and give it to the game management. The next morning a winner will be determined. That is an individual or a group who has come closest to the real solution. All cases are fundamentally structured logically and can therefore be proven.
There are also crime weekends in Germany. Individual days and weekends are offered. The case is solved in teams.
Crime festivals
The Mord am Hellweg crime festival takes place in the Ruhr area every year , and its program includes author readings, performances and crime games and dinners, for example on board and excursion boats.
Crime games as Live Alternate Reality Games
A Live Alternate Reality Game (LARG) is a hybrid of a live role playing game (LARP) and an Alternate Reality Game (ARG). It is a new form of experience event in which the line between reality and play becomes blurred. This can go so far that the participants no longer know whether they are in a real situation or in a situation created by the organizer for this purpose. LARGs often play in the crime or espionage genre, for example with the aim of fulfilling a secret mission, uncovering double agents or uncovering a criminal offense.
The feature film The Game with Michael Douglas demonstrated this principle quite impressively in 1997: As a gift from his brother, the wealthy businessman van Orton agrees to an adventure game that is supposed to change his bored life. This alleged game quickly turns out to be a dangerous conspiracy in which Van Orton is threatened, robbed and hunted and ultimately has to fight for his life. Only at the very end of the film does it become clear that all of this was actually only part of an elaborately planned and implemented game, a LARG.
Crime and detective games as a parlor game
Crime novel and detective games there next to the form as a pure RPG as parlor game , for. B. in the form of a card game or board game . Well-known examples of this are Cluedo , Who was it? , Scotland Yard , Black Stories and Mafia . While many crime games are aimed at adults and teenagers, games like Murder in the Dark are designed for a younger audience. This is reflected, among other things, in an easier-to-understand game principle and child-friendly crime topics. There is also a detective game for children with investigations at the crime scene. Here, up to eight children act together with a real private investigator at a crime scene . The crime scene is set up according to age. Suitable for children between 8 and 12 years of age. Teamwork is required in this variant of the detective game. This is the only way to solve individual tasks and puzzles. Such a detective game is used in most cases for a detective birthday at the crime scene.
Crime and detective games as computer games
Aside from the Live Alternate Reality Game, there are also computer games in which the player slips into the role of a detective or investigator and has to solve criminal cases. In most cases, are puzzles in the form of a point-and-click - Adventure solved and interviews with non-player Charaktern performed to resolve the cases. In some games with a horror scenario, elements from the survival horror genre are also incorporated . In some games the player becomes a secret agent or there is too much action, so that there can also be influences from the shooter genre. Well-known crime games are Ace Attorney , CSI , Professor Layton , Sherlock Holmes , Heavy Rain , Fahrenheit , Her Story and Criminal Case .
Individual evidence
https://www.diedetektei.eu/detektiv-kindergeburtstag/
- ↑ scene City Crime
- ^ City crime thriller Switzerland
- ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from May 16, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://ftp.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/cgi-bin/luding/GameData.py?f=00w^E4X&gameid=2298
- ↑ http://ftp.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/cgi-bin/luding/GameData.py?f=00w^E4X&gameid=2632
- ↑ http://www.moerderische-dinnerparty.de/tipps-fuer-gastgeber/faq/das-spiel
- ↑ http://www.krimifabrik.online/faq/
- ↑ FAQ “Does the murderer know at the start of the game that he is the perpetrator?” From May 22nd, 2016 https://www.culinario-mortale.de/haeufige-fragen/ and http://www.krimitotal.de/fragen_rechner / Answer_17/moerder.php
- ^ Knaurs Spielbuch , Johanna Praetorius, Knaur Verlag, Munich, page 242
- ↑ DinnerKrimi by Peter Denlo: Home. In: DinnerKrimi by Peter Denlo. Retrieved January 11, 2017 .
- ↑ Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger May 4, 2006 http://www.ksta.de/html/artikel/1144673416789.shtml ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Impro-Crime Dinner in the Labyrinth of Legends. In: Labyrinth of Legends. Retrieved October 24, 2019 .
- ↑ Tatort Jungfrau by Peter Denlo: What is Tatort Jungfrau? In: Tatort Jungfrau by Peter Denlo. Retrieved January 11, 2017 .
- ↑ WeekendKrimi by Peter Denlo: Home. In: WeekendKrimi by Peter Denlo. Retrieved January 11, 2017 .
- ↑ http://urs.fatamorgana.ch/buecher.html#mys
- ↑ What is a mystery. In: www.fatamorgana.ch. Retrieved January 11, 2017 .
- ↑ Crime & Detective Games Test & Comparison »Top 10 in September 2019. Retrieved on September 25, 2019 .
- ^ Andy Kelly: The best detective games on PC. In: PC Gamer. March 19, 2019, Retrieved August 26, 2019 (American English).
