Murder Mystery Nights

The Basilica plans to begin laying on Murder Mystery nights as soon as it can, which is likely to be a few weeks later than gaining its mandate for licensed occultism (interactive 3 or 4). Once they begin, however, the bar plans to run them every week, with a widely-coveted prize available: the greatest drink the bar can produce, the Copa de Cambio. Rumour has it that just one drop can - and does - change your life.

How to Play

Once the Murder Mystery nights begin, they will consist of five steps:

Acquisition: The murder weapon is always poison, ordered as the Last Drop from the bar. (We strongly recommend placing this order in secret.) There is only ever one available; if you try to order it and don’t hear back, it is sold out.

Envenomation: The poison is delivered. If you are in possession of the Last Drop, you can pass it on to someone else, or take a risk and drink it yourself. If you are poisoned, but do not wish to participate in the murder mystery night, simply hand it back to whomever handed it to you. However, if you do so, you are then forbidden from interacting with the mystery further, since you already know whodunnit. (Please hand it back covertly, so as to not spoil the mystery. If it’s not clear who gave it to you, please return it to the bar staff.)

Revelation: The attempt is revealed. This is done by the victim, within five minutes of being poisoned, loudly declaring “I’ve been poisoned!”. The first three people to approach the victim become the other participants in the mystery, for a total of up to five: culprit, victim, and witnesses.

Investigation: The witnesses have a further five minutes to gather information. They can question other patrons, look for clues, and generally seek out ways to discover whodunnit. (Patrons, particularly the victim, can lie! However, while there may be creative ways to use Skills to help determine guilt or innocence, no method is foolproof.)

Declaration: After the five minutes, the witnesses must come together to declare who they believe to be the culprit. When the three have chosen, the murder mystery draws to a close, and the Bar staff declare the result. If the witnesses are correct, the prize goes to them, if not, the culprit and victim share it. (This does mean the victim is incentivised to cover up their own murder.)

Whichever side wins, that team must decide who will drink from the Copa de Cambio. (If a decision can’t be made, it will be determined randomly from among the players who least recently did so.) They may then make a one-word wish, which the drink is known to attempt to grant. (Refs will talk to you about the mechanical implementation of this.) This is a fast, but comparatively unstable, means of character specialisation, and will primarily affect your character physically or metaphysically, rather than making you better at a skill.

The losing team, however, will receive Wounds as a result of the backlash from the murder being redirected towards them.