:: Come Out & Play 2010 ::

The Come Out and Play Festival is a street games fesitval dedicated to exploring new styles of games and play.

Come Out & Play 2008 in New York

The Invention of Murder

Start Time: Saturday June 7 at 4 PM
Location: City Hall Park, just north of the fountain (near the entrance at Broadway and Park Place)
# of players: 2 players each team (minimum 8 players)
Duration: 1.5 hours
URL: http://www.inventionofmurder.com/
Designers: Adam Parrish, Adam Simon, Jeff Sable and Ruth Sergel

The year is 1841, and players are working as cub reporters for the New York Herald, racing to be the first to uncover the truth behind the crime of the century - the murder of Mary Rogers, the beautiful cigar girl whose body had been found floating in the Hudson days before. As they visit the places Mary might have been on the day of her death, they call in to the news desk to check their suspicions against the mounting evidence, and search for other players to determine which of the possible murder weapons have been found.

The Invention of Murder is based on the death of Mary Rogers in 1841, which was one of the first widely reported murders in the popular press, helping to shape crime reporting for over a century. The game is the offspring of Clue and alternate reality games, with a touch of The Amazing Race: players visit locations, search for clues, and trade info with each other in a race to solve the crime.

The Rules
All players gather at sunset at the fountain in city hall park. The managing Editor of the New York Herald and his/her assistant will hand out the Invention of Murder playbook, an envelope containing a weapon, an IoM sticker and a lantern.

The cub reporters are given their assignment - find the location, weapon and murderer of Mary Rogers. The first team to get all three correct wins. Each playbook contains a list of suspects, weapons and a map of the locations.

As each team of cub reporters hits the streets they have to find the IoM sticker at each location that contains a special code. Calling into the news desk, enter the code and they will hear a little about how that specific location plays into the murder mystery. Enter a suspect code and the editor will give you a fact about either the location or the suspect. If two teams run into each other they must exchange weapons.

The first team to successfully guess the person, place and weapon wins the key to the city!

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