Crime Writers
Crime Writers Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents of the Base Box
Crime Elements:
- 30 killer/victim cards
- 20 crime scene cards
- 20 cause of death cards
- 16 motive cards
Preparations
Every player takes a piece of paper and a writing instrument. A timepiece will also be necessary. Choose one player to be the master-scribe. The master-scribe will write down all the player names and continuously score player points through the course of the game.
Separate the cards into the four elemental groups, shuffle each group and place the four stacks of cards in the middle of the table, card face down.
Every player draws a total of three cards from the four stacks. Draw from the middle or bottom, not just the top of each stack! As many as two cards can be drawn from the killer/victim stack. In this case one of the cards becomes the killer, the other the victim. Even in this case, only three cards are drawn.
Take care not to show drawn cards to the other players.
The Course of the Game
The game has two stages. The first is the writing stage, where all the players play the role of writer and everyone writes the story of a crime using the elements from the cards they have drawn.
In the second stage, the player whose turn it is becomes the writer and the others become guests. The writer reveals the title of their crime story and the guests ask questions and try to figure out the whole story.
Rules for the Writing Stage
The players have ten minutes (remember to measure the time) to write an exciting, labyrinthian crime story. After drawing cards, (but before the writing stage has begun) any player that feels one of their cards is incompatible with the others, may return a single card and replace it with another card from the same stack. This exchange of a single cannot be reversed.
To start, write these questions at the top of a page:
Who? Whom? Why? Where? How?
Next, write in what is known from the three crime element cards under the appropriate questions at the top of the page. Then, with the help of your imagination, create a story that explains the remaining two missing elements (what you didn't draw from) and also write them down under the appropriate questions.
Note: one element has to be a single word or an expression (it doesn't have to be represented among the cards). Make sure nobody sees your notes.
Taking these notes will help you to write the story and will remind you of the five exact elements the other players have to figure out.
Now write a story and give it a title according to the following rules:
All the five crime elements (the three drawn cards and the two ones found out by you) must be used in your writing since these should play a central role in the story.
The writer decides whether the killer/victim card will be a killer or a victim. There cannot be more than one killer and one victim in each story, with the exception of supporting characters. The "Self" card means the character commits suicide. The wording of the cards cannot be changed. The guest must guess them exactly as the cards are worded. However, the wording of each card can be most broadly interpreted. "Suffocation" for example, does not only apply to drowning, the character can run out of oxygen in a variety of different ways. The "bridge" can be the Golden Gate Bridge or a little wooden bridge in the park. Think freely. For example, the researcher can be a historian (on the card it's a chemist), or the librarian a man (on the card it's a woman), no matter what the pictures show on the cards.
Important! The story will only be complete when each crime element is made an integral part of the whole. In other words, all five elements must correlate and be able to justify their relevance to the story. This part of the writing is the most difficult and also the most exciting.
Title Giving Rules
The title is very important since it is the starting point from which questions are asked. Choose a title that refers to the story, but does not contain any of the crime elements, nor their synonyms. For example, if in our story a wife kills her husband in a cemetery, we cannot use the title, "Murder by the graves" because this would obviously reveal the location. "Till death do us part" for example, would be a better title because it makes a less direct and more subtle reference to burial and to marriage as well.
Try to write a story that is exciting and full of unexpected turns. The longer it takes the guests to figure out the elements of your story the more points you will score.
Question Asking Rules
The writer can only give the following answers: Yes, Also, Almost, No, Not characteristic/ Not important.
The question asking happens in turn starting with the guest sitting to the left of the writer. This guest can ask new questions as long as the writer answers "Yes", "Also" or "Almost". Once the writer answers "No", "Not characteristic", or "Not important" the next guest to the left can continue the question asking. A guest receives three points when they figure out a crime element written by the writer. The writer must immediately indicate that a guest has figured out an element so that the master-scribe can score points on paper next to the name of the guest. Important, the guests must collectively fight the clock. At the end of each round, the writer receives as many points as the number of started minutes it has taken the guests to figure out the five crime elements of that story. Therefore it is in the interest of the guests to ask questions as rapidly as possible and even skip a turn if they are not ready with a question.
The question asking does not end after the five crime elements are known and the clock has stopped. The guests must continue until they can make all the connections and tell the whole story.
Question asking directly on an element is always allowed, but only worth when we are already sure of things, because in the case of a negative answer our turn is passed to the next guest. It is most purposeful if we ask the kind of questions that keep tightening the circle, for example:
- Did the killer use an object to commit the crime? – Yes.
- Is this object a weapon? – No.
The next player can ask questions.
- Was it found at the scene of the crime? – Yes.
- Is it a tool? – Yes.
- Is it used for repairs? – Yes.
- Is it an adjustable wrench? – No.
The next player can ask questions.
- Does the tool have a wooden or plastic handle? – Yes.
- A screwdriver? – Yes.
This player receives three points.
The relationships between characters, the incident that created the motive for the crime and the connections between events within the story, are all worth asking early on before narrowing in on the more concrete details.
(Example: Were the killer and victim relatives?)
If the guests are really stuck or have gone down a mistaken path, the writer may help them get back on track. This can be done by returning to an already positively answered question that brings a guest's attention back to a crime element worth investigating. This of course will help the others, but that is okay, since the object of the game is to have a good time and scoring points is secondary.
The game only comes to an end once the story of every player has been found out. Then the master-scribe counts the number of points received by each player as guests discovering crime elements and adds them to the points they received as writers. The player with the most points is the winner.
The Game for Two Players
With two players, points are not given for discovering the crime elements since it is obvious that the player asking will figure out all of them. Just the writer points are counted. We receive as many points as the minutes it takes for the other player to figure out our story. With two players, the time given for figuring out the story can be extending. The writer may need to help the guest more often, but the game will still be just as exciting as it is with more players.
Have fun!
Example Stories
Example Story 1
Title: The Popcorn-case
The newly elected major's number one priority is to crack down on organized crime. Unable to prove the city's notorious mafia head guilty of any crimes; they take to more drastic measures: Through the appropriate channels of a phantom organization they hire an older, professional – master marksman – secret agent to liquidate the mafia head and make it look like an accident. The carefully thought out action will require that a tiny paralyzing bullet be shot from a distant cliff, causing the head mafioso to drown while swimming in the sea. The given bullet by accident or chance did not find its mark and so the action was called off.
They took the case and gave it to a younger agent that was according to the older agent a greenhorn unsuitable for the task. The old fox digests his professional jealously. The young agent disguises himself as a popcorn vendor and observes mafia headquarters on the street when he unexpectedly finds a bullet in his heart. His older colleague shot him down with a telescopic riffle from the rooftop of a building 200 meters away, and in doing so, proved that he is still an excellent marksman and that it was wrong of them to have taking him off the case.
Example Story 2
Title: Went astray!
They hire a hitman to assassinate an influential person.
The cemetery, (where the target visits the grave of his deceased wife) is the most ideal location for the hit, because it is the only place the target goes without his ex-commando bodyguards. Between the graves, dressed as cemetery worker, the hitman discretely follows the target. When the target stops, the hitman thinks, this is the opportune moment and puts the target in the sight of his pistol. However, in the very second the hitman pulls the trigger, the target leans forward to retrieve a dropped flower and the bullet misses its mark and in a most unfortunate turn, ricochets off the corner of a grave stone and so quite accidentally finds its way directly into his own heart.