Hidden Games Crime Scene: The Midnight Crown
Hidden Games Crime Scene: The Midnight Crown Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Instructions
The aim of the game is to prove successful police work together as a team. You have to go through documents, draw clever conclusions and think outside the box.
The Following Missions Are Waiting For You
Solve the case of the jewel heist during the Long Night of Museums in Great Falls.
- Where will the secret meeting be held?
- Who is the secret client?
- What's up with the object in the display case?
- Who stole the Midnight Crown?
Before You Start
- Carefully study all documents!
- Hang up the poster.
- Take notes!
- Make sure that everyone has read every document!
- When you are finished, enter your solution here and listen to the finale.
For deaf players, additional accessibility information is provided.
If you are not in the United States and don't want to spend money on phone calls, you can call the phone numbers in the game for free online, at call.tele-comi.com.
Getting Started
Please check whether you have selected the appropriate country/language edition of the game before you begin — the game content varies from country to country. If you are playing the US version of the game in Canada, for instance, you need to use the US edition; if you are playing the UK version in the Netherlands, you need to use the UK edition.
Before you start, enter the validation code found on the investigation file (the instructions on the envelope) on the case website.
In order to make the criminal case as realistic as possible, it is necessary that you enter your real telephone number. The phone must be switched on and on loud during the game. The data will only be used for communication within the framework of the game.
Two variants are offered for starting the game:
- Variant 1 (with phone number): Enter your phone number, including country code (for example +1 for the USA).
- Variant 2 (without phone number): If you want to start the investigation without providing a phone number, an alternate set of instructions is provided so that all the information you need is still available to you during the game. After 50 minutes, the Inspector would normally call you a second time; in this variant, set a timer instead, and after 50 minutes look up the hint "Call from Mahoney" for the audio of that call.
Starting the Game
Dear Private Detectives,
We are glad to have you back on board.
If you are reading this, then Inspector Jason Mahoney has called you. That lets you know that you entered your number correctly. If you did not receive a call, please go back to the input screen and enter your number once again.
You should also all carefully read the back of the envelope. Then nothing will stand in the way of your investigation.
We hope you have lots of fun, and good luck!
P.S. Need a tip to get started? Then check out the additional hints.
How to Play
The Start
To start, divide all of the documents among the players. Everyone should read through their documents silently, then share all of the information with the other players (or read it aloud, for instance).
The Police Report
You should look at the police report together, since it provides basic information on the case.
The Detective Poster
Hang up the poster and take notes on the different people.
And Now?
While you are gathering information from all of the players, several of the town's residents are going to start looking very suspicious. Write down any motives these people might have. Do they have alibis? Can you rule out any suspects? The more information you collect, the more people you will be able to rule out — until you finally understand the whole story and can unmask the killer.
A Tip
During the course of the game, it will help you out to exchange documents among yourselves and read as many notes as you can. In addition, you should put documents together if you think they belong together.
Hints
In certain parts of the game, you can ask for a hint if you get stuck. The designers decided against giving tips throughout the game, as this would have made it too easy.
If you're stuck, you should have a look at some of the materials whose significance you have so far not quite understood, and select the search term for that piece of evidence from the case website's hint index. Each piece of evidence has its own hint entry, and some entries offer a first hint, further hints, and a final hint, escalating in how much they give away.
Watch out — spoiler alarm: only look up a hint if you really can't continue the game without one — solving it yourself is only half as much fun with tips.
Case File Contents
The Midnight Crown envelope contains a large set of physical, audio and digital evidence for your team to work through. Investigate each piece and cross-reference it against the others and against the detective poster:
- Police Report
- Detective Poster (for pinning up photos and writing notes on suspects)
- Letter from Inspector Mahoney (with directions for logging into the online police server)
- Letter from the city (about applications to exhibit the Midnight Crown)
- Screenshots from a hotel guest's online orders and searches
- Letter from Orwell & Truman (the museum's surveillance camera company)
- WhatsApp chat (between two brothers)
- City map of Great Falls
- Supernet social media post (with comments), from the Museum of Art and Culture
- Email exchange (between two newspaper colleagues)
- Hotel occupancy record (for room 6)
- Fingerprint sheets, for comparing prints found on other documents
- "Great Falls Today" audio news broadcast, accessible via the police server
- Letter from the Care4Life insurance company
- Chat screenshot (from an online dating site)
- Great Falls public transit schedule
- Evidence photo (of the item left in the display case)
- Betting slip
- Photo taken during the Museum Night event
- Museum flyer, tied to a museum website
- Note found in a hotel room
- Photo of the Museum Director's desk
- A sealed envelope from Inspector Mahoney, only to be opened when instructed
- Newspaper (containing several articles and notices)
- Voicemail / answering machine recording
- A phone call from the Inspector, arriving roughly 50 minutes into the game
- An online chat with a contact known only as "Mister X"
- Interrogation recordings (of two suspects)
- Online police server login, including a schedule-planning tool
Some of these documents point you toward real websites and an online police-server login that your team will need to visit as part of the investigation; others are meant to be read, compared, and pieced together entirely on paper.
Solving the Case
Once your team believes it has answered one, or all, of the four mission questions, go to the "Solutions" section of the case website (or the corresponding place indicated in your printed materials) to check your answer.
Each question is presented as a multiple-choice list of possible answers. Selecting the correct answer confirms that you got it right and explains the reasoning that ties the evidence together; selecting an incorrect answer tells you that you're on the wrong track and prompts your team to take another look at the evidence and discuss it further before trying again.
The case tracks your overall performance with a star rating as you work through the four questions.
Once you have correctly identified the thief and answered all four mission questions, you can listen to the finale, which reveals and explains the full solution to the case.
Because the case can only be solved once, the game is intended to be played through a single time per envelope of materials.