What is Murder Mystery?

[The City [EclipseZwolf]]

Hello everybody, Eclipse here. Recently I have been thinking about the site and what we do here, which based on the title would be "Murder Mystery Games."

This was a topic I thought about quite a bit while I was reorganizing the site, and more specifically, the forum games section where the current and upcoming seasons are located. It has come up again in my mind after being involved in Zircon Zephyros and more recently Season DICE. These two seasons and several future games are moving away from the original games that were based heavily on Dangan Ronpa. In Dangan Ronpa the game was about a "Murder Mystery" which involved some mysterious force causing players to be stuck in a murder scenario with few alternatives. The Murder was an integral part of the story and a major theme in pushing things forward. Zircon and DICE feel less like a "Murder Mystery" game and more like a "Murder and a Mystery" game. These two games were more heavy on a statistics front, with stats and dice rolling deciding much more than before. They have moved steadily closer to a Dungeon and Dragons esque tabletop pen and paper game, albeit through the forums and internet.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think this is a bad thing. In fact the reason I bring it up is because DICE entertains me greatly. DICE is enjoyable for me since I am getting into a role and playing through what would happen if DICE showed up. I haven't tried to solve any mysteries or felt any kind of enjoyment being involved in murder and trial scenarios. But wait, Murder Mystery games and you aren't having fun because of the murder and mystery? See my conundrum?

So here I am, confusing myself thinking about this topic and having a dilemma. Originally during the site revamp I considered splitting the forum game section into two, one for Dangan Ronpa esque games, and one for more unique out there games hosted by higher level mastermind deviating from the original game rules. I did not do this as at the time I felt the second category would be very very empty, but with DICE and Zircon having fairly high activity levels I am starting to have second thoughts.

So, here is what I am asking of you all. Help me figure the answer out, What is Murder Mystery? Should I consider creating a sub board under current seasons and using that slot for the new DnD style games? In that case should I add a separate mastermind rank to host those games in comparison to the regular ones? Am I over-thinking this? Does anyone even care about these subtleties that kept me from sleeping last night? What are you guys' feelings on the matter? I appreciate any and all feedback so that I can keep on refining the site and making this whole forum a funner experience.

[King V]

I think you are overthinking the situation. If you look at it in the perspective of the masterminds, all the previous seasons I've hosted were generally standard murder mystery games with a few deviations. The last season I hosted, S Fate, was very heavy in the murder mystery genre, so I felt that making my next season it should deviate a little. Coincidentally, Zircon also deviated from the normal murder mystery setting, and this was probably because you designed it after creating many standard murder mystery style games.

From the mastermind's perspective, you and I are probably thinking about our own seasons in a series and what works best for them, so we're both making our season series like this: standard -> deviant -> standard, etc. Two of our deviant seasons just happened to be hosted one right after the other. I don't think the site is leaning towards DnD style games at all, it's just once in a while the masterminds feel like doing something out of the ordinary, but we all come back to the standard game style eventually.

[Amatsukaze]

I'm not too familiar with the newer seasons, but I think it's nice to break away from traditions once in awhile and get creative.

If there's one thing I've noticed, it's that we're always coming up with unique ways to have fun. When I first made my murder mystery game, my intention was to find a unique way to have fun with people and I'm happy to see that hasn't changed.

Again, I don't know how different these new seasons are, but if it includes murder and mystery, it has a place here.

I think it's a good thing to have masterminds who offer a new experience.