rules for a "murder party" system?

[Monsieur OUXX]

How would you design a murder party system in a game?
By that, I mean :
- There should be elements in the game that change randomly every time you play the game
- You never know in advance who's guilty. It changes every time.

So how would you proceed? How would you decide when the scenario "changes" and takes you to a different end?
a- Depending on the time the player performs an action? (that means you must also introduce some sort of real-time system where you measure the time that elapses - the most popular system being a clock)
b- By writing in advance n different stories and randomly picking one at game initializaiton?
c- Depending on the order the player performs the actions (e.g. if he takes object A before object B, then something different will happen later) ?


I can't remember how it is in Blade Runner. I think it's more something like choice "c". However if I remember correctly, all paths are written in advance.
I'd like to automate as much as possible. For example, the boardgame "Cluedo" is 100% random - all answers are determined when the game starts, and it doesn't need a game master. How would you make it more immersive (e.g. computer-generated dialogs) and merge its gameplay with a point-n-click gameplay?

[tzachs]

I'd say a combination of b, c & missing option d: "Depending on the choices the player makes".

Basically I will select a basic scenario randomly at start (Murderer + Motives + Alibis etc), and for each basic scenario there could be several branches according to the choices and/or the order of the things the player makes. Those branches would only affect the choices the other characters make, and would not change the base story.
For example, if you talk with the murderer and chooses to tell him that an eye witness said something to you, the murderer might decide to kill the eye witness because of that...

[Anian]

1. what kind of game would this be IF, graphic adventure, tabletop? Getting 20-30 items (from clues to weapons) + different motives and scenarios to exist in a separate version in every room would be a lot of work.

2. without tzachs suggestion (player actions determines outcome), you seem to be talking about a version where the player is not a part of the party (or at least not the killer). I assume it's a single player game, therefore it would be silly if player is the killer but didn't know he had motives, memory of the murder etc.
In the mentioned Blade Runner, for instance you can end up being an android and not knowing it, but in the context of the story and the setting, that is ok, while in say Cluedo type game and setting, it'd be strange.

3. I'd implement the "timed" parts only as NPC interaction triggers - for example you see a fight between the kitchen staff before dinner, the gardener is outside during the day, trimming the bushes, but at night he reads a book in his room. This is just a personal preference connected with my hate of timed events, because they create cheap extra tension (such as in Last express, Quest4glory etc.)

In any case, a large design document would be needed, exponentially bigger depending on the amount of possible outcomes. Maybe make the party of 10 people but say only 5 can actually be the killer, that'd be a nice compromise between multiple scenarios and variety in suspects, or change any other variation (weapon, motive).

[blueskirt]

You've probably seen the article before but just in case you haven't:
http://www.squidi.net/three/entry.php?id=69

[Monsieur OUXX]

thanks for your replies, guys :

I'd say a combination of b, c & missing option d: "Depending on the choices the player makes".

I implicitely included it in option C, because in my mind, if you do some actions first, they disbale other actions that would otherwise have been possible (the typical example being : you have to choose between dialog options 1 and 2. If you choose 2, 1 disappears forever).
However it was worth clarifying it.

Thanks for all you input, guys.
- I'd hate to create a giant "if" game, with (as Anian said) an exponential number of branches. I really want (almost) everything to be automated. => I had that idea that there would be randomly generated dialogs like "I saw <CHARACTER> kill <CHARACTER> with <WEAPON>". this makes it extremely simple.
- Anian disliked the "Blade Runner" example, because you could be an adroid. OK, forget about that possibility. Just focus on the several ends where you're not the android, but the android might still be any of the secondary characters. In my memory, the scenario's branches were determined by your dialog choices and the order you collected the clues? => Enormous scripting, writing and art work needed...
- Blueskirt: no, I hadn't seen that... THANK YOU SO MUCH.

[cat]

Great link, thanks!

[Anian]

I didn't mean I disliked the android ending. I meant to say that it'd be weird to make a game where you,the player, are the killer but don't know it, although in BR they pulled of a similar situation because it fit in with in with the general story and universe...basically, unless there's a reeeeeeally good excuse, I think it's silly to make the player the killer.

Oh, and tnx for the link skirt.