Last chance to join the cast of Murder at Christmas 2016!

Nellie Nolan, played by Anna Sten

Nellie Nolan, played by Anna Sten

We’re on the deadline of applications for Murder at Christmas 2016, and there are a few available places. But you’ll need to get your basic character concepts in today, November 21st.

Find out more about the game here, and submit your character concept here. At this stage we’re just looking for outlines – there’ll be time enough to work out the details closer to the start of the game.

Make sure you take a look at the characters page too – perhaps you have a secret connection with one or more of these characters! Perhaps you have a reason … for murder!

Any questions? You can contact the GM here.

Make sure you don’t miss the deadline!

Don’t forget to submit your character for Murder at Christmas 2016!

Count Vasily Dolgorukov, played by John Barrymore

What secrets does Count Vasily Dolgorukov (played by John Barrymore) know?

The first character concepts have been submitted for Murder at Christmas, and they’re a pretty exciting bunch!

It looks like we’ll be joined by a keen cross country skier, an aristocratic dilettante, a shy young English woman, an American playboy and a successful writer of mystery stories. But there’s certainly room for more people on the train and in the hotel!

So find out more about the game here, and submit your character concept here. At this stage we’re just looking for outlines – there’ll be time enough to work out the details closer to the start of the game.

Make sure you take a look at the characters page too – perhaps you have a secret connection with one or more of these characters! Perhaps you have a reason … for murder!

Any questions? You can contact the GM here.

You have until November 21st to submit a character concept – make sure you don’t miss the deadline!

Welcome to Murder at Christmas!

db_waltersdorf_lausche8It is Christmas Eve, 1937.

An early heavy snowfall has seen an avalanche in the Zittau Mountains which has halted the Vienna – Prague – Berlin train. Travellers, informed that there will be a probably three day delay (because it is Christmas, meine Damen und Herren!), will be brought to the famed Hotel de Saxe in the village of Bad Bernsdorf, and may count themselves lucky to find themselves in such as renowned establishment, a centre for winter sports and possessed of an excellent chef and a small casino.

They will find some people in residence already – the wealthy and notoriously ruthless American media owner, Chetwyn Glyde, his mistress, the actress Nellie Nolan, and his personal assistant, the saturnine David Olson. Also present is a White Russian aristocrat, Count Vasily Dolgorukov, and a German diplomat, Franz von Essen.

inn2The hotel is run by Frau Gutrun Blauer, with the assistance of her son, Fritzel.

All seems charming and welcoming …

But there are tensions beneath the surface … and murder is in the air.

Murder at Christmas is an online email game that will run over (approximately) the Twelve Days of Christmas – from December 21st 2016 until January 6th 2017. There will be between eight and fifteen writers, working collaboratively (see the Rules of the Game). Regular updates will be posted here, with links on Twitter, Facebook and Google+ so that people can follow the story, root for their favourite characters, and keep up with the twists and turns of the plot.

By the end, the aim is to produce something that resembles a Golden Age murder mystery novel. You can see earlier examples from Christmas 2000 (a classic country house mystery) and Christmas 2003 (Death in the Highlands). 

If you would like to create a character to join us at the Hotel de Saxe, please submit a character concept here. Concepts must be submitted by November 21st. If you would like to play a character but have any queries or questions, contact the GM here.

You may choose to play a local villager, a passenger from the train, or a guest already in residence at the hotel. The local mountains offer skiing, and the closeness of the Czech and Polish borders may suggest other reasons for taking a room in the winter of 1937.

In addition, some characters who will have a particular role – such as the son or daughter of a non-player character – will also be available. See the Characters page for more details.  

Please note that the web-site will be growing and changing ahead of the launch of the game on 21st December, 2016.