It is 31 December 1919 and the party at Weatherby Manor is in full swing. The guests exchange furtive whispers of intrigue, blackmail and forbidden love. At midnight, a glass of poisoned champagne shatters, dropped from a dying hand. The family has to find – or frame – the killer before the police start looking too closely into their secrets.
About the game
Arsenic & Lies is a 3 hour larp (what's that?) for 5-12 players inspired by Downton Abbey and Agatha Christie novels. Rather than being a classical whodunnit, it focuses on the emotions, relationships and secrets of the characters involved: solving the murder might be less important to the characters than pursuing their clandestine affairs, arranging marriages of convenience or blackmailing their enemies.
Features:
- Infinitely replayable: the characters and relationships between them are based on randomly drawn cards and created by the players right before the game, which makes every run unique.
- Requires no game master or preparation: just read the 2-page instructions and you're good to go.
- Great introduction to larps, accessible to non-larpers and non-gamers; it has been successfully played by diverse groups of people aged 16+.
- 22 double-sided Character cards, 18 Relationships, 16 Secrets and 12 News cards.
New to Larp?
Arsenic & Lies is a larp (short for Live Action Roleplay), a social activity where a group of people pretend for several hours to be fictional characters in a dramatic situation. Here is how you can look at it.
Arsenic & Lies is like a tabletop roleplaying game (e.g. Dungeons & Dragons) in that each of the players will control a fictional character. The difference is that instead of sitting around a table and taking turns to describe the actions of your character, you all simultaneously pretend to be them. E.g. instead of saying, “Emily glares at Richard and exclaims, ‘I demand an explanation!’” you will, acting as Emily, do the glaring and exclaiming. Also, in A&L there are no dice, no numbers, and no concept of winning or losing.
Arsenic & Lies is like a murder mystery dinner party, but infinitely replayable: every time you play, the characters, their secrets and relationships will change, and both the victim and the culprit will be different. A&L doesn’t need a host and requires little preparation. The focus isn’t on figuring out whodunnit, but on the drama of being slightly larger than life characters with intense relationships.
Arsenic & Lies is like improv theatre, but you will be your own audience. The workshop before the game will provide you with characters and relationships, so you won’t have to invent things from scratch. Also, the tone is drama rather than comedy.
