Deception: Murder on Quarter to Three Forum Game

Ha, yeah, I wasn’t sure where one keeps a machete. I feel like if I had one it would be in a storage room or bathroom, but my understanding is that in more tropical climes it can be more of a daily-use tool that people actually do use for food prep? So I just put a partial green dot on it. I don’t think it’s ruled out, but it’s not strongly suggested either.

I agree that the first two dots are the most important, and the machete only has 2 partial blips there.

As it’s my means, I’ve got less weight here, but I have to agree.

Edit: Rothda partially agreed.

Jorn put kitchen first. If it was a weak connection, I feel like he would’ve decided it later.

These are some pretty rad diagrams!

That said, I am not sure that they are actually good to add to the game. The game is built around relatively short interactions and discussions. I am not sure that adding this kind of exhaustive crowd sourced type diagram really fits into the game. I think it might kind of break it from the fun perspective. That said, it’s just my opinion and this is my second game so I don’t have an authoritative view. I just think that some of these games break with advanced record keeping and basically infinite time from forum gaming.

That’s a fair take, and I was a bit worried about it myself while compiling the image. E.g. if we are supposed to have a word limit, and a picture is worth 1000 words, etc.

If the moderator (or one or two other people) think that the graphic is going against the spirit of the game then I’ll drop it and instead go back to the traditional, wild-eyed accusations about who is the murderer. :D

I am not sure. It is a graphical presentation, but the same information could be articulated with words. If anyone feels it is against the spirit and don’t want to state so in the open, PM me and I will post that someone feels like that in the thread. We can have a post-game discussion, and it can be up to the moderator of any future games to decide whether or not to allow deduction sheet-like graphics.

Your fifth scene clue is in:

No strong impressions on the graphical deduction sheet. Feels a bit like the table I used for the Avalon game but turned up to 11. The whole thing could be done in words, but there’d be so many it would be very difficult to follow. The graphical format makes for an excellent summary.

I’m mostly worried about railroading. Most people aren’t going to have the time to make such a chart, and it’s very easy to just trust the chart to eliminate the unlikely possibilities rather than thinking about them. It could also be an effective tool in the hands of the accomplice if used well, to subtly increase suspicion on others while playing down the true culprit.

For the new information, I’m wondering if that’s pointing us towards a serious injury that leaves blood everywhere. I’m veering in favour of the blender here.
Of course sooner or later the information has to point us at the clue so perhaps this is one of those. Hmm, or does it? If we can conclusively deduce the murder weapon, we just need 4 guesses at the clue to find the right answer.

With ‘severe injury’, ‘kitchen’, and ‘bits and pieces’, it’s cleaver or blender, right? Though I guess axe and machete are still possible, depending on your cooking style.

Paging @CF_Kane, just to check if you’re caught up.

I think there are two main interpretations:

  1. The crime was messy and the victim (Tom) was in pieces.
  2. The crime was messy and the scene was in pieces.

Most people are considering 1, but 2 was the one that jumped out at me. Unfortunately, I have no idea what that would be.

Edit: I’m coming around to 1, though.

Edit: but I’m kind of back to 2.

Thanks Jorn. I’ve had a rough start to my week work wise, but am following the thread. I can post in
more detail tonight, but so far I am leaning towards CraigM and his cleaver, given that it causes severe injury and may leave a person in pieces.

For the graphics, as nice as it looks, I think it’s probably a little unfair to the bad guy. Unless Rothda IS the bad guy, trying to shoehorn us into something like Machete! I think it probably puts a little too much weight on the creator’s interpretation of events also.

Bits and pieces puts me at Cleaver or Blender. Not sure which but hopefully a later board can help finalize it.

I think you can make a points system and talk about it but the graphics might be too far? Idk though and if someone has a specific problem they should PM Jorn.

I’m thinking that clues is harder to communicate than the murder weapon, so Jorn might pick a setting (kitchen) which might fit the clues but might not necessarily jive with the weapon, assuming that we can figure it out based on the other cards. So we probably shouldn’t be blinkered into thinking either cleaver or blender.

Perhaps just a moment of clarity. How many murders have been committed with a blender? Picture it. The murderer was in the kitchen with Tom. For whatever reason the killer (decided)(chose)(was forced) to kill Tom. He or she reaches for a weapon. A deadly weapon. And grabs the blender! Whipping it around, the plug is still stuck in the wall socket. Attempting to pull it out, the killer ends up with the container part flying off. They are stuck with bludgeoning Tom with the base.

Perfectly reasonable. No?

No.

The killer grabs the cleaver from the magnetic strip on the wall and chops him up.

Any questions?

You are assuming a tiny blender. The larger the blender, the more a contender.

But yes, cleaver does seem to be a prime first choice.

Edit: Wait, nevermind. They do actually show us a picture of the blender in question.

Ok, my thinking at the moment is that:

  1. just about all the clues so far have been mostly about the murder weapon
  2. the “Bits and Pieces” clue refers to the murder weapon’s effects, and that it rules out the bludgeoning based instruments. That leaves us with 2 primary weapons (Cleaver, Blender) and a few secondary weapons that don’t fit so perfectly (Axe & Machete are ok fits, but aren’t generally kitchen items, and maybe scissors which are kitchen items but seem to be more of a blood loss item.)

I’m not sure that the future bits of evidences will help narrow down this selection much further. I would propose that we interpret future evidence given to us as being about the “Clue” that goes with the murder weapon. If we can narrow down the Clue somewhat, the Venn diagram of “feasible Clues” and “feasible Murder Weapons” should be fairly small. Let me know if you’re on board with this approach or have other ideas.

As long as Jorn is on board with this, I am.

I have to say that cleaver makes more sense than blender, as, how to you chop someone to bits with a blender? I mean, I know you could, but it seems terribly difficult.

Plus it probably takes someone athletic to do all that chopping with it.

Well, our killer is athletic, but I feel like that’d be really hard anyway.