The Crime Readers' Association

Murder game ideas for these difficult times

25th March 2020

Reading is of course a fabulous way to pass the time in this period of social isolation.  But when all you crave is social contact – is it possible to still get the thrill of jointly solving a murder case without actually meeting?

Red Herring Games – UK specialists in murder mystery entertainment – have come up with several ideas to help pass the time during the social distancing.

 Daily puzzles

As soon as Covid-19 social distancing became a reality for many of us – the design team at Red Herring Games launched a series of daily puzzles aimed at giving people 5 minute puzzles to stretch the “little grey cells”.

The emails are free to sign up to and are sent daily.   There’s also a puzzle solvers group you can join to get help.  You can sign up to the emails here.  https://www.red-herring-games.com/covid-19/

On-line virtual murder mystery game

The virtual game is a free to play mini-game.  It follows the story of Barry Cuda first mate on the Trawler the Peggy Sue who has been found dead in the alley.  It was filmed in the National Fishing Heritage Centre as part of Museums at Night.

It’s a little gem of a game, and you can chat about it with friends on-line before you solve the case…

https://crime-time.co.uk/product/murder-cargo-connections/

Children’s activity packs

If you’re looking for something for the children to do that will take their minds off the current crisis, then you might want to explore the team’s children’s mystery packs.

These are specially created for 7-10 year olds.  They are designed to run over 2 hours with a party tea – but with the extra ideas included they can easily last a day!

If your child is having a birthday in the next few weeks and feeling a little glum about the lack of friends, many of these parties can be adapted to work with just 1 or 2 taking part.

Red Herring Games have always offered refund on children’s mysteries if they don’t suit as children of this age are so different in abilities and likes.  And we have an exclusive CRA discount available of 20% if you use code CRA2020 as you check out.

Hosting virtual parties

COVID-19 has meant more people than ever are having to socialise apart.  Fortunately even before this began Red Herring Games already had customers who were playing remotely with students and friends who lived in different countries, or who were try to run team building across different continents.

So… while this may seem new for most of us – the firm have been dealing with remote hosting for some time.

Teenagers have been chatting via the X-box for years. And in business teleconference has been going on even longer.

Which means the resources for virtual parties are already out there to make this possible and many of them are low cost or even free!

You can play very simple games by each taking a turn to talk on Facebook and answering questions posed in group chats. You can also have groups on Google Hangouts and Skype.

Zoom is one the team already use at the office but there are also a variety of other teleconference options and apps available.

Details of how to run virtual murder mystery parties can be found on the team’s blog here: https://www.red-herring-games.com/virtual-parties/

And again you can use discount code CRA2020 as you check out to get 20% off.

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