Psychologically optimized mystery party game

摘要

A mystery game system optimized for children and/or developmentally disadvantaged individuals. Various game mechanics are provided in order to provide a role-playing mystery game that is suitable in terms of level of difficulty for all participants; that does not require any participant to play the role of a criminal and/or “bad guy”, that allows responsible supervision of the course of the game, that provides positive social rewards to a selected individual (for example a particular child whose birthday party is the occasion for the game), that provides a carefully structured format for progression of the game, and which includes one or more modest “physical” challenges such as hunts for treasure and/or clues. In one embodiment, the present invention teaches a role-playing game system in which play and revelation of clues proceeds in a structured series of rounds, with players being called upon to provide a specific clue and/or advancement of the game's “story line” and/or “script”. A central “detective” character may supervise other player's rounds, and non-player supervisors may also supervise revelation of each character's clues. Non-player characters may take the negative roles (such as suspects), and the central character may have sufficient information to solve the mystery at the end of the game. In the preferred embodiment, game mechanics provide a sense of mastery even to children and negative roles are not played by anyone but rather are introduced through the plot.