Dispatches from Whitecliff Manor
A downloadable game
Mystery Mansion is a "Magical Myriorama" title; a set of 20 illustrated storytelling cards that can be placed side by side to create various narratives involving a country house and the unfortunate events that transpire there.
ghostBox is an epistolary game that uses a standard 52-card deck and follows the rules of the solitaire game Osmosis.
Dispatches from Whitecliff Manor is a mashup of these ideas, combining the basic mechanics of Osmosis, the letter writing concept of ghostBox and the images on the Mystery Mansion cards as the framework for a murder mystery you write (and solve) yourself.
To play you will need:
- A standard (French-suited) deck of 52 cards (remove the Jokers if there are any)
- A copy of Mystery Mansion (available at many bookstores, friendly local game stores or via Amazon)
- Some kind of writing implement
- Paper to write on
Download
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Really good idea.
I just recently purchased a copy of Mystery Mansion and found your hack of Osmosis.
I couldn’t resist adding to it, though, using the cards from my old Whodunit board game.
Once the stock is placed, the lowest face-up card determines how many suspects there are. If less than three, it’s raised to three. If by some weird chance that all four are tens, then it’s lowered to nine.
If using Clue/Cluedo suspects, anything over five is lowered to five.
Randomly draw the suspects and line them up at the top above the stock.
Shuffle the motive cards and deal one face down to each suspect.
Draw another suspect card. This is the victim, and goes face up to the left of the first foundation row.
Randomly draw a location card and a weapon card. Place them face down to the left of where the second foundation row will be. They are both flipped face up when the the foundation card is played.
Randomly draw another location card and place it face down to the left of where the third foundation row will be. This is where the weapon is found. It is flipped face up when the foundation card is played.
Each suspect is numbered from left to right above the stock. When their corresponding number is played in the fourth foundation row, that suspect’s motive is discovered.
In the stock, when the final card of each stack is played, if it matches a number of a suspect, they are proven innocent and no longer are considered a suspect.
The rest of the game is played as per the rules. However, when Mystery Mansion cards are drawn for events, tie a suspect into each one.
Once a game is won, the fourth foundation is picked up and shuffled. A Mystery Mansion card is drawn first to set the scene for the ‘reveal’ and then cards are drawn, one at a time, until one matches a remaining suspect. That suspect is then revealed as the killer using the Mystery Mansion card as inspiration.