Sour Grapes – Paperclover

A modded version of Sour Grapes of Wrath by Michael Akers

A murder mystery dining experience! Sour Grapes was an updated design using a murder mystery scenario called Sour Grapes. We modified it to fix a few issues we had with some murder mysteries.

Issue 1: Guests didn’t know who their characters were beforehand and hence didn’t know how to act.

Solution: We made a pre-event package that contained a unique character journal that would be filled with the back stories for each character. This package also included other documents that would set up the setting.

Issue 2: There wasn’t a clear way to “play” the game. Guests are often unsure of what they should be doing.

Solution: We built a card system for items and secrets. Guests would be given the rules on how and when they can reveal and exchange these cards. Most of the rules are built into the journal, which they keep on hand and can refer to at any time.

Character Journals which had “secrets” in the for of cards which they could exchange with other players if the right conditions were met.

Issue 3: Pacing! Since murder mysteries are often dining events.

Solution: We wanted to blend the meal organically into the pacing of the event, giving guests time to enjoy the food and mingle in character and a later period with more freedom to have private conversations away from the dinner. We added in character game masters that would aid in setting the pacing and the guiding of guests.