News and photos

Issue No 19:
15 June 2003

A time for change!

Welcome to our nineteenth newsletter. Just to let you know our news first:

• New Ordering System – unfortunately our new multi-lingual, multi-currency shopping cart has been delayed. The company doing the programming work for us (LogicCommerce) said it would be ready by mid-April, but it still isn't finished. The waiting continues...
• What it will be like – when the new ordering system goes live, we will email you a special update explaining how it works and the changes we have made to various kits.

• Some kits will be removed soon – when the new system goes live, we will be removing "Caught In A Spanish Web" and "The Greek Tragedy" as their plots have been incorporated into the new version of "Trouble On Board". We will also be removing "The Silicon Valley Scandal" as we would like to totally reformat it.
• Party Tips – we have added "Halloween", "Christmas" and "New Year's" party suggestions to our Party Tips section. There are decoration ideas, menu suggestions, games to play and so on.

In this issue, we have articles about:

• Our photo competition winners
• Feedback on "Storm Survivors"
• Feedback on "Death On The Mound".

Our photo competition winners

We have received some very good photos. It was difficult to decide the winners. Thank you to all the entrants for taking the time to enter. The three winners are:

• Linda Muth (USA) for a photo of "the body" from her Murder Of The Great Chef party
• Lori Venturini (USA) from Munro House
  Bed & Breakfast for a photo from her Murder On The Prairie party
• Marie-Noelle Palermo (USA) for a photo from her Trouble On Board party.

We are commencing a new competition with a closing date of 1 August 2003 (see photos.htm for details).

Here is Linda's photo of the dead great chef from her "Murder Of The Great Chef " party:

Linda sent in this feedback about her "Murder Of The Great Chef" party:

"Hi Stephanie - Just wanted to drop you a note to say how great our party turned out! One of the guests figured out who did it and it happened to be (their) character. All the guests really got into their roles as you can see by the attached "cast list". We're talking about making it an annual event! Thanks again for putting together such an easy to use and fun party packet!

Sincerely,
Linda Muth"

Lori sent in this feedback about her "Murder On The Prairie" party (see her photo on the right):

"Stephanie you are the best!

So far this one's the best!!! Maybe it was because of the group, who added so much more to the murder! Eddie the Slave was worked all night, shuffling to get everything for his 'masta' . Eddie and Luke were best friends and Luke should have won the Oscar for Best Actor. LuLu was certainly a peach! Flashing leg everywhere. Everyone developed southern or farming drawls and the ad-lib was outrageous by everyone.

We are definitely proud of this Murder Mystery! If you ever need a referral, you send them my way! They would hear rave reviews from us!

Lori Venturini
Munro House Bed & Breakfast
Jonesville, Michigan, USA"

Marie-Noelle sent in this feedback about her "Trouble On Board" party (see her photo below):

"Our graduating seniors had a ball with this murder mystery. We took them to 3 different locations during the course of the evening. No one guessed the true killer which made it very exciting - especially to the murderer! A great time was had by all! Including myself the hostess!

Great job! Thanks!"

Feedback on "Storm Survivors"

Sheila Miles from the USA used the Storm Survivors kit for her mother's birthday party:

"Stephanie,

I know its been a few months since we had our party, but I had to drop you a note and thank you for all your help. We played "Storm Survivors" for my mother's 60th birthday party. We managed to completely surprise her!

My stepdad and I began planning probably 6 months in advance. We rented a small party room at a hotel and he brought her in to town (about an hour from their home) for the weekend. He took her out Friday and she thought that was her bday celebration. We had family and friends from as far as 400 miles away come.

On friday night I was decorating the room at the hotel at two am. It was great a few lieis, some inflatable palm trees, some brightly colored cups and paper plates. A fish net and a few plastic crabs etc....wonderful!!! My mother in law and I catered all the food.

I was able to plan very accuratly how long the party would take so people who had to drive any distance home could get home at a reasonable hour.

The story was interesting and well written. Some people came in elaborate costumes but I told everyone anything a tourist might wear so everyone looked great even in just a sun dress and straw hat.

My 12 year old son even played Maralitja and with an australian accent and he... (ad-libbed) CRIKEY! ... all on his own, got quite a laugh.

It made for a wonderful evening and my mother was totally surprised. I appreciate all your help and the tips in the game. Keep up the good work please. I intend to play some more.

Sheila Miles"

Feedback on Death On The Mound

Jamie Wyatt helped organize a Death On The Mound party for his office which he spread over two weeks:

"It went really well, everyone had fun. Since I knew the ending, I was able to help guide people in the storyline (and prepare all the information for them). We used e-mail a lot, but we also met fairly regularly for questioning.

We had 39 people in the group. We ended up giving a 1st prize of $100 and a second prize of baseball tickets (we St. Louis folk love our Cardinals).

Anyway, attached are the character sheets, and overview poster I used (Ed. the excellent artwork he created himself for the event). Each person got their character sheet and a copy of that last page (so they had more room to write). The poster was posted at a central location where people could try to piece it together. I already sent you the pennants I designed. We used those first to try and get people curious, they just started popping up around the building (which got people asking why), then we had the players put them on their office doors to show that they were playing so we wouldn’t bother those who weren’t).

So let me thank you for the mystery. We are planning on doing another one around Halloween. So far 2 of your stories look good for that. I also sent the link to everyone in the company if they’re interested in doing one on their own (some have already said they are). Thanks again, Jamie.

Jamie Wyatt
Graphic Designer
Liguori Publications"

Here is Lori's winning photo from her "Murder On The Prairie" party:

Here is Marie-Noelle's photo from her "Trouble On Board" party: