The Warring States of NPF - Scene of the Crime

I want to run a murder mystery rp. so here is the scenario. I'm altering an existing rp framework to fit the setting I want to run.

The year is 1924. The setting is the yacht of Lord Percival Masters. The Player characters have all been invited for a cruise on the ship of luxury for a reason.

That reason is Lord Percival Masters, film mogul and distant cousin to the royalty of England.

Lord Percival Masters was never a man to sit idle with his fortune. In his youth, he was a clever and daring entrepreneur. In the early 1900's, he used personal funds to help found Masters Petroleum Products, one of the first corporations to begin exploring consumer applications of plastics. Within two decades he was one of the wealthiest men on the planet. In 1915, he sold his controlling interest in the corporation and started anew, creating Masters Films. In an interview with People Magazine, he said that he wished to "step away from the plunder of the earth and create something that people could appreciate."

Within five years, Masters Films had gathered a reputation for creating shoddy, haphazard, and poorly written films. They tended to be low budget, bottom of the barrel variety, ripping off the latest blockbuster. Masters was partially responsible, as he insisted on directing all of the studio's major films himself and knew absolutely nothing about film-making. The only true claim to fame for Masters Films was the sheer volume of their production. In a decade, they produced three-hundred films. Some never made it to the theatres, but the ones that did easily paid for the rest. The company prospered, though its reputation languished. Masters Films was the mockery of the film world. Shoddy monster movies and schlock western rubbish was referred to as "Masters-esque" in film classes across world.

Eventually, Masters had enough of the mockery. His grand plan to create a worthwhile legacy on earth had failed. He was becoming an old man, and so he decided to give it one last try. He canceled all Masters Film projects and put everything he had into one last opus. He spared no expense on special effects, location, or costuming. In a daring move, he hired virtual unknowns to the film industry rather than established actors, claiming that "the strong create their own legacy."

For a time, it seemed as if his plan would work. He unearthed a gold mine in Samson Hylix, an African-American screenwriter. The film was entitled �Sands of Doom.� The film told the tale of a lone Gunslinger and a schoolteacher trapped in a bar in the middle of the old west and hunted by bandits. It seemed like a joke, but was actually a quite haunting tale of death, survival, and heroism. No one who read the script doubted that anything but the best could come of it.

Hylix brought along Ted Coop, a police officer with experience working in television and film stunts. He would act as an advisor on the film, bringing elements or realism where she could and directing all stunt work.

As for the stars, Masters unveiled Derrick Freelander, or "Decker" as he preferred to be called. Derrick Freelander was an obscure stuntman who had never had a speaking role in a film. This would be the young star's first movie, and he was excited about the prospect. Some thought he was too small, but when Masters saw the lad move he had no doubt he had the next Gary Cooper on his hands. Derrick Freelander had a bit of a temper, but he was a good actor.

In addition, Masters pulled off an extraordinary coup by hiring the beautiful Marion Shields Originally an acrobat in the Circus, Marion Shields had gone on to serials, rising to a position of prominence on MGM's most popular romances. Whatever favors or enticements Masters offered Marion Shields to step away from a solid movie career to take a risk with an unproven studio, her presence on the set gave the cast and crew confidence from the start.

The only snag came with the choice of director. Masters had originally chosen the famous Bob Arkens to direct the film. Enter Kaleb Mountebanc. Kaleb Mountebanc had been a promising film school graduate when Masters first met him. He saw great potential and offered him an attractive contract. While working on their first film, they had a terrible accident with an experimental special effect on the set. The medics took Kaleb Mountebanc away to receive treatment. Masters never expected to see them again.

The day Bob Arkens arrived on Sands of Doom's set, Kaleb Mountebanc appeared with a lawyer. The accident had changed him. He had a new outlook on life. His original contract had promised Kaleb Mountebanc first choice of all Masters' films, or three films of Masters' choice within three months. As Masters had no other films in production, he was forced to dismiss Bob Arkens and give Kaleb Mountebanc the director's chair. At first, he thought nothing of it.

Unfortunately, Kaleb Mountebanc had rather bizarre ideas about how the movie should be directed, and how the set should be run. He exerted their power at every turn, trying to turn Sands of Doom toward their "singular, burning vision." He made ludicrous demands of the cast and crew (including the controversial "inside-the-actor's-nose-cam") and openly insulted Masters when he tried to dissuade him. The budget skyrocketed under Kaleb Mountebanc's direction. The early cuts were completely incomprehensible. The test audiences walked out before the first ten minutes were done. The infamous opening scene featured an old man in a feathered blue hat walking through a graveyard in a thunderstorm, then jump cut to a fat man laughing in a bucket of cream cheese and cockroaches. It had nothing to do with the rest of the film, and it only got stranger from there.

When Masters recalled the cast and crew for re-shoots, everything really began to fall apart. Kaleb Mountebanc was incensed, refusing to change a single frame without his personal supervision. Freelander lost his temper when he was injured by the nose-cam, striking a gaffer in the face and causing the entire crew to go on strike until reparations were made. When a shadowy lawyer began to hang around the set, introducing himself only as "the new consultant," everyone began to grow even more frustrated and nervous.

One month into the re-shoot (and nine months into filming altogether) a terrible accident occurred on set. An special affect explosive charge detonated early, injuring Marion Shields� face. The injury was not permanent, but would delay shooting for several more weeks. The insurance investigators ruled that the accident was "intentional sabotage," and refused to pay a dime. Ted Coop was bewildered by the incident, not sure how it could have happened under her direction. Freelander stormed off to a local bar and was arrested for inciting a riot. Hylix simply vanished.

Masters canceled filming two days later, refusing to answer any calls regarding why.

One week later, Hylix, Coop, Freelander, Shields, Arkens, Mountebanc, and "The Consultant" all receive invitations to Percival Masters� Yacht. The invitations read as follows...

My friend. There comes a time when we must stop chasing shadows and put our dreams to rest. Come and I will tell you why.

-Masters

The seven arrived to find Masters strangely at ease, as if nothing worried him any longer. He turned the conversation away from Sands of Doom entirely, claiming that he would answer everyone's questions in time. He claimed that he had the final negatives on the Yacht and in the morning they would watch the film together and he would answer their questions.

The next morning, something terrible was discovered...

Jeeves had cooked a simple breakfast for everyone. He brought the plates on a silver platter to the master bedroom. He knocked three times on the door. There was no answer. He opened the door and dropped the platter. The toast and scrambled eggs fell to the mahogony floor.

Percival Masters lay cold and dead at his desk. His throat cut. The knife on the table next to him.

Jeeves ran up on deck and started ringing the bell.

Rules of the game:
You are one of the Seven individuals invited to Percival Masters� Yacht. The game begins in the morning as Masters dead body is discovered. I will inform you what you know, where your character begins, and what your character must do to "win" the game.

Generally, for everyone concerned it would probably be a good idea for any character to figure out who the culprit is, or at the very least try not to get blamed. Here are some general tips for survival that are important to keep in mind.

1.) Know what your character knows. Everyone has different information on one another. These are your greatest clues and your greatest weapons.

2.) Everyone must keep their character�s information to themselves. Not only is this for your own protection, as none of your characters fully trust one another, but it makes things fair. It would be all too easy to present incontrovertible evidence of your innocence by saying "Hey, I'm not the killer! See? It says so right in this PM!" Simply giving general information on your character should work fine. I�m going to keep a copy of what you all know so as to keep things fair.

3.) Only react to characters in the same room as you.

4.) Don't be afraid to PM me secretly to describe what you're doing or ask to step aside to discuss something. All the characters have secret agendas, and it's your job to fulfill them. If you post in the thread it is assumed you want everyone to know.

5.) Have fun. Don't take it personally if one of the other characters stabs in the back or betrays your character. Unlike your standard game, your characters are not friends. The fun in this game is seeing who can come closest to their objective first. Exceptional role-playing should also be rewarded