I want to check out the mystery games, please!

]]> http://www.shotinthedarkmysteries.com/dci-tom-barnaby-midsomer-murders/feed/ 0 http://www.shotinthedarkmysteries.com/the-story-behind-friday-the-13th/ http://www.shotinthedarkmysteries.com/the-story-behind-friday-the-13th/#comments Fri, 13 May 2011 15:19:24 +0000 admin http://www.shotinthedarkmysteries.com/?p=3795

It’s Friday the 13th, a date that carries massive superstition across the globe. The basis of these superstitions vary as widely as the superstitions themselves, and the date is now synonymous with bad luck and slasher films. Hell, there’s even an official “phobia” name for it: friggatriskaidekaphobia (yes, we can pronounce that. No, not five times quickly). But one event seems to rise above the rest as the true beginning of the curse of Friday the 13th, and the reason we as a society view it as a day of bad luck.

The story of Friday the 13th involves money, blood and the church, as well as The Knight’s Templar, those bad-ass superhero bankers from the 1100-1300s. They were originally brought together to protect traveling Christians, but it just so happened that as they traveled from place to place, they ended up sorta kinda starting the first ever banking and chequing system (except, of course, that one guy from The Last Crusade who pissed off the wrong person and ended up in that cave in Petra guarding the Holy Grail for a millennium. Makes you wonder whose daughter HE macked up).

Dude, SOOOO not worth it.

So, just like money-grubbing modern day banks, the Templars quickly made a lot of money. A LOT. Enter France’s King Philip IV, who was the equivalent of The Knight’s Templar’s employer. Only he didn’t pay them. Ever. They worked on a sort of “I’ll pay you after I fund all the battles I’m going to make you fight” system.

“Are we done yet? Good, because this huge spiky crown is making my eyebrows look like a mustache.” “No it isn’t sir, that’s just how you look.”

Then one day, King Philip realized how much money The Templars had amassed. Having spent all his own money on the aforementioned battles, King Philip had a brilliant idea. Why not, he thought under the weight of his GIGANTIC crown (seriously, that thing is HUGE!) wipe out my enormous debt AND amass an outrageous fortune all at the same time? All it would take is a country-wide massacre!

In modern times, this would be the equivalent of mass corporate layoffs. Only, instead of giving you a severance package, they accuse you of heresy, torture you to get a confession and then burn you alive.

He could not do this and get away with it without the backing of the church, so he told Pope Clement V that the Templars practiced all this stuff that would piss God right off. You name it, they were said to have done it. Outraged, the Vatican gave the slaughter the green light.

Good job, Phil. Way to rat out those heretics.

But King Philip couldn’t kill them one at a time. It had to be all at once or he’d get an ass-kicking by a bunch of guys with some serious fighting skills. If it were modern day, organizing this type of coordinated killing would be easy.

In 1307 however, this proved a little trickier. So, the king sent a bunch of scrolls to his men a month in advance with strict instructions not to open them until the morning of Friday, October 13th.

So, the Templars were rounded up and either killed or put on “trial” to confess to all those chumped-up anti-God things they were supposed to have done. Only, the prosecution’s crown witness, Templar Grand Master Jacques De Molay, rescinded his confession and told everyone around the Notre Dame Cathedral that they were all innocent, confessions had been forced and that Philip IV had a bed wetting problem.

We may have made that last part up.

The Grand Master lived up to his uber-cool name in the end. The last thing he did before King Philip IV and Pope Clement V burned him at the stake was curse them both, telling them that by the end of the year, only six weeks away, The King and The Pope would both be dead.

Guess what – they totally died. Both of them. Grand Master indeed.

So, instead of being afraid of Friday the 13th or expecting “bad luck”, we recommend you withdraw your savings and shove it all inside your mattress. After all, the obvious moral of this tale is not that Friday the 13th is cursed, but the establishment of banking just may be.

While the purpose of Earth Hour is to benefit the environment and bring awareness to our individual consumption, this question is a valuable side effect. Participating in Earth Hour gives us the chance to reconnect and get back to basics. Here are our top 25 things to do during Earth Hour 2011. Let us know what you’re planning for Earth Hour Activities on our Facebook page (why not do it during Earth Hour from your Smartphone?) at:

http://www.facebook.com/shotinthedarkmysteries

1. Shot In The Dark Mysteries’ Earth Hour Mini-Mystery – $19.97, 1 hour to play, 5 people

Okay, come on! You couldn’t expect us to post a blog about Earth Day without tooting our own horn a bit here. Shot In The Dark Mysteries is VERY environmentally conscious, and in 2010 we launched a game designed to be played in the dark for Earth Hour, called (not surprisingly) The Earth Hour Murder. Play it in about an hour with a minimum of 5 people – with NO MAXIMUM! Grab a flashlight, light some candles and pull out your magnifying glass and get ready to solve a mystery in an hour! While it is a “murder” mystery, it’s “Clean” (no references to drugs or sex), so the kids can play at the adults’ discretion.

A game designed with Earth Hour and Earth Day in mind - playable in the dark!

2. Fondue. Yum.

3. Hand-wash your delicates. Oh please, we know they’ve been piling up. Have you – oh my, you’ve been sneaking them in with the rest of the laundry haven’t you, you bad girl.

4. Grab your significant other and spend the hour in bed. Or living room, kitchen or laundry room, if you’re into that type of thing.

5. Walk your Dog (or, if you’re really brave, your cat!)

6. Roast Marshmallows by candlelight. Use chop sticks as roasting sticks, but keep your fire extinguisher nearby, just in case.

7. Play a board game, like Scrabble. The winner gets bragging rights for a full year until the rematch.

8. Tweet or Facebook with other Earth Hour participants on your smartphone. Make some new friends, get some new followers and get in on the buzz.

9. Fingerpaint in the dark. If  you have kids, do it on canvas, then set up an art wall the following day, when you can see your level.

10. Have a front or backyard catch-up session with the neighbours you haven’t seen all winter. Supply beer to ensure excellent neighbourhood relations for the rest of the summer.

11. Balance your budget. Ugh. Or…

12. Have a bad-poetry contest. The worst Haiku is off dishes duty for a week.

13. Take random moonlight pictures with your phone. Sup them up with a cool smartphone app, like Instagram and share with the world.

14. Dance around with glow sticks and marvel at how trippy they are (drugs optional)

15. Tell a story from your past that no one else knows. Keep it PG if kids are around!

16. Prepare and eat a raw food dinner with items purchased from an organics store that deals in local produce. Keep track of the foods you enjoy and implement them into your regular meals.

17. Build a fort with the couch cushions and then read a classic by candlelight. You’ve been looking for an excuse to reconnect with Mr. Darcy – or that cute Tin Man that was so smitten with Dorothy.

18. Find a place where the moonlight is strong and see who can make the best shadow puppets.

19. Pull out your telescope or binoculars and search for the constellations. Get a star map from the bookstore or online, or make up your own.

20. Go to bed early. Come on, you know you deserve it.

21. Catch up on housework. See how weird cleaning the bathroom in the dark is (but stay clear of the comode, cuz – yuck.)

22. Learn a new language via podcast on your smartphone (look for Coffee Break Spanish, French and Italian, they’re the best).

23. Hold a wine tasting. Keep track of your faves and serve them the next time you have company.

24. Join an e-waste recycling drive for charity, or a similar initiative in your community.

25. Make a shopping list days before and challenge yourself to get everything you need during Earth Hour from participating businesses (ladies, shoes ARE arguably a necessity if the shoe store turns down the lights!).

Stop looking at my butt, a#*hole!

But in the midst of our cinnamon-heart-induced sugar highs, what most people fail to realize is that February 14th is a holiday that marks a death – the death of Valentine.

Around 278 AD, Valentine lived as a priest in Rome. One of the major parts of his job description was to marry people.

Enter Claudius the Cruel, aptly named because he liked war, and he liked winning in war even more.

Who was crueler, Claudius II or his esthetician?

One day Claudius realized no one wanted to join his army. People were saying “his wars are kinda dumb. Why would I want to leave my wife and loved ones to die by having a long stake shoved all the way from my ass up to my ears?” (not an actual quote)

"Emperor's Army?! Crap, I thought it was the line-up at Starbucks!!"

As with most villains, the problem was clearly NOT with Claudius, but with marriage and love. And so, Claudius the Cruel banned marriage and engagements.

But Valentine was a romantic at heart who clearly voted for the other guy, and he continued to marry lovers in secret.

When Claudius found out, he was seriously peeved off, and decided to behead Valentine – on February 14th.

But Valentine’s brass echoes through eternity, not because of the card and chocolate sales on the day that carries his name, and not even because he was named a saint after they chopped off his head. The true size of Valentine’s… NERVE… was the love note he left behind for his jailer’s daughter, who he had been hitting on from behind the prison bars. He signed it, “From Your Valentine”. A romantic gesture, sure, but also a bit of an “eff you” for the wanks who jailed him in the first place.

If Valentine wasn't a priest without the benefits of modern dentistry, we believe he would have looked just like Johnny Depp's Don Juan de Marco.

So, this Valentine’s Day, as you’re buying flowers and candy, think of the man who married couples in secret and then macked up the jailer’s daughter, and let that inspire you to buy your significant other a gift that matches Valentine’s style.

Suit up, little hampster eraser, you're going in.

Poison has always seemed to me to be a difficult murder weapon – one that takes planning and skill. A murderer who uses poison could probably not plead temporary insanity, or claim the crime was in the heat of the moment. There’s something controlled about murder by poison – something elegant. Poison is the cat burglar of all murder methods – reprehensible to be sure but one we all secretly think is cool.

Do you know what that makes you and your baseball bat, Fiddy? NO I will not give you a hint!

I’ve studied toxicology off and on over the years, usually for custom mysteries. That’s the reason I find myself sitting at a table in Starbucks this afternoon Googling “Poison deaths Panama City”. But poisoning is not as simple as the comic books and CSI would have us believe. To set up a murder plot that involves poison, one needs time. It’s very rare for a victim to die immediately from the amount of poison one could administer unnoticed.

But with the modern-day availability of other types of murder weapons, the “artful skill of murder” has gone the way of the steam engine. But did you know that in the renaissance era, families such as the Borgias were renowned for just that skill?

You know what's WAY more fun than being pious? Sneaking arsenic into people's food!

And how’s this for a business idea: Hieronyma Spara, a Roman in the 17th century actually opened a school that taught wives how to poison their husbands undetected. Just as long as no one spotted them leaving the school, that is.

"She's soooooo going to whack her husband!" "How do you know?" "She's coming out of a building with the sign "Spousicide 101." "Oh."

But many of the deadly poisons have for years been used as a treatment for numerous illnesses, like asthma and cancer, which gives new meaning to the phrase, “Everything in moderation.”

It will help your heartburn, I swear!

The most terrifying part of a poison death (or perhaps the beauty of it) is that it can be hard to determine the cause of death. There is a lot of evidence that Napoleon died of poisoning. There have been tests done on his hair that have come back positive for arsenic. Was he poisoned, or medicating another illness? This does seem one of the more likely hypothesis though, since others claim his wallpaper killed him.

Hamlet’s uncle poured poison in his brother’s ear. Hamlet himself was killed with Laertes’ poisoned sword, which he used to stab Claudius and then made him drink poisoned wine as he died… you know, just to be sure.

Danes are known for their subtlety.

Of course, who could forget Cleopatra, who found a bit more in her basket of figs than just a high-fiber treat!

"I always knew nutritious food would be the death of me!"

And who can forget sweet little Lizzie Borden? Before she (allegedly) hatcheted her parents, Lizzie tried numerous times to poison them.

Ah fuck it, I'll just use the ax.

While this “artful” type of murder is not typically used as it was in the 1800′s and earlier, it can be tough to plot a murder mystery game or novel by using poison as a murder method – at least, not easy without sacrificing your integrity. But poison murders are by far the most romantic type of murder method, whether the victim is Napoleon himself or one of the old men in the cellar of Abby, Martha and Teddy from Arsenic and Old Lace, and I’m always up for a challenge.

It was very difficult, because I had a number of games in the works, and I’ve had to start all over again on a few of them. One of those was Vampires vs. Werewolves. The game was finished and I was waiting for the audio files to come back from the studio when the techno-tragedy occured.

Between Blastdoor Productions’ studio (the ones who do the mp3 mystery files for Shot In The Dark Mysteries’ instant-download party games), the emails I sent other developers and the work I had done on my portable devices I was able to recover most of the files from the games I was developing.

All, that is, except Vampires vs. Werewolves. I do a lot of pen-to-paper work when I’m writing though, and I tore apart the house to finding bits and scraps here and there. And with those bits and scraps and my memories of one of the largest games in our catalogue (not to mention one of my new faves), I was able to recreate Vampires vs. Werewolves.

WOOT!

It’s launching this week and I’m SOOOOO excited, not just because I’m launching another fantastic mystery party game, but also because I’ll be finished with it. I’ve written this massive game from scratch TWICE. But this version is even bigger and better than the one I lost, and I know you vampire, werewolf and Halloween enthusiasts willl love playing it and solving the mystery at your party this year.

In my post-game-production glee, I created some buttons. Take them, post them to your Facebook profile or whatever you like – my treat, just give a shout out to Shot In The Dark Mysteries wherever you use them for decoration.

Stay tuned later this week for the launch of Vampires and Werewolves – FINALLY!

I LOVE this video! It’s from 1943, and was originally taken off the air because of the beastiality connection (I’ll be honest, my curiosity around THAT statement is what made me check out the video in the first place!)

There is a lot of pure gold in here, but some of my favourite parts were, “Hey, follow that cab!” (CLASSIC!!) and “Grandma, control yourself!”

I also believe Jim Carey’s reaction to Cameron Diaz as she takes the stage for “Gee Baby, Ain’t I Good To You” in The Mask could be a reference to this cartoon.

There is also the totally awesome wolf suicide ending. There’s no way in our politically-correct day in age this could air, but apparently it was even too hot for TV back then.

Enjoy!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Christmas in July is going out with a bang – literally. The Christmas Party Prankster hits the virtual shelves today. Set at a kids’ Christmas party, the game contains a series of pranks, and everyone must work together to determine who has the motive, means and opportunity to pull these pranks and sabotage the party. The final prank involves an exploding can of faux-snow and a Christmas tree. We thought we’d end things off with a bang!

Here’s a peak at The Christmas Party Prankster! Have a great weekend everyone – we’ll be spending ours taking down our Christmas lights.

Too tame for you? Want some blood in your mystery? The Santa Strangling was re-released a few weeks ago, so if you haven’t seen the new look, check it out!

And just for fun, I’m putting my Santa Chalk Outline out there in the public domain. I’m only asking that if you use it on your website, you give our site a nod. Thanks!