(Note: comments are still on moderation because of Tuesday's guessing game, but I will approve comments as quickly as I can.)
You're going to mix all these ingredients together to make a funky little mystery story starring you and some famous detective(s)!
Your Problem
Your favorite of these candy options determines what you need a detective to solve.
- Peanut butter cup = your father has disappeared
- Licorice = your grandma got swindled out of the deed to her house
- Jelly beans = your son has been kidnapped
- Peanut brittle = your car has been stolen
- Taffy = you're being blackmailed
- Gummy bears = your dog's puppies have been stolen
- Dark chocolate = you have selective amnesia
- Chocolate-covered cherry = your fiance/e is hiding something from you
- Caramels = you're being mistaken for a notorious criminal
- Bubble gum = you think your neighbor has killed their spouse
The Chief Suspect
The last number of your birth year determines who you think is behind these shenanigans.
- 0 = the barista at your favorite coffee shop
- 1 = your boss
- 2 = your favorite uncle
- 3 = your childhood best friend
- 4 = your mother-in-law
- 5 = the lifeguard at the neighborhood pool
- 6 = your ex
- 7 = two little old ladies who live around the corner
- 8 = the mayor
- 9 = a stranger you met on the train
The Setting
The first letter of the town/city where you live determines where your story takes place. (If you live out in the country, use the town in your mailing address.)
- A-E = the Australian Outback
- F-J = Los Angeles
- K-O = Rio de Janeiro
- P-T = London
- U-Z = a small village in Botswana
Detective(s)
The color of your shirt today determines who you ask to solve your mystery! (I've linked their names to Wikipedia articles about them in case you don't know who these reasonably famous fictional detectives are.)
- Black = Sherlock Holmes
- White = Jessica Fletcher
- Brown = Father Brown
- Khaki = Kate Beckett
- Grey = Hercule Poirot
- Red = Virgil Tibbs
- Pink = Cagney and Lacey
- Orange = Nancy Drew
- Peach = Trixie Belden
- Yellow = Nero Wolfe
- Green = Philip Marlowe
- Blue = Frank and Joe Hardy
- Purple = Veronica Mars
- Teal = Nick and Nora Charles
- Multicolored = Precious Ramotswe
- Other = Starsky and Hutch
Plot Twist
When you woke up today determines the sudden twist that complicates your case.
- Before 5am = Your detective uncovers a plot to kill your favorite pop star, and you learn that your own problem is just a side issue in a much larger conspiracy.
- Between 5am and 6am = Your detective searches your chief suspect's rooms and discovers a cache of Medieval artifacts that are obviously stolen.
- Between 6am and 7am = Your detective discovers that your chief suspect might actually be Jimmy Hoffa in disguise.
- Between 7am and 8am = Your detective gets kidnapped by your chief suspect, and now you must try to find and rescue them.
- Between 8 am and 9am = Your detective tracks your chief suspect to their hideout and discovers they are actually working for KAOS, the international organization of evil.
- After 9am = Your detective turns out to be in cahoots with your chief suspect.
Solution
The color of your eyes determines how it all works out.
- Brown = Your chief suspect turns out to be completely innocent; a criminal mastermind was framing them, and your case helps put that mastermind away for life.
- Blue = You help your detective follow your suspect and catch them red-handed trying to do the same thing to someone else that they did to you. They're going to jail for a long time now.
- Green = Your chief suspect gets into a shoot-out with your detective and dies in your arms after confessing.
- Gray = Your chief suspect turns her/himself in and plea-bargains with the District Attorney, turning state's evidence against some bad guy you've never heard of and not getting punished at all for what they did to you... at least, not by the authorities....
- Black = You try to trap your chief suspect into confessing, but they jump off a bridge and drown, so you never learn why they did this.
- Hazel = Your chief suspect tries to flee the country, but border patrol catches them and turns them over to the authorities.
- Violet = You save your chief suspect from drowning in a river, and they confess out of remorse and beg you to forgive them.
Now you just put it all together! Something like this:
[Problem] just happened, and I think [Chief Suspect] is responsible. So here I am in [Setting], asking [Detective(s)] to find out what's going on. Before they do [Plot Twist] happens, but eventually [Solution].
Here's mine:
I have selective amnesia, and I think the barista at my favorite coffee shop here in this small Botswana village is responsible. So I hired Sherlock Holmes to find out what happened to me. But the barista kidnapped Sherlock Holmes, and I had to try to rescue him! Happily, the barista was completely innocent, and being framed by a criminal mastermind, which is good because I liked the way she made mocha. Sherlock Holmes caught that mastermind and turned him over to the authorities, so that guy will be spending the rest of his life in jail. Now if I could only get my memory back and figure out what I'm doing in Botswana...
Your turn!
Rachel, I think this is the most inventive game you've come up with yet!! I love it! :D
ReplyDeleteSo here's the sitch:
My dad is missing, and I suspect my slightly sinister mother-in-law is responsible. So I've flown out to Los Angeles to track down Veronica Mars and convince her to take the case and find my dad. Shockingly, Veronica just discovered my "mother-in-law" is really Jimmy Hoffa in disguise! Not sure how he pulled that off; but hey, he's Jimmy Hoffa, so he's an old hand at hiding from the Feds. Anyway, Jimmy Hoffa got into a shootout with Veronica and died in my arms after confessing everything. Now Veronica and I are going to rescue my dad and make a million dollars writing a tell-all expose about how Jimmy Hoffa got away with posing as MY MOTHER-IN-LAW!!!
Ohhhhh, Katie, this made me laugh so much! I love it!
DeleteMy father has disappeared in the Australian outback, and my prime suspect is my childhood best friend, so I’ve hired Veronica Mars to take the case, but while investigating, she searched my former BBF’s rooms and discovered a cache of Medieval artifacts that are obviously stolen. Veronica took this information to the police, and my BFF turned herself in and plea-bargained with the District Attorney, turning state’s evidence against some bad guys I’ve never heard of and not getting punished for what they did to me, at least not by the authorities. But I know she has my father hogtied out there somewhere, and I’m gonna find him!
ReplyDeleteCharity, if anyone can find your father in the Austalian Outback, it's you!!!
DeleteWhile traveling by train in Rio de Janeiro, I met a middle-aged man with dark hair. He said he owned a coffee plantation and, as my father loves roasting his own beans for his espresso every day, I decided to introduce them. When I went back to our compartment to get my father, I discovered he was missing!! Distraught, I went looking for the porter and instead ran into the famous Hardy brothers, Frank and Joe. I asked them to help me find him. They followed me back to my seat to see if the man I had met had seen my father but he was gone too! This made him my prime suspect, as it was surely no coincidence that they would both go missing. At the next stop, I alighted from the train in the hopes of spotting my father on the platform. It was then that I saw Frank and Joe talking to the mysterious man I had met earlier. He handed them a slip of paper and disappeared. Oh no! Were the Hardy’s in cahoots with my chief suspect? Just as the train was about to pull out, the mysterious man jumped on the train with my father in tow! When I rushed over to see if my father was okay the man introduced himself as Fenton Hardy. A criminal mastermind had nabbed my father to help him smuggle illegal coffee beans out of the country but Mr. Hardy and his sons had managed to catch him when they spotted him exiting the train at the station. With my father’s identification of the mastermind and his henchmen, they had enough evidence to put them away for life and end illegal coffee bean smuggling!
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful ending, Phyl! I love that you worked Fenton Hardy in so naturally :-D
DeleteWell, since Frank and Joe’s case usually ends up tying in with with their dad’s it only felt natural lol. And my dad really roasts his own beans!
DeletePhyl, exactly! That's what made it so perfect!
DeleteAnd that's cool that your dad roasts his own beans! There's a small, locally owned coffee shop near my house that roasts their own, and it smells so amazing whenever they're roasting :-9
So fun! Here's what I've got:
ReplyDeleteI'm being mistaken for a notorious criminal, and I'm pretty sure the mayor of the little town where I live in the Australian Outback is stoking these disturbing rumors. Why? I have no idea! Desperate for answers, I send an urgent telegram to Hercule Poirot, begging for his help in solving this mystery. Poirot journeys to Australia (all the way from Europe!), only to discover that the mayor might actually be Jimmy Hoffa in disguise. Together, we trail the mayor and discover that he's now trying to make everyone think someone ELSE is a notorious criminal (since he failed with me, thanks to Poirot). We catch him red-handed and Poirot explains everything in a neat little monologue. The End.
Man, it would be fun to solve a crime with Poirot!
Eva, if anyone is going to take down Jimmy Hoffa, it's Poirot!
DeleteLove this so much! I am sadly indecisive when it comes to candy which means I have more than one problem…
ReplyDeleteApparently I’m getting married and everything is going well until my father disappears and my fiancé is hiding something from me. I hate to say that I suspect my maid of honor, my childhood best friend, but I do. I postpone long enough to go to a small village in Botswana, where my dad was last seen. There I run into Precious Ramotswe. I have never heard of her, but she is the most trustworthy person I have come across in a while and knows her way around here. But, I shouldn’t have relaxed, as I receive a note the next morning from my childhood best friend: she kidnapped Precious! Through clues she left behind, I find Precious and my dad in an abandoned building! She tells me that she heard my childhood best friend talk in code, but thinks she knows where my childhood best friend is headed. We hurry to catch my childhood best friend red-handed trying to do kidnap the father of another client of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency! She’s going to jail for a long time now. I call off the wedding (because my fiancé has disappeared…run off because he was part of it?). Instead, my dad and I decide to live in Botswana, and work for Preciuos Ramotswe and The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency now. There are too many disappearing fathers, so we will track down all those responsible!
Chloe, well, mysteries often have subplots, so why not?
DeleteMaybe while you track down those disappearing fathers, you'll find your lost fiance!