Revised Plotline

Premise:

A brand new art museum has opened in Second Life, generating much excitement. For promotional purposes, a famous art museum has loaned its finest work for temporary display during the grand gala event. However, disaster struck in the night. An Art Thief has broken into the museum, defaced many paintings and finally stolen the priceless loaned picture for his or her own.

Everyone who attended the event has become a suspect. Since following standard forensic proceedure would make FAR too much sense, it’s up to the visitors to clear their names by finding the true mastermind.

Characters:

· Matt the Guard: One of the few people genuinely above suspicion. He will answer questions and make announcements, but there are limits to his knowledge – after all, if he knew the answer, we wouldn’t have a mystery, would we?

· Christopher/Sariel: A crazy person who, apparently, thinks he’s the angel Sariel. Although he claims to speak for ‘heaven’s will’, it’s impossible to say whether the information he disperses is true or false.

· Zoe the Detective: Slow and steady, this cop is participating with the investigation. Zoe will make periodic observations to keep the plot moving.

· The Thief: A frustrated person who hates the art gallery for some reason. Whoever s/he is, s/he is one of you. Find the answer quickly – time is running out!

Plot Flow:

· The ‘suspects’ (the participants) are gathered into one central area. The plot is explained, the NPCs (us) dispersed, and everyone mills around.

· There will be multiple “wings” for the museum, each with its own clue or clues. Once obtained, these implicate the thief.

· The secutity guard will offer general info and advice. His role is to ground the participants in the setting.

· The ‘angel’ spouts random nonsense and jibbers incohenerently. However, some of the advice he offers is useful. He is there to give people a nudge.

· At the halfway point, the detective may ‘discover’ something that will drive the plot forward. Her role is to be a safety net – she will be there in the middle to remind everyone what they’re supposed to be doing and to issue a progress report. She will also provide any missing clues at the end, but she will not actually deduce the thief’s identity.

· The thief’s avatar will remain the same. His purpose is to be inconspicuous. He, like the others, will mill around, converse and join in the fun; however, he will not actually solve any of the puzzles or contribute meaningfully. Perhaps he should even try to obscure some of the clues, or present a false hypothesis. Obviously this last bit isn’t really necessary and should be done sparingly – methinks the ‘innocent bystander’ doth protest to much, mebbe?

· At the end, everyone will be brought into the central room again and the class will decide as a whole who the thief is.

o Perhaps a prize will be issued?

Clues:

· There will be a large number of objects that are ‘touchable’ and display some kind of message. However, only a few of these contain an actual clue. It will either be something that refers to the player’s avatar (e.g. a ‘scrap of black cloth’), or possibly some kind of ‘puzzle’ left by the thief himself. (Attention whore that he is.) These might be ciphers, word puzzles, etc. Possibly even something more interactive, which I will leave to our resident scripter to decide.

· Every clue should have some kind of reference to the thief, but should also keep implications vague. Perhaps a few false clues that subtly contradict themselves?

· This cannot be as convoluted as an Agatha Christie novel for obvious reasons – the ‘cast’ is too big, the timeframe too small, and the task too straightforward. As such, the flow should at its most fundamental, follow thus:

o Infodump > Disperse > Gather Clues > Gather > Identify Thief