The Idol Hands of Death

The Creative Process

This game is a gift, in many ways. It's also a favorite, for many reasons.

My LARP writing had gotten bogged down. Jules, my daughter, was almost four years old. My son, Jordan, was a newborn. There were duties and responsibilities, and time was a scarce resource.

The two of us split the night. I had the early shift, until 1 AM or so. I would handle any kid responsibilities that came up. Then I would go to bed and sleep until I got up for work the next morning. Their mother was on maternity leave at the time, so she could sleep as needed. This kept the two of us tired but reasonably sane.

Jord was a pretty good sleeper, and Jules was rarely a problem. All of a sudden, I had time to myself, a couple quiet hours a night.

Where There's A Will had been handed off to the Berrys for completion by that time, and so I cast about for something new to write. I decided that I wanted to write something that wasn't set in modern times, so I did some reading. I also had these notes I'd jotted down in 1987. (I have a lot of notes about potential games, and always have.) It really didn't take a lot of effort to make the decision. I've always wanted to go to Egypt. The history of the area has fascinated me, especially after I read Fromkin's book. However, I was determined that I wouldn't let myself be distracted or bogged down. I kept my writing efforts a secret from just about everyone.

Andy Fuellemann, Charlie McCutcheon and I worked at the Spit Brook facility of what was then Digital. We'd have lunch and then go out walking during good weather. We usually did a circuit of the duck pond. I'd throw out a plot idea or something as we started. By the time I got back to my desk, there was usually a page or so of notes to jot down. At night, once everything was settled, I'd hop on my trusty Mac Plus (aka Harriet) and quietly type away. If someone squalled, I'd stop what I was doing and see to the problem. This continued for the next two months.

Patty Hardy provided me with some invaluable insight, some hieroglyphic fonts, and some props that have been in every run of the game.

One sunny weekend day, I walked up to the bedroom with a notebook. It had several hundred pages of text in it. My now-ex was sitting there, resting.

"You know that murder mystery that hasn't been finished?" I suppose she thought it had a completed Where There's A Will in it. She looked at me puzzled, because the Berrys were still working on that game.

"No, not that one, this one." I showed her the brand-new game, ready for editorial review and sanity checking. I'd pulled it off; it was a complete surprise.

The First Run

Hudson, NH, July 1991

We had a friend with a catering business. She was willing to help us throw a tea and a full Egyptian meal during the game. We had several of the Usual Suspects on hand. The game rocked, even if the murder was almost interrupted. Word got out. We had another success on our hands.

The Second and Third Runs

Hudson, NH, September 1992

Leominster, MA, October 1992

With the word out, people were asking for a chance to play. The problem is that there are logistic issues with this game. You need a lot of space to play, including outside space for the dig site. That means you can't run it in November or March. The meals are also important, which means we had to find times when we could find a caterer. Finally, you want it to be warm outside, and hot is better. It's fun to make the players sweat in more ways than one.

We had some feedback from the first run, and Tim Lasko was hooked. When we set up another run, there was only one problem: the guest list had 22 names. Could we write new characters?

I'd never done that before. Tim threw out a suggestion, and all of a sudden we were tag-teaming the character writing process. There were enough hooks in the game already that we could fit the two parts in seamlessly. People couldn't tell we'd added characters, and, in fact, there was no way we were going to be able to get rid of them. The games rocked.

The Fourth Run

Dunstable, MA, August 1994

Three other sets of friends heard about this game and wanted to play. We made the arrangements and set a date. This time, the guest list was 25 players. Tim and I looked at each other. Susan Giusto joined in the fun. There was more tag-team writing. When we were done, we looked at the new characters. They'd actually filled in the remaining holes we knew about in the game. They fit very nicely in, with connections to everyone else.

They fit in so well that one of the characters (and I'm not saying who) has gotten several votes as the potential murderer in both the runs where that character has been present.

One note: you have to be really careful staging these games and prepping your players. There's a situation that's set up for one player to let loose with several damaging and very public accusations. Our player had a wonderful time with the situation, threatening very loudly that he was going to kill someone in no uncertain terms. Unfortunately, this was in hearing distance of one of our host's neighbors. Our host had not warned people what was up.

As we were marching back from the dig site outside the house, in full costume, the Dunstable police cruiser pulled up and found our host. He explained that this was just a game...

The game rocked.

The Fifth Run

Champaign, IL, June 22, 1996

My marriage ended. I'd connected with a whole new set of people who played these kinds of games. Gail and Dig Freedman really wanted to see this game run, and they were helping to set up a brand new B&B outside of Champaign, Illinois that would be a perfect site. I agreed to come out and run the game. Being poor, I had to drive, by myself, the entire distance (and back). 24 hours one way in the car is a long time. Tim and Susan flew in for the game. We had other friends drive or ride buses long distances just to play.

As with all construction projects, the B&B fell behind. Less and less of it was going to be usable on the projected date. On the day before the game, a backhoe ran over the water line, rupturing it. There are frantic plans made to bring in coolers full of fresh, potable water. Given a temperature well into the 90s, we needed it.

The kitchen was incomplete. Our host drove much of the night to get the parts for the stove. It was assembled in the morning before the caterer got there. There was just enough working for the food to be prepared.

The plumbing wasn't finished either, as the host discovered when the caterer tried to use the kitchen sink. Water went into unexpected places.

Despite all the disasters, the game was an utter blast.

What's Next?

We keep talking about rerunning this game. I really want to do it. It's going to take a little archaeology, as the hieroglyphic fonts are on the machine two generations back.