She walked down the hall of the Donald R. Theophilus Tower toward the lounge to attend the floor meeting. Once she took a seat, her resident assistant announced to the group they were looking for floor events. Her eyes lit up as a thought sparked her mind, and her hand dripped with sweat as she raised it, hesitant to speak.
“Murder mysteries are kind of fun,” she said.
Another floor member sitting across from her jumped from his seat and agreed. After this moment, their college lives were changed. That’s where it all started.
Moscow Murder Mysterians Incorporated (Murder Inc.) is a student club at the University of Idaho for those who share the same passion for murder mystery roleplaying. Senior President Alyssa Baugh, senior Vice President Caleb Renshaw and other friends held murder mystery events their freshman year in the tower. These games evolved into something greater.
“We ran a few with our floors, and then sophomore year we were all moving out and going our separate places, so I said, ‘I’m gonna start a club for this so that we can keep doing it, and then if more people want they can join it,’” Baugh said.
What started as a group of 10-15 people in their freshman year quickly grew much larger, now consisting of 80-100 members.
“It’s grown way bigger than I thought it would,” Baugh said. “Which is cool because we’ve been able to do events with 36 people, which I never would have imagined we’d be doing freshman year.”
Recruitment began at Palousafest when the club first started. Murder Inc. attracted a variety of majors, and is open to anyone. Baugh said a member decided to act out a scene for the crowd, and the strategy helped generate interest.
“They might have wandered up because (one of our friends) staged up a fake murder in front of our booth to try to stem up business,” Baugh said. “Once they come up and don’t know what it’s about, we tell them it’s a mix between Dungeons and Dragons and a game of Clue. But you’re actually wandering around solving the murder.”
Murder Inc. is a low commitment club in which students show up to a three-hour event every few months, get assigned a character with objectives and possibly figure out who the killer is by interacting with other characters. It can be a very complicated process, Renshaw said.
“Every character has a set of objectives that they are trying to accomplish, and most people want to figure out who the murderer is — some people don’t, some people couldn’t care less,” Renshaw said. “If you’re the murderer your goal is to not let people know who the murderer is.”
Even though characters have diverse objectives, there are no scripts. Every character gets a chance to achieve their objectives in their own way. Renshaw said it’s his favorite part of the whole process.
“The best part is playing it out, being your character,” Renshaw said. “Trying to be someone who has goals and objectives different from your own for a little bit. You get to live as someone else.”
The group chooses a different theme for each game. In recent years Murder Inc. has hosted “Murder at Sea,” “50’s Diner Dance Off,” and even “Harry Potter.” Regardless of the theme, there’s always a murder mystery to solve.
Junior Amber Keele, who joined last semester at the Get Involved Fair, had a diverse set of objectives in the game she participated in.
“My goal was to not let anyone know I was broke, a failed actor and find a romantic interest,” Keele said. “I did get married in the game.”
Keele said she was glad she joined Murder Inc., because she’s made connections with other students on campus with similar interests.
“There’s the one girl, she played the chef on there, and every time we see each other we acknowledge each other,” Keele said. “It’s super cool, and really fun. You don’t have to be you.”
Renshaw said the next game will be hosted at Vandal Overnight, either at the end of February or beginning of March. Members are ready to participate in the next game, and Keele is one of them.
“I definitely wanna try it again, maybe if it’s ‘Star Wars,’ wear my Chewbacca sweater,” Keele said.
Murder Inc. provides students with a break from schoolwork, and a chance to spend time with students who have the same interests.
“We are a bunch of dorks, but it was a fun experiment putting it all together,” Baugh said. “This is something that people have an interest in and we want to support that interest.”
Lindsay Trombly can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @lindsay_trombly