Updating Court in the Act

Court in the Act – updated

We’ve finally done it – we’ve updated Court in the Act to our modern format.

Cover to Court in the Act, a historical murder mystery game.

Court in the Act is one of our oldest games. We published it in 2003, two years after we started Freeform Games. It’s never been a big seller, although it seems to be popular with those that purchase it.

And now that it’s updated, all of our games have eight-page character booklets.

So has anything changed?

While most of the game is the same, a few things have changed.

The murder

Court in the Act started life as an Elizabethan larp written in the 90s. I can’t remember if it always had a murder, but as part of the review, we noticed that the murder can’t really be solved in the same way that our other games can be. (Nobody has ever commented on this, but murder takes second place over all the other shenanigans going on.)

It didn’t even have a solution!

Anyway, we have now added some murder clues and a solution, and the murder can be solved by anyone who works out the clues.

People in costume playing our Court in the Act murder mystery game

Now for 15+

We originally suggested Court in the Act is for those aged 18 and over, but some of our customers have run it successfully with kids younger than 18, and we toned down some of the characters. So now we think it’s suitable for anyone aged 15+

Genders

One thing we haven’t changed is the gender balance of the characters. Elizabethan times weren’t as inclusive as they are now, plus many of the characters in the game are historical, so our options were limited.

So instead, we suggest that the characters can all be played by people of any gender – in keeping with the cross-dressing spirit of Shakespeare’s plays, by which this game is inspired.

Playing Court in the Act, an Elizabethan murder mystery game.

Available now

So there we have it. If you’ve recently purchased Court in the Act then I recommend you redownload the files so you can have the most up-to-date version.

You can learn more about Court in the Act here.

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Written by Steve Hatherley

9 January 2025

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