Live Action Clue is tonight at Wilson Library, that's no mystery. However, few people know the ins and outs of this event better than Emily Jack, digital projects and outreach librarian for Wilson Library's North Carolina Collection Gallery. Staff writer Aaron Whittemore spoke with Jack to discuss the origins and details of this event. Another mystery solved.
The Daily Tar Heel: How did this event first come into being?
Emily Jack: We’ve been doing this event since October 2012. The initial idea behind it came from a woman named Becky Garrett who works in the library. Becky is a room monitor in the Grand Reading Room, and she's also a recreation therapist. She’s someone who thinks about solving problems using games. She noticed a lot of undergraduate students were intimidated by the Wilson Library and thought this was a problem that could be solved with a game. This led to her idea that we could have a live game of Clue in Wilson Library.
The first game in was held in October 2012 and bears almost no resemblance to the game we play today. This is because we’ve had a committee developing the game every semester since. We’ve done this in the fall and spring and always incorporate suggestions from players. Over the last five years, we’ve built it up into something that is very dynamic, immersive and exciting.
DTH: How is the event set up? How does the game work and flow?
EJ: The mission of the teams in the game is that they’re trying to solve a mystery. People who remember the classic Clue board game will remember the who, what and where question. In our game, the question is — I don’t want to give too much away because if people who are reading this are playing the game, I don’t want to give them an unfair advantage — but I’ll just say there’s a who, what and where and the way those questions are answered emerges from an interrogation that the players do of these six suspects who are held for questioning.
In order to gain access to interview those six subjects, they need to interact with the building in certain ways. So that’s the structure. The players play in teams from three to five. At the end, we have an awards ceremony where everybody eats pizza, and we count up the scores and announce the winners.
DTH: The who, what, where — is it based directly off the Clue game or is it something different?
EJ: It is something different. It’s not a murder mystery; it’s a supernatural mystery narrative. The narrative is always the same but the solution changes. The who, what and where change, but the narrative is the same. There’s always this supernatural incident, and the players are trying to get to the bottom of it.
