Family Home Mystery

From IFWiki

In the Family Home Mystery style of game, the player explores a family home - usually recently vacated, often a sprawling and isolated mansion - in order to uncover a mystery intertwined with the family's past. The story may focus principally on a single member of the family, a single generation or its whole history within the house. The player is often a distant relation to the family, or may even have lived there as a child, but is not generally very familiar.

The approach is often combined with Magician's Nephew, with which it shares many features.

Classic Examples

Characteristics

  • The home's previous owner is likely to have named the PC as the new owner (or executor) of the home.
  • The house will often have abandonitis, or feature few and unresponsive NPCs, but the player will usually get a strong impression of the house's previous inhabitants.
  • The game will usually - though by no means always - involve a single, static map and a great deal of searching around.
  • Environment detail will often be high, and exhibit picturesque eccentricity.