Bloody X'mas An Interactive Drama Live Action Freeform Role Playing Scenario for 6 players (2 females and 4 males) written by Gwen Wu 1. Introduction: It is the evening of Christmas Eve. The Steward family are having their family reunion, which has been a tradition for them to dine together. They have 2 guests today. One is Dr. Steinem, who is an old friend of Matthew Steward since a long time ago, and the other is Sophie Mak, who is the fiancee of Matthew's second son, Jerry Steward. After the big dinner, they all move to the living room and have coffee there. At 11:30 Matthew Steward is tired and goes back to his bedroom. Then, at 1:00 in the morning of December 25, Matthew Steward is found dead in his study, which is next to his bedroom. A knife is protruding from his stomach and he lies in a pool of blood on the floor. There is not a sign of fighting. Everything is in its normal position. There was no one else in the house except the 6 people last night. Who could be the murderer? 2.Characters: 1. Matthew Steward 60 years old. Father of Steven, Jerry, and Judy Steward. 2. Steven Steward 33 years old. The eldest son of Matthew Steward and older brother of Jerry and Judy Steward. 3. Jerry Steward 27 years old. The second son of Matthew Steward and brother of Steven and Judy Steward. 4. Sophie Mak 25 years old. The fiancee of Jerry Steward. 5. Judy Steward 22 years old. The daughter of Matthew Steward and younger sister of Steven and Jerry Steward. 6. Dr. Steinem 60 years old. An old friend of Matthew Steward and also the family doctor of the Stewards. Act One Each characters introduces him\herself according to the information he/she is given in Act One. Every characters must reveal all the public information and keep the private information secret unless he/she is asked. Act Two Here in Act Two, every character, except the killer, must reveal all the truth while being asked. Only the killer can lie. Introduction: After the dinner. Everyone is in the living room, having coffee. Matthew seems very delighted today. He drank a lot of wine while dining. After taking a cup of coffee, he feels very dizzy and sleepy, so he goes back to his bedroom to rest. Then, at about twelve o'clock, half an hour after Matthew left, everybody says goodnight to one another. They all go back to their rooms. The Stewards' house is a 2-story one. There are 6 rooms on the second floor, 2 rooms plus kitchen, dining room, the study and living room on the ground floor. Dr. Steinem, Steven, and Judy live on the second floor, while Matthew, Jerry and his fiancee, Sophie, live on the ground floor. At one o'clock in the morning of December 25, Matthew Steward is found dead in his study. A will of Matthew Steward is found. Here is a part of it: After my death all my property should be divided into 3 parts. One goes to my 3 children-Steven, Jerry and Judy Steward; one goes to my best friend, Joseph Steinem, and the last one goes to charity donations. This will will take effect the moment I have my last breath. 1. Matthew Steward Act One Background: Public: You are 60 years old, the father of Steven, Jerry and Judy Steward. You are a kind and generous gentleman, and people love to be with you because of your humor. You seldom get angry, however you got into a serious quarrel with your second son, Jerry Steward 1 year ago. You have been a successful businessman ever since you graduated from university. Having the insight of the computer industry, you established your own computer company at the age of 40 and made a great fortune out of it. Just one year ago you handed the company to your eldest son, Steven Steward, and retired yourself. Private: Actually, you have been keeping these secrets for a very long time that you are a homosexual person and that Steven is not your son in blood. He is the son of your best friend Dr. Steinem. Jerry and Judy are adopted by you. As a best friend of yours, Dr. Steinem knows everything about you. You keep no secrets between each other. 33 years ago, Dr. Steinem took a girl to see you and asked you to marry her because she was then pregnant and helpless. Upon the urgent plead of your best friend, you married the girl. The girl, your wife, died 10 years ago of cancer. Act Two Unfortunately, you are killed. Rest in Peace, Amen. 2. Steven Steward Act One Background: Public: You are 33 years old, the eldest son of Matthew Steward. You are a mild and laconic person. You always keep your true feelings inside. You had been married for 5 years and divorced 1 year ago. You have 2 kids who now live with their mother. One year ago, your father handed his computer company to you. Private: Nobody knows that you are now under the treatment of psychotherapy. You have psychological problems ever since you were a high school student, but you didn't tell anyone. It gets serious when you were studying in the university; you started to have illusions and your mind are sometimes twisted from reality. Your psychotherapist says that you have split personality. As a matter of fact you hate your father. You think he is all that to be blamed for your mental illness and divorce. You think he ruined your life. He kept pushing much pressure on you since you were little. He always said it was for the benefit of yours and he did so because he loved you. You think this is bullshit and your heart is filled with hatred day by day. However you are too coward to do anything about it. Act Two You felt quite agitated today. You knew something unnormal was going to happen to you again. You could not hold it any more. You felt a need to tell somebody whom you trust that what your situation is all about. So, after the dinner, you found a chance to talk to Dr. Steinem about the psychological treatment you are underthrough, and everything. At twelve o'clock you went back to your bedroom. You suddenly passed out the moment you entered your room. When you awaked, you were lying on your own bed and heard the scream of your sister, Judy. So you rushed out to where the voice was from. When you got to the study, you saw Judy standing palely at the door, her eyes wide-open, and that Matthew was lying dead on the floor. Jerry stood beside the body, looking bewildered. Then came Dr. Steinem and Sophie. (Keep silent of the truth below unless you are asked) You think you killed Matthew. Your psychotherapist says that you have split personality which makes you change into two totally different kind of persons. Normally you are mild and laconic, but when you are agitated by over-excitedness, anxiety or anger, you change into a person who is filled with hatred and violence. You were unaware of this. All you knew was that sometimes you blacked out with no reason. However, this time when you woke up, you saw lots of blood in your hands. You are very afraid. 3. Jerry Steward Act One Background: Public: You are 27 years old, the second son of Matthew Steward. You seem to inherited many traits that are found in your father: kind, generous, friendly, and humorous, except that you are fun-loving and have a quick temper. Sometimes you lose your temper rapidly and would do something unexpectedly when you are under a rage. You are now still studying for your Ph.D. in computer science and also hold the position of general manager in your brother's computer company. Private: In fact, you feel surprised when your father announced that he was going to hand the computer company to your brother, Steven. You thought your father should have given the authority of the company to you, not your brother. Because you are far more familiar in this field and know better how to run a computer company than your brother. You feel very upset about your father's decision, but you did not let it out to anybody. Act Two You and Sophie stayed for a while talking in the living room after everybody dismissed.You passed the study when you went back to your room with Sophie. It was about 12: 25. You saw the door of the study was open, normally it should be locked, and the light was on. Matthew never let anyone get into his study without his permission except Dr. Steinem. You felt strange and wanted to see whose inside. So you told Sophie to go back to the room first. As you got closer to the door, you heard there were two people talking inside. Though the voice was low, you could tell that they are having a serious quarrel over something. Their voices were so low, you could not possibly tell what exactly they were arguing about, however, you knew they are Dr. Steinem and your father, Matthew. At the time you wanted to listen to what their dispute was, you heard somebody was coming down stairs. You went back to your room in a hurry and did not have the chance to find it out. (Keep silent of the truth below unless you are asked) In fact, after you got back to your room, you still felt there must be something wrong. You have never seen Matthew and Dr. Steinem having quarrels. So you dicided to steal back to the study and see what's going on there. You told Sophie that you felt thirsty and wanted to have a glass of water. It was about 12:55 When you got to the corridor, you saw Jerry rushed out the study and Dr. Steinem followed him. Then you saw Judy sneaked out from the living room and entered the study. About 10 second later, you heard Judy scream. You hastened to the study and saw Matthew was lying dead on the floor. 4. Sophie Mak Act One Background: Public: You are 25 years old, the fiancee of Jerry Steward. You are an attractive and ambitious woman. You are determined to get whatever you want. Now you are the executive manager of a big bank. You met Jerry Steward in a birthday party of a common friends of yours 6 months ago, and then you fell in love with each other and became engaged. Private: You are a Vietnamese immigrant. You immigrated to this country with your family when you were 5 years old. Being through those hardships of poverty and discrimination at the first few years, you decided that you will never be poor anymore and will try your utmost to get whatever you want with no matter what means. Now you see a big chance to make your dream come true-to be rich. You are making up a conspiracy to make the Steward's company become yours. Act Two You and Jerry stayed in the living room talking after everybody else went back to their rooms. When you and Jerry passed the study on the way to your room, Jerry suddenly told you that he forgot something in the living room and asked you to go back to the room first. You heard someone talking in the study, but the voice is faint, you could not tell who they were. After a while, Jerry got back but he looked like someting was getting on his nerves that he walked back and forth restlessly. Finally, he said that he need to get some water and went to the kitchen. (Keep silent of the truth below unless you are asked) When you heard the scream of Judy, you went to the study almost at the same time as Dr. Steinem. You saw there were small blood prints on his pants. You suspected that he must be the killer, but you did not spread your thinking because you thought this might be a good thing for your conspiracy to steal the property of the Stewards. You kept silent in order to see what's going to happen next. 5.Judy Steward Act One Background: Public: You are 22 years old, the only daughter of Matthew Steward. You are in the last year of your university, majoring in Philosophy and English Literature. You are very brilliant and are the best student in your class. Being the only daughter of the Stewards, you are sometimes perverse at getting your way done because you are spoiled by your father. Private: You are very intelligent and always like to probe to the bottom of things. One day you accidentally bumped into the conversation of Dr. Steinem and your father, Matthew Steward. They did not notice your presence during the conversation and you learned that Steven is not the son of Matthew, but Dr. Steinem. You are still looking for chances to find the evidence to prove this. Act Two After getting back to your room, you remebered you left your favorite book in the living room. It was about 12:35 you went down stairs to the living room to get your book. You stayed for a little while in the living room for that you wanted to have another cup of coffee to stay up reading your book. Then you got out of the living room and saw that there is still light in the study. You thought it was your father, Matthew, and you felt like to play a trick on him. So you sneaked to the study and wanted to give him a surprise. When you got into the study, you couldn't believe what you saw. Matthew was lying on the floor with a paper-knife protruding from his stomach and there was blood all around him. You screamed at the sight. (Keep silent of the truth below unless you are asked) While you got out of your room, you saw Steven got out of his, too. It seemed that he did not notice you and went downstairs. He was murmuring as he walked. You felt this is really odd and followed him. A few minutes after he got into the study, you heard Steven yelled "Why? I hate you!" and Dr. Steinem was saying "No! No!". Afterwards there was silence for a minute, then you saw Steven and Dr. Steinem walked out the study and went upstairs hurriedly. You went in the study to see what happened. You saw your father was dead on the floor and you screamed. 6. Dr. Steinem Act One Background: Public: You are 60 years old, the old friend of Matthew Steward. You have known Matthew Steward since you were little boys and you became best friends. Matthew relied on you very much and always tells you everything that is on his mind. You are also the family doctor of the Stewards and are very trusted by them. Private: You owed Matthew Steward a big favor. 33 years ago, you fell in love with a girl and you were considering marriage. However your parents showed strong disapproval of your marriage and forced you to marry another girl. Not until after the wedding day did you know that the girl you loved was having your baby. So you went to Matthew and asked him to take care of her. In fact, Steven is your son, but this is a secret between you and Matthew. You and Matthew shared lots of secrets. When you went to high school, Matthew confessed to you one day that he is homosexual. Act Two After you got back to your room, you receive a house-call from Matthew. It was 12:15. He asked you to go to the study that he wanted to talk to you right away. So there you went. In the study, you told Matthew what Steven told you this evening and asked him to let you take Steven to the hospital to do a through examination. Matthew refused and said that it was impossible for Steven to have mental disorders for he acts as normal as others do. He also said that he didn't want to make headlines in the newspapers that the chief of the biggest computer company in the country was having psychological problems. So you had a serious quarrel with him over this. (Keep silent of the truth below unless you are asked) You are the killer. You and Matthew have known each other since you were little boys. Until you studied in high school, Matthew confessed to you that he is homosexual and he thought that he fell in love with you. You told him that you didn't have this kind of tendency and it was quite impossible for you to love him. However, you still remained a best friends of his because you felt sympathetic for him and wanted to help him. Fate twisted 33 years ago that you asked him to marry the girl you love in order to save her reputation. The agreement was set under the condition that you have to be his sexual partner. You felt this was really disgusting and untolerable, still you promised him for the sake of the girl. Last night he called you to go to the study and tried to molest you. All of a sudden, Steven burst in and saw the scence. Steven seemed to act extraordinary because he was so angry. He called Matthew a freak and said that Matthew had ruined his life. Then he grasped the paper-knife on the desk, trying to kill Matthew. While I was trying to rob Steven of his knife, I accidentally stabbed the knife in to Matthew. I knew I killed him. But I only feel relieved instead of guilty.