Not Proven
Ardlamont · Argyll · 1893
“One shot in the trees, and three men who agree on almost everything.”
- Players
- 6 to 12 adults, plus the host
- At its best
- 6 to 9 guests
- Runs
- 2 to 3 hours with dinner
- Setting
- Ardlamont estate, Argyll, 1893
- History
- Real case: The Ardlamont mystery
- Suits
- Clever, note-taking tables. Twisty
- Best for
- Dinner parties
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Acting
- None needed. Short lines to read where the story needs them
- You need
- A TV or laptop, and a phone each
- Delivery
- Instant access. Printable pack included
- The host
- Plays the victim, then runs the inquiry
- Price
- A$39, one payment
- Content
- Real people are portrayed. Involves a shooting death, and a young woman seduced, abandoned and dead in the backstory. The killer is invented; every real person is innocent.
Ardlamont at the wrong end of summer: wet bracken to the knee, borrowed guns, and a house full of people being very careful about money in front of each other. A shot goes off among the trees before breakfast. By lunchtime there is an account of the morning that everyone present is willing to repeat, which is not at all the same thing as an account that holds. Scotland keeps a third verdict for mornings like this one, and every soul in the house knows the word for it.
That is as much as the file will give you. The rest comes out on the night, one piece of evidence at a time, and the room will be well into the evening before the shape of it shows.
What you get
Fully scripted evening
Every act cued, every scene set, your lines where you need them. No prep, no printing, no experience required.
Clues arrive in stages
Evidence and private dossiers drop to your guests' phones as the night unfolds, one act at a time.
You play the victim
Set the table, welcome your guests, then haunt the evening while they work out who wanted you gone.
6 to 12 players
A core cast carries the case, with flexible roles as your table grows. Latecomers can join as observers.
App-hosted
The case runs from any screen in the room. Your TV is the stage, the phones are the wings.
Cecil Hambrough died of a gunshot wound during a shooting party on the Ardlamont estate in Argyll in August 1893. The trial that followed, in Edinburgh, ended in the verdict that gives this file its name: not proven. Nobody was convicted, and the case has been contested ever since.
The game reopens the case and reaches a solution of its own. Knowing the history will not spoil your night, and history does not decide the verdict at your table. Your guests do.
These were real people and real deaths. The file is written with that in mind: we reopen the questions, not the graves.
Take it to trial.
This case can end at the reveal, or it can go to trial: the person your table accused stands in the dock, your guests become the jury, and nobody learns who really did it until the verdict is in. The trial is invented: an alternative ending, clearly labelled as one, and not the historical record.
The trial for Not Proven is coming soon. Trials are released case by case, starting with The Masque at Carfax Hall. When it arrives, the trial can also be played on its own, as a jury case.
Reopen Not Proven.
Host it at your own table. Nothing to print, no script to learn, and you play the victim, so you finally get to attend your own party.