Clue has always been among my favorite board games. The whodunit game play has always been a blast, and I have always enjoyed having to think, and figure things out.

  The biggest disadvantage clue has had, however, is that the murderer doesn't know he/she is the murderer.

   There's also live action Role Playing whodunit games that I've played, but never once have I been the murderer, or even the murdered. Those usually end up being a fancy dress up party with the whodunit being more of a side note.

   Never in my entire life have I had more fun than what I experienced last night as I, in the game Oblivion, now evil enough to have joined the Dark Brotherhood took on a mission to eliminate 5 of Cyrodill's scummiest rich people.

   Now I could have just gone in and slaughtered everyone, but where's the fun in that? I grabbed my fanciest red silk garbs and put them on instead of my Dark Brotherhood uniform. I played along with everyone, got to know each of my potential victims, their likes, and dislikes, and how they felt about each of the other players. Everyone was looking for a treasure chest filled with gold that actually wasn't there.

  I learned that the Dark Elf was in love with the richest guy there, who was also in love with her. So I told the dark elf to wait for him in his room even though it would be extremely forward. Sadly for her he didn't meet her there. She entered what appeared to be an empty room, I had cast shadow shape on myself so she couldn't see me. Saddened that he didn't meet her there she decided to lay down for a nap. My sword then... err... fell on her.

  This set some pretty interesting debate up amongst the survivors. The Nord and the super rich guy seemed to go for each other's jugular, accusing each other even though both had feelings for the Dark Elf (for very different reasons however.) There was some suspicion cast in the direction of the old Brenton woman who was at the party, none toward the Redguard.

  The Redguard then decided it was time for a nap. So I left the bickering three for a moment, and snuck into the Redguard's room and cast shadow shape before my sword... err, accidentally fell on the Red Guard.

  The surviving three freaked out at that point. The Brenton refused to stop following me so my next hit was extremely difficult. The Imperial started to become suspicious of the old woman, but was more annoyed with her because she had expressed some racist views against the Dark elf and seemed glad she was dead. His primary suspect was the Nord who had decided he was going to drink himself into a stupor. The Brenton was getting protective of the Imperial, and none of the three wanted to be alone.

  Finally the Imperial decided to go down for a nap, and the Brenton began to search around down stairs. She panicked as she realized that this whole thing was an elaborate ruse to kill them all, but never suspected me. I managed to get away from her long enough to cast shadow shape and hit the Nord with... I mean my sword accidentally fell on him too.

  Down to two, the Imperial, and the Brenton. Both highly suspicious of each other, neither suspicious of me. The Imperial a woke from his nap, and announced that even though the Brenton appeared old and frail he was certain she was the murderer and was not about to let her strike again. He asked me to stand with him on this, though the game did not give me the option to respond. He drew his sword and killed the old Brenton woman for me right before me sword accidentally fell on him!

  Now mind you, my brothers and sisters in the Dark Brotherhood assured me that our client had been severely wronged by the "host" of this game (whose identity I never learned.) So I don't feel bad about this incident because these people were not innocents. I don't know what they did, but I was assured they were bad people. Nevertheless this was absolutely one of the most brilliant side quests I have ever played in an RPG. The intrigue, the plotting, the execution, brilliant! Clue in reverse! I just wish that there were more innovative side quests like this in other RPGs. Namco could learn a lot from Oblivion. This is how side quests should be done, not like the tedious and even mandatory side-mission in Xenosaga II which did nothing to move the story, or enhance the game play experience.

  Kudos to Bethesda for their brilliant side quests. The best part about this mission is that the way things were playing out left me with the impression that the whole event could have played out a number of different ways. That said this Dark Brotherhood mission in and of itself would have made a great game ^-^.