9 AM Monday morning. A report lands on your desk: Jeanette's monogrammed silver locket has gone missing. The last time she definitely remembers having it, she was walking in the Field with her friend Susan. Shifty hallmate Ashley had also been admiring the locket recently.
Do you:
Drag Ashley in for interrogation?
Comb the Field for clues?
Try to stimulate Jeanette's memory?
Put Susan under surveillance?
Find the locket quickly, and everyone will applaud your leadership. Be too heavy-handed in your approach, and public opinion will turn against you. Let a thief slip through your fingers to strike again, and the whole school's reputation will suffer.
Welcome to St. Claudine's Academy, where the daughters of the rich and famous are assembled to be polished and prepared. Your classmates are no ordinary girls, they are future politicians, bankers, millionaires... they are the powers that will be. But for right now, they're students getting into all sorts of trouble. It's your job to get them out of it. Reputation is everything. The school's reputation must not suffer, or you will have to take the blame for it. Whatever you do, don't let a scandal go public!
Results of an action, and a possible scandal
As the newly-elected Student Council President, you have an array of minions at your beck and call. Every day you can assign them tasks to try and ferret out the crimes and mysteries of your school. You can spy on students, turn their rooms upside down looking for clues, throw them into detention to try and terrorise them into obedience, or even order them expelled. Of course, if you're too brutal, your approval ratings will fall, and you'll find yourself kicked out to preserve the Council's good name. Sometimes gentle persuasion is a wiser approach.
Assignment screen and desk tray of outgoing actions
Each minion has her own set of skills, which can be boosted by special items from the Supply Closet, or permanently improved with training. To receive training points, you must solve cases quickly and with distinction, avoiding the loss of karma and reputation. Minions also gain stress from taking actions, and will be temporarily disabled if you work them too hard. Keep an eye on your girls and be sure to give them time off to keep their spirits up.
Mysteries themselves come in dozens of case types, each featuring randomly generated characters, details, and target skills. You'll have to examine the evidence carefully and think about the solutions. Is that freshman really sick with food poisoning, or did she miss her Biology class on purpose? Mysteries that look similar may have totally different outcomes!
Of course, nothing is ever simple. There's a traitor in the ranks - and which minion is the traitor is also randomly determined with each new game. Watch them closely and decide which one might be working to undermine you... or is that rumor false? Maybe they're all loyal and your secret enemy is just trying to make you paranoid? And what about that Ancient Conspiracy that's trying to recruit you?
Cutscene interactions with your minions
Along the way, you can try to get leverage against the school to protect yourself, find out the truth about your secret enemies (also changes from game to game), and - of course - spend quality time with your minions. Which just might lead to romance.
... what, in an all-girls school? How scandalous!
... but of course, you have experience in keeping things quiet, don't you, Madam President?
You'd better. Or else the school will protect itself by blaming you for everything that's ever gone wrong, and your bright future ends here.
