Luau lowdown

[undyingking]

One of the things we do as part of the sales follow-up thing is to ask people for suggestions for settings for new games, and one of the most popular -- from the American customers -- is "a murder mystery set at a luau".

Now I'm assuming (perhaps wrongly) they don't mean a game in which the characters are Polynesian tribal elders and someone's poisoned the taro paste, ie it's "a murder at a luau-themed party" rather than at an actual luau? But if so, what characterizes a luau-themed party? How is it different from a barbecue, other than in details of food and costume? What I'm driving at is, what associations does luau conjure up in the American mind, and what sorts of plots and characters are they thinking of?

I'll ask this in brits_americans  as well, but I wondered if any of you guys had experience of such a thing, or had any vague idea of what it's about.

Comments

[vicarage.livejournal.com]

Having researched polynesian feasts in Tonga and the Cook Islands, you need

* Drumming
* Food cooked in pits
* Fire dances
* small denomination notes stuffed into the dancers' clothing for appreciation
* huge mounds of food, especially tropical fruit dishes and pork

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Hmm, sounds like a lot of fun but I can't see how it would readily lend itself to a murder mystery...