How Do I Host a Murder Mystery Game

How do I host a Murder Mystery game?
By: John Delaney
Copyright 2006 John Delaney

Murder Mystery party games are a very popular form of entertainment. They can provide a lively evening of sleuthing fun for a dinner party, a birthday party or any other party night. They can take place at home, at a venue such as a theatre or a castle or even on a train.

The most popular murder mystery parties are the parties held at home, often around a meal. Parties for home use fall in two types. The boxed murder mystery game has been around for many years and typically consist of the invitations, costume ideas, menus, player booklets, introductory cassette, clues and a solution.

Downloadable murder mystery party games are a much newer and a rapidly growing type of game. Games provided by some on-line retailers allow the host to set up the party details on-line and send the invitations by email (or on paper if they prefer). The game is then downloaded and printed out ready for the guests. Some games even have interactive CSI type fingerprint analysis.

When choosing which game you would like you firstly need to decide how many people to have as guests. The maximum number recommended for a dinner party game is fourteen, although twelve is a slightly easier number to cope with. The most popular number of players is eight with the majority of games designed for this number of guests. If it is your first party a group of eight players is probably the best option.

Once you have decided on the number of guests you need to choose a theme. There are many themes available, especially in the downloadable market. Some are themed around a particular holiday such as Halloween or St. Valentine’s Day. Other games are themed around Pirates, highwaymen, secret agents, tropical islands, or an Egyptian murder mystery.

Try to choose a theme to suit the occasion and your guests. For example if your guests are fun loving and enjoy dressing up then a pirate or vampire themed party can be a lot of fun.

Once you have chosen a theme then you need to send out invitations either by e-mail or on paper (try to allocate guests to characters they will be comfortable with).

Many murder mystery games include menu suggestions to help you plan the food for your party but these are only a guide and the choice of dinner, buffet or other alternatives should suit the occasion.

Some people decorate the party venue to suit the theme with Halloween a very popular time to do this especially for vampire or Haunted House murder mysteries.

Similarly with the characters the more effort that the guests go to the more fun they can have. The trick is to adapt the costume so the guests don’t have to hire costumes if they don’t wish to. For example an old white evening shirt with a few frills sewn on can be useful for a pirate or highwayman outfit. Just use your imagination and let your guests know that they can be flexible with their costumes.

On the night you may encounter a mix of players who take their sleuthing very seriously and others who just want to have fun. The art of organising a great murder mystery is to cater for all tastes. Make sure that the guests listen when one of the other players is reading their clues or asking questions but also let the ‘louder’ guests have their fun.

If you follow a few of these suggestions then you should have a great murder mystery party and you’ll find that boring parties are off the menu for ever.

For more information about murder mystery games visit www.playmurdermystery.com