Murder Mystery Parties

[LisaR]

Has anyone ever hosted one of these or attended one? How did you like it? Any tips or ones you can recommend? Thanks!

 

[KristaTX]

I'll be at one this time next week! I haven't ever been to one before. I am supposed to be someone named Flash Moments, and my husband is Ward Winner .

 

[Aimeedyan]

I hosted one for DH's birthday a few years ago. My biggest mistake was having too big of a party - if/when we do it again, we'll only 4-5 couples that know each other well. Since it was a varied group, and not everyone knew each other, some people felt a little awkward when the story forced more interaction.

You also have to be sure that everyone attends. One couple got stuck with a no-show babysitter and were VERY late and we couldn't start without their characters. Again, a smaller group would help with that.

Overall, it was a lot of fun and something new/different than the typical meet and greet dinner party.

 

[Meriweather]

We used to host them all the time years ago.
They were great fun. I think we did about 20-25 of them. Usually in winter when things were boring. We only invited the amount of people that were needed. We rotated through about 10 couples.
We themed the food and decorated to go with the theme also.
We used "How to Host a Murder" and "Murder Mystery Parties"....again this was probably 15 years ago.
Loved them!! We have some great pictures. We would always do a "photo shoot" with someone killing someone else before the party started. We had a noose, gun, poison bottle.

 

[chrismiss56]

Make sure the people you invited really really want to do this. I have tried twice over the years and it didn't work out. My group of friends is just not into this......

 

[momof1princess]

i haven't done one of these, but i ran across the site of a company that does these parties in the course of my work a couple of weeks ago, and it looks like great fun. i'm posting the link in case it might help you.
http://www.murderbymail.com/

 

[brasswillow]

A friend and I host a murder weekend every year for Halloween. Our favorite kits are made by How to Host a Murder. They are a lot of fun. Depending on your audience you might want to have someone who isn't going to play go through and edit, they can get a little racy.

Every year hours and hours worth of planning go into our murder mystery weekend, but it's totally worth it!

 

[FireDancer]

When I was in High School I worked for a small caterer. We catered 2 or 3 of these at a small hotel in the area and while we didn't participate directly it looked like a lot of fun. If I remember right (it was a while ago at this point) there were about 20-25 people at each and everyone participated with the exception of us. I would have loved it if we were part of the mystery but it was still fun to sit back and watch.

 

[clarabelle]

I hosted one a couple of years ago.
It was a lot of work. People did dress up (1920 gangsters theme)
So that was fun -but I was so busy hostessing and worrying about things coming out right that I didn't really enjoy it.

Also I wish I had given them the option of breaking character during dinner (mine was called dinner and a murder I think) Dinner conversation was stilted because people were trying to stay in character.

Make sure you assign the unreliable people the least important characters.
Some parts of it were really fun -but I wouldn't do it again as a host.

I ordered the mystery online and it had online evites with it