Thread: Murder Mystery Question

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I've been considering doing a murder mystery Halloween party this year. The one in particular that I'm looking at is called "Death of a Vampire". I think this would be a fun theme to do. The game is for up to 14 players. My question for those that have done these type of parties is can the extra guests still help solve the mystery if I have more guests than is required to play? I'm sure some guests will not want to play a character, but I would like for them to be able to at least participate. Thanks!

Kim

Originally Posted by Scarebear

I've been considering doing a murder mystery Halloween party this year. The one in particular that I'm looking at is called "Death of a Vampire". I think this would be a fun theme to do. The game is for up to 14 players. My question for those that have done these type of parties is can the extra guests still help solve the mystery if I have more guests than is required to play? I'm sure some guests will not want to play a character, but I would like for them to be able to at least participate. Thanks!

Kim

"Death of a Vampire" also comes in a game for a larger crowd. I know because I was looking at "Death of a Vampire" too for our Halloween party.

Take a look under "large group games".

I've hosted several murder mystery parties and I'll comment later on as I have to leave for a bit.

I did see the larger group one, how does the game work as opposed to the smaller group? It said the larger one is "scripted", but since I've never done one I wasn't sure of the difference. I would love to hear your experiences with the mysteries when you get a chance.

I've only ever done the smaller group murder mystery games... They haven't been scripted, which leaves it open to a LOT of interpretation (depending on your group!), but can end up being hilarious! The last one I did was a Western Themed One, and I ended up being the Town Black Widow (All I knew before I arrived was that I had lost 3 husbands, so I decided to dress in Black) and my Roommate (he was the local indian chief...the pictures were FUNNY!!) ended up being the one killing off my husbands.... We dressed our parts, and had a lot of fun. I'm sure it'd get even more fun with more people... Some people will be shy and hesitant to play, but if you present it right, it's quite the evening.

Originally Posted by Scarebear

I did see the larger group one, how does the game work as opposed to the smaller group? It said the larger one is "scripted", but since I've never done one I wasn't sure of the difference. I would love to hear your experiences with the mysteries when you get a chance.

A scripted murder mystery is exactly what it sounds like. There's a basic script including dialog the guests/actors play out. The script is broken up into rounds each with instructions of what to do. That is the large group mystery.

I believe "Death of a Vampire (large group)" has 8 or 9 characters who follow the script with the rest of the party watching and asking questions.

The smaller group mystery is a "clue's based mystery". Each guest receives their role, a small booklet explaining about the other guests and a secret booklet almost like a dossier known only to them. Each guest asks other guests questions based on that dossier. At the end, each guest explains who they think committed the murder.

The website explains it much better than I could.

As to my personal experience, I hosted a Murder Mystery Halloween party last year. It was a clue-based party called "The Immortal Murders". Great atmosphere, and folks had a lot of fun with their costumes and roles. But that's about the end of the murder mystery part. People got in their roles, but they acted like party guests than murder mystery participants.

The Immortal Murders - A Halloween Murder Mystery Party Game

Honestly, they're a blast. I held a murder mystery party several years ago called "Pasta, Passion, and Pistols". It was scripted, but the fun was recreating an Italian resturant atmosphere and having the guests dress as their assigned character.

Pasta, Passion and Pistols

Murder mysteries are great fun, but you have to know your guests. Personally, I love the murder mystery parties. It's fun assigning the roles and having people get into it.

I say go for it, but understand things don't go as smoothly as the instructions indicate. "The Immortal Murders" was way to complicated for my party. Didn't matter as we had a ball.

Some photos from last year's "The Immortal Murders":

http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u...P1040300-1.jpg

http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u...r/100_1752.jpg

http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u...swr/Gang-1.jpg

Thanks for the replies, that helped a lot. I think I would like to try the smaller group one, but I might have a few too many people, It probably would be less than five extras. So I guess the one question I still have is would those few extra people be able to help solve the mystery, or can only the people who are actually playing a character participate?

Kim

Originally Posted by Scarebear

Thanks for the replies, that helped a lot. I think I would like to try the smaller group one, but I might have a few too many people, It probably would be less than five extras. So I guess the one question I still have is would those few extra people be able to help solve the mystery, or can only the people who are actually playing a character participate?

Kim

Sure the extras would be able to participate. Just assign them as a friend to one of the other characters and give them the same information (booklet, fact sheet, etc.) Maybe make up a little biography for them or just a friend of ******.

Thanks! That's what I needed to know.

We generally add the extras as characters... IE in Honkeytonk hommocide, the carney was a character, so the individual's actual wife came as his characer's wife... that's all she was told.... she created her character's persona, using his character info. she was an observer during the murder, and had no text, but did get to guess who the murder was.

In the murder mystery I wrote. I created the main characters and then some secondary characters. My plan was to assign the main characters to those that committed to coming to the party and late commitments or non-rsvp's would be given secondary characters so that everyone could participate.

I had to cancel it though as no one would commit to coming...I live in a town of party-poopers!