Thread: Kids murder mystery party ideas

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We do a large party (50 kids) every year with a haunted basement. I am thinking of trying to add a new party element- a murder mystery. Unlike a typical murder mystery party I wouldn't get to chose the costumes.
Any ideas for clues, ways to play, etc?

I've done a few similar events. Here's some thoughts...

The typical murder mystery party-in-a-box is a simple mystery where each guest is assigned a role, and has clues on slips of paper that they open during the evening. You circulate in the party, playing your part (hopefully in costume) and questioning the other guests. Eventually you gather everyone together and see who solved the mystery.

I think this format is too difficult or sophisticated for kids. Instead, have a mystery that is scattered around the event location, with kid-level puzzles to solve that give you answers to who, what, and where. I'd look in puzzle books aimed at kids to see the level of difficulty you want to try. You could also set up one or two rooms as scenes which you allow the kids to investigate, with some clues out in the open (message scrawled on a piece of paper, etc) which you have to put together with something else to solve.

This lets your guest arrive, dressed in whatever costume they want, and every one of them can pretend to be a super-detective in disguise. I'd have four or five locations you can go to with clues, and a paper handout keyed to each location in the event. Give the kids the handout and a small pencil, tell them they can all solve the crime, and let them know they can visit the locations in any order that they want (this helps spread everyone out). They also can only look but not touch the evidence (you can have caution tape across the scene if necessary, and station an adult there to watch them to make sure no one messes with the clues.) Then give them time to run around to all the locations, look at the clues and try to solve them on their handouts.

They turn in their solutions, a committee checks them, and then gather everyone together for the revelation of who solved the mystery. Or, have them check each other's work as you explain how each puzzle was solved.

Give prizes out at the end for various categories of solutions, if your mystery works with that.

Crib puzzles for the mystery from a few kid-level mystery books.

We did the wink murder game and it was perfect. What started happening is the kids were falling to their knees mourning the kid that died. It was hysterical.

I'm going to throw my vote behind the wink murder game, too. There is also a thread that talked about creative deaths - I think it was tied to the wink game and added a really hilarious element. I'll try to see if I can't dig it up....

Getting adults to "pretend" was the hardest part of it. (Of course those adults just really didn't want to be here.)
The Ravens Grin has numerous secret passages, hidden doors and 7 physical levels to explore plus the huge wine cellar and tunnel.
One time the murderer was killing all the rest of the characters, stacking the bodies in the wine cellar, they got bored as he chased the last two victims around and around so the "Dead" all marched up from the wine cellar in a conga line saying:"We are the Dead!" Very funny!
(Maybe they got tired of laying on that cold stone floor?)
The very first murder mystery I took one character in the house early to show him around because he was supposed to be the owner of the house. He told me he had the floor plan figured out because in real-world he is an architect, then once everything began happening more secret passages opened up and he was So Impressed he kept repeating:"I'm an architect and this is fantastic, I'm an architect and this is fantastic!"
(I guess I did "Good"?)
HAHAHAHAH!
I wrote the scripts for the murder mysterys, sit on the floor, surround yourself with blank sheets of paper and begin building characters and relationships as you scribble here and there trying to make it interesting but not too hard because either extreme is no good. (And that is why people buy them already figured out.) "Pooh,Pooh!"

CSI parties are really popular now with kids and fits well with a Halloween theme

A crime scene is set up before the party and then kids go to different labs to figure out who the murderer is

There are tons of websites dedicated to throwing the party. You can even purchase a party kit with all the crime scene details, labs, and handouts

kids crime scene party
http://www.simplifun.com/Mystery-Par...ion-Haley.html

LOL....I had to read the title a few times to get it right. First time I read it I saw

"Kids murder mystery party ideas", and I was trying to figure out why and how some kids would have murdered a party idea, especially a mystery party idea. Then my brain kicked in and I got it right.
Well that is all I wanted to say. Sounds like fun. Good luck.

Here's the thread with the creative deaths added to the winking murderer game:

Adult Halloween Party Games????

Page 2 tells how to do it, and Page 4 of the thread has lots of different ideas for creative deaths.

Depending on how long your party is, you could maybe use the winking game as an icebreaker - I think especially with kids it will go pretty quickly. Then, use a CSI Murder Mystery (suggested by @propmistress) as the "main event".