Hobbies And Interests
How to Host a Murder
In any murder mystery game, there'll be basic instructions for playing the game. The particular game, "How to Host a Murder" even includes plans for dinner, suggesting a timetable for everything from when to begin making the dinner preparations to when to serve each course and host each round of the mystery. Their host guide even provides recipes for a dish that fits the theme of the night's mystery. Appropriate wines are also suggested. However, as the host, you can choose to incorporate dinner with any murder mystery game and plan the game rounds between courses.
Your murder mystery game may include a map or diagram of the murder scene, clue manuals or dossiers for each of the players and sealed clues. There might be name tags and various detective reports or other additions. Some may even include an audio recording which will typically give you and your guests important information or clues. Others will simply give you player dossiers.
For the host, the first step is to invite the appropriate number of guests and make sure each can attend the night of the party. Cast each guest and yourself into one of the player roles. Deliver or mail printed invitations which may be included with your game. Consider requesting that the guests arrive in costume to add to the game's atmosphere. Some games even include costume suggestions. As the host, you can make those suggestions yourself. Or let the characters' backgrounds and the theme itself suggest costuming ideas to your guests.
If your party has more guests than roles, those without roles can be your audience. Let them, at the end, vote on who they each think was the murderer.
On the night of the game, arrange a sitting area where all the guests can easily see each other and talk. When the guests arrive, hand them the appropriate player manual or dossier. Do not start until all the guests have arrived.
Once everyone has been given his part, go over the game rules then the scene. The rules and basic scene should be in every manual. The host reads the rules aloud while the guests read along silently to make sure everyone understands. Give everyone time to study the assigned part and read over any clues. Do not, as the host, read any part other than your own. Introduce the characters. If your game does not include name tags, consider making name tags for your guests to make it easier to remember who is playing who. Once you are ready to begin, play the audio recording--if one is included--and begin round one. Continue through the four rounds, serving dinner if you intend to, and play until the end when accusations and solutions are drawn.
Of course, if you are creative and have experience playing murder mystery games, as the host you can write your own games and take one of the more innocuous roles. Let one of the guests be the murderer. Besides "How to Host a Murder" you can find some original murder mysteries for 8, 9, 10, 11 or even 12 players from Yard Dog Press.