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Jun 26

How to host a murder

Frequently asked murder mystery questions image

So just how do you host a murder?

Perhaps you’ve booked a hosted murder mystery package or maybe you’ve purchased your own downloadable mystery.   More often than not you’ll find your host or download instructions will answer many of the questions you have about the game.

But what about the other stuff? The stuff you won’t necessarily find in the instructions. Should you dress up? Should you dress the venue up? Would it be a good idea to serve authentic meals and play period music in keeping with the theme of the murder mystery?

In a nutshell, it really is up to you. You could make your party a super formal affair or just simply play the game over a lazy afternoon.

As you plan and prepare for your murder mystery we encourage everyone to get creative and have a bit of fun. To help you do exactly that here are a few tried and tested tips, tricks and advice from our recently released party planning book for murder mysteries: How to murder your friends and get away with it.

Set the date invite your friendshow to host a murder img 1

This is not just any party you’re putting on, it’s a murder mystery. So when you send out the invites make sure your guests know loud and clear what you’re planning.

You’ll find most of them have heard about whodunit parties and some may have even been to them before or perhaps even hosted their own.

Will they like it?

Remember this is not the normal party type situation. This is an interactive role play murder mystery game where your guests play the murder suspects.  One of your guests even gets to be the murderer.   So most of the time people will more than excited to come along.

Where to host a murder party?

You want a private room to have your mystery. It needs to be a place where you can make as much noise as you like without fear of disturbing anyone. Venues with private rooms could include:

  • Pub
  • Club
  • Restaurant
  • Function centre
  • Hotel
  • Your home

If you’re hiring a private function room at your local restaurant or function centre, most of the time you’ll find they’re more than happy for you to dress up the room with pictures or trinkets in keeping with the theme of the night. 

Planning the meals

Home

If you are having a murder mystery at home, you could even take the party’s theme one step further and serve authentic recipes from the period. Here are a couple of links with period recipes.


Restaurants, Pubs and Clubs

If you’re having a hosted murder mystery, they’re usually performed in and around your meal plans at the venue of your choice. As to the running of the game, check with the murder mystery host who will probably give you a good idea as to how long a murder mystery takes.

If you are bringing your downloadable murder mystery to a venue, make sure you’re familiar with instructions of the game and structure it around your meal. For example, you could have the first part of the mystery between the entrée and main course and the second part between mains and dessert.

We’ve put together typical run times of a murder mystery. Whilst these times apply to our hosted murder mystery packages they can apply to any other mystery night…more

Dressing up

If you have never done it before, let us say first off, dressing up is tons of fun. Your assigned murder mystery character will tell you everything you need to know and give you a few ideas on what to wear. For more on costume and accessory ideas check out our blog post on dressing up

Music

Is your murder mystery set in the 20’s, 30’s or 40’s? Perhaps a bit of period music might help create and enhance the mood. iTunes, Spotify and Google Play all offer music from the 20’s, 30’s and 40’s at minimal cost or, depending on your subscription service, no cost.

If you’re a bit tech savvy, you could download things from YouTube. Here’s something we found:

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