Frequently asked questions
What is a murder mystery game?
A murder mystery game is an interactive party game for anywhere between 6 and 200 guests. There are broadly two types of murder mystery games.
The first are those where the mystery takes place in rounds and is usually played over a meal (the rounds taking place between courses). This is the form that the popular boxed sets available in the shops take - and is how many of the games available on the Internet are played. These are sometimes known as murder mystery dinner parties.
The second type of murder mystery game is quite different. They usually cater for more guests and as well as needing to solve the murder, each guest has other goals and problems to solve. In a typical game you might have to solve the murder and pay off your gambling debts. Another character might want a certain object, while yet another is having an affair. Unlike the dinner party games, these games are not played around a table (although there is often food served, it is usually a buffet or finger food). Instead, the guests talk to one another and decide who to trust and who to blackmail in order to solve the mystery and achieve their goals. Unlike the murder mystery dinner parties, this type of game is completely interactive. While there is a set solution to the murder, how your guests achieve their other goals is entirely up to them.
We call these second types of games "freeform murder mystery games".
How do freeform murder mystery games work?
As a host, you take the role of an impartial referee in a freeform murder mystery game. You won't get to solve the murder with everyone else - but as you will already have read the game you will be able to watch your guests try and puzzle things out.
As a guest you must rely on your wits and must negotiate, scheme and plot with the other guests to get what you want. Nobody needs to learn complicated background or memorise lines - your character background is little more than a side or two of paper - and you can keep that to hand during the game to refer to whenever you like.
How many players do I need?
Most murder mystery parties are for a variable number of guests. For example, All at Sea can be played with anywhere between 16 and 33 guests (plus one host). 16 is the absolute minimum you would need for All at Sea. If you have more than 16 but fewer than 33 guests, the game tells you which characters you should and shouldn't use.
Can you play the games with more guests than advertised? For example, could you run Death on the Gambia for 20 people? What would the additional guests do?
While you can add a few additional characters into the games, it would be hard to add more than three or four this way. Instead, you are better off choosing a game specifically designed for that number of guests (so instead of trying to add people to Death on the Gambia, you would be better off running All at Sea). See here for some free extra characters that we and previous hosts have written that you can add into the games if you need them.
Have you got any tips for running a murder mystery game?
Here's a collection of suggestions and ideas for running murder mystery games, that our players have come up with. Also, here's a great source for all sorts of information related to hosting our games:
My PDF won't print out, or some pages won't, or it looks funny...
This usually means that you're using an old version of Adobe Acrobat Reader. Our files will only print properly from version 4 or later. (Which came out three years ago, and it's free, so it's about time you upgraded anyway!) You can download an up-to-date version from here. If you're still having troubles printing out, send us a message and we'll sort you out.
Do you sell pre-printed games at all, or is it just downloads?
At the moment we only sell one of our games in pre-printed form – Way out West. Here's the page talking about it.
I want to give someone a game as a present, but I don't know which one they'd like best.
Not a problem! – you can give them one of our Gift Certificates. That way they can choose whichever game they prefer.
Is it at all possible to host the games without knowing who the murderer is?
Unfortunately, it's not really possible to host our games without knowing who the murderer is and other guilty secrets. Our games are designed so that there is lots of interactivity between the guests, and unfortunately that means they need a host. The host role is lots of fun - it's great watching your friends scheme and plot and try to get the best of each other.
What are the characters like in these games?
We've produced (and previos hsots have contributed) a number of free extra characters that can be added into our various games. Click here to see some examples of what our interactive murder mystery character look like. Of course, the games' standard characters are much more tightly tied together and plotted than these ones are. You should only use these extra characters if you have extra players turn up to your game, rather than replacing one of the normal ones.