Lorraine Shaw sent us some photographs of her A Heroic Death murder mystery party.
She writes: “We had an awesome evening playing A Heroic Death! It was my daughter’s 17th birthday party. This is the 3rd freeform game we’ve played and we love them (we are in Zimbabwe). Such fun for everyone!”
It looks like they are having lots of fun!
A Heroic Death is also available in German as Ein heldenhafter Tod.
Laura Breeding recently told us about her Way out West party:
“We have enjoyed sharing murder mystery games with family and friends in the past, but our guests have made comments about having to read all night with box games – and one said maybe we can find a western!
“I went on the hunt for a western and found your Way out West, which allowed us to interact with another to create a production, versus the scripting in other mysteries. This murder took place not only in a western scene but at the silver dollar saloon and we had just added a bar to our home which was a great fit for our rowdy bunch who really immerse themselves in the role they’ve been casted for. There were challenges, moments of passion and excitement, swindling, dealings, an arrest tor two, and even a shootout at high noon! Our bunch had an amazing time on this murder mystery night – I will continue to do our murder mystery hosting through this company!
“I do recommend sending character details ahead of time, if your murder mystery, guests are used to either box murder mysteries, or never played at all.”
Great ideas for costumes and decor here!
Click here to learn more about Way out West.
Way out West is also available in German and in French (as La Ruée vers Cactusville).
Melissa Covert told us about her Karma Club party:
“We had the best Karma Club party. It was an all girls party, and it was so fun! Everyone dressed like their characters, brought some candy cigarettes, and made food and drinks in the 60s.”
Rachel Foyst recently told us about her Way out West party:
“We played Way out West as a fundraising event for our son’s trip to Europe with other youth at our church. It was a fabulous time! We used all 27 available characters and there were plenty of townsfolk who came as spectators. We were surprised how quickly the characters jumped into action. There was plenty of drama and everyone got into their characters! We followed the recommended timeline in the instructions for planning, which was very helpful. Folks at our church are already talking about which we’ll do next! Thank you for creating such an interactive, fun game.”
The jail got lots of use, as you can see…
Click here to learn more about Way out West.
Way out West is also available in German and in French (as La Ruée vers Cactusville).
A few years ago, Melissa Midcap used A Dead Man’s Chest as an exam for her Spanish students. Here’s what she did:
“Hey there!! It was a crazy day running A Dead Man’s Chest as a Spanish exam for both lunch and dinner (48 players total), but it was also a lot of fun. The students had a great time and rose to the challenge of playing the game for three hours with no English. I’m happy to say that everyone received either an A or a B on the final exam! (There was also an essay part to the exam, during which students had to write about the evening from the perspective of their character.)
“During both sessions I had some native speakers and a couple of other Spanish teachers as some of the characters, to add to the challenge for my students.
“For our “duels,” we let the players pose with swords (my husband collects swords) for some cool pictures, but then the duel is settled by the roll of the dice. Instead of rock/paper/scissors, we try to find something that fits in the theme of the game. Since they play the dice game in the Pirate movies, we use dice for this game.
“Thanks again for some great entertainment opportunities!”
Melissa then did the same during the pandemic… Here’s how that went.
“Covid canceled the fourth quarter and exams for the end of the 2020 school year and affected how we did things in the following school year. My administration agreed to allow me to host the mystery dinner exam April 2021, as long as masks were worn and no food was served.
“To continue to allow the poison crucial to A Dead Man’s Chest (‘El Cofre de un Muerto‘), I substituted stickers. The player needed to tell me they were going to poison someone, then get close enough to put the sticker on the victim without getting caught. Not as cool, but good enough. Despite the obligatory changes, the students were thrilled to be allowed to have this party as their exam.
“Being pirates, there was a good deal of fighting. For each fight they posed for a cool picture, then settled the duel with the roll of the dice. I’ll include a couple of those also. Poor Salamanca ended up being sacrificed to the volcano! She had annoyed enough people that no one came to her rescue and the natives threw her in! I am happy to report that they did a great job overall and got good grades on their exam!”
More photos from her first party:
And phots from her second exam (during the pandemic):
Murder at Sea photos from Carol Strevens.
She held the party in a manor house, which suited the formal dress.
Click here to learn more about Murder at Sea.
Murder at Sea is also available in French as La Croisiere Fatale.
In 2017 Alex sent us their Way out West party photos – enjoy.
(Some of our pages of party photos are getting long and unwieldy, so we are moving some photos to the blog. Way out West, as our most popular game, is one of the worst culprits, so as an ongoing project we’re moving some old photos to their own blog page.)
Hand-crafted game materials
Alex also created hand-crafted game materials (character books and so on) for Way out West, as shown below:
Click here to learn more about Way out West.
Way out West is also available in German and in French (as La Ruée vers Cactusville).
Debbie Townsend sent us her A Heroic Death photos which she hosted for a Christmas family gathering in a Welsh manor.
She used both the adults and the children’s version of A Heroic Death and writes, “It was a fantastic evening’s entertainment, some really competitive players. Children loved being involved too. No-one guessed who the murderer was. Thank you so much!”
Click here to learn more about A Heroic Death.
A Heroic Death is also available in German as Ein heldenhafter Tod.
Sönke Busch of Lympselon Krimi Events recently used Mord in der Flüsterkneipe (the German translation of A Speakeasy Murder) recently raised over €3,000 for the Weisser Ring (White Ring) charity that supports crime victims in Germany.
Sönke writes:
“We bring complete strangers with different backgrounds, pasts, political and worldly views, sexual identification and lifestyles to the same table and stand for cosmopolitanism and tolerance with our Krimi Dinners.
“Since in every Krimi Dinner a person comes to harm and during the dinner the whole thing is seen from a playful point of view and laughed about and is also the reason for the merry get-together, we want to remind you that reality is different.
“Victims of violence and other crimes have experiences that we do not wish on anyone. These experiences are sometimes difficult to deal with and inflict not only psychological but also material damage on the victim and their relatives.
“This year, as in the last four years, we would like to remind people of the reality and do something good. That is why we are again organizing a crime dinner for a good cause. We have chosen the Weisser Ring E.V as a donation target and would like to support their work. The full-time and volunteer helpers there do great work. The volunteers sacrifice their free time to help others in explosive life situations. I was there myself and talked to the local association in Mainz to find out about their work. In a nice conversation, all my questions were answered and I have a good feeling about the work of the Weisser Ring.
“This year we collected 3000 Euros for Weisser Ring by auctioning and raffling donated games, crime dinners and other things.”
Mord in der Flüsterkneipe is available from our partner at Die Besten Familienspiele.
And Drame à Chicago is the French translation of A Speakeasy Murder, available at FranceMurder.
Click here to learn more about A Speakeasy Murder.
A Speakeasy Murder is also available in French (as Drame à Chicago) and German (as Mord in der Flüsterkneipe)