Jazlynn Steed recently sent us some photos of their A Dead Man’s Chest murder mystery party.

Jazlynn says: “We loved A Dead Man’s Chest! It was my first murder mystery and I hosted! Many of our guests had done murder mysteries before and they all said this was one of their favorites. The game was fun and ran smoothly. I really love how these games are written so that each individual can make the character their own. We’ve decided to make it an annual Halloween party to do a murder mystery. The hardest part is deciding which game to do next!”

And some great decor and prop ideas:

A Dead Man’s Chest is also available in German as Des toten Kerls Kiste.

A Dead Man’s Chest is also available in French as Le Trésor du Pirate.

Using A Dead Man’s Chest for a Spanish exam.

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):