How to Host a Murder Mystery Party

Murder mystery parties are the ultimate immersive literary event. With a few of your most adventurous friends, you can become a character in a dramatic story and lose yourself in a world of vintage elegance and affluence, romantic entanglements and jealous rivals, secrets and deception. You'll challenge your powers of observation and logical prowess, and you get to dress up as well! What could be more fun?

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To begin, choose your favorite downloadable party kit. These are available all over the internet, and you can find them by searching on “murder mystery game” or “murder mystery party” or even “murder in a box” -- they’re easy to find. Yes, it's possible to write your own murder party storyline, but that's a lesson for another day. Today, we'll use a simpler approach.

I’m going to use “Murder at Pendleton Manor” from The Storyteller’s Cottage as my example in this video, but whatever game you choose, the instructions that I’m going to share with you will essentially be the same.

BUILDING YOUR GUEST LIST

The success of your murder mystery party hinges on the enthusiasm of your guests and their commitment to immersing themselves in the character they’re playing. The more passionate your players are, the more boisterous and entertaining the whole evening will be. So that means that when you’re building your guest list, you’ll want to reach out to your extroverted friends first! Choose people who aren’t too embarrassed or intimidated to exaggerate their character’s personalities and really ham it up.

Now, you’re not just going to throw a bunch of invitations out there and see what happens. This part of the process requires some finesse to make the party work right, and is accomplished in two steps.