This blog post and video is for people who want to learn how to host a murder mystery party. If you’ve purchased one of our Murder Mystery Guide Print-and-Play games, this video will be helpful to watch, as it explains the process behind all of our games. You will learn how to host a murder mystery party: everything from inviting your guests to hosting the murder mystery dinner on the night!
I’ve just released my first video on how to host a murder mystery party! That means no more re-reading the same paragraph 10 times and still forgetting what it said. Now you can watch all seven-and-a-half minutes of murder mystery action to learn the basics of how to host a murder mystery party. More specifically, you’ll learn how to to host my freshly launched, flagship Print-and-Play game: The Morgenrood Murder Mystery.
I’m so excited to share this latest video with you! It’s going to make you even more excited about learning how to host a murder mystery party!
Lisa, The Murder Mystery Guide
Yes, the details are specifically aimed at The Morgenrood Murder Mystery (which you can now purchase, yay!). However, you can easily transfer the game structure and principles to your own custom-made murder mystery that you’ve put together yourself.
Scroll down below the video to read the transcript instead.
If you prefer reading then I have something even better for you! I’ve been writing and hosting murder mystery dinner parties for my own friends and family for over ten years. I wrote an ebook that teaches you how to create your own tailor-made murder mystery dinner party. Just click here to purchase it now!
In the meantime, here’s the video version of how to host a murder mystery party. It has been watched over 241 000 times – and counting. Enjoy!
How to host a murder mystery party transcript
In this video I’m going to explain how to host a murder mystery dinner watch all the way to the end so you don’t miss any of my crucial pointers that will help you and your guests have one of the best nights of your lives. Let’s start off with the four stages of a successful murder mystery dinner party.
Step one is to decide who you want at your dinner. Take a careful look through the character list and all the printed elements to get your head around the game, then decide who of your friends, family or colleagues might enjoy playing each character.
I’ve hosted murder mystery dinners where people knew everybody and some where people knew only one or two others, but honestly, either one can work. Don’t forget to communicate to your guests that a “yes” to this dinner is set in stone. There’s no backing out, because without all the characters in the mix the game simply won’t work.
Once you’ve got your RSVPs sorted the next step is to send out an invitation with your character list via a Facebook event or a Whatsapp group, or another suitable social media platform. It doesn’t really matter which one just as long as your guests can stalk each other a bit beforehand. You heard me!
Personally, I love doing the invitation in character or from the perspective of the murder victim, who’s obviously alive when they invite everyone to the gathering, as it helps to set the tone and build anticipation in the group for the big night the invitation is also where you can share my useful tips for enjoying the game. Just copy and paste.
Purchase a Murder Mystery Guide Print and Play game here. Keep reading to learn how to host a murder mystery party.
Step 2 of how to host a murder mystery party: relax. Once you’ve finished setting the table, preparing the food and creating the perfect ambience for the evening, I always recommend taking at least one hour before guests arrive to relax, take a shower, put on your outfit and get into character and get excited. This is going to be a night you’ll remember for a long time, so expect to have a lot of fun.
Something a lot of people don’t realize is that when guests begin to arrive, usually everyone feels a little weird. Some guests may even be tempted to engage with you out of character because of these weird feelings, but don’t let them.
Your job as the host is to not only stay in character yourself but help ease guests into the fictional world of the game and embrace playing make-believe. Helping everyone to
relax could take up to an hour, but don’t be put off. It’s normal, just press on and everyone will catch on.
Eventually you’ll all forget that you’re wearing strange clothes and pretending to be other people. Section 2 of the game is also a time when the guests should be serving drinks and mingling with the other characters. Once everyone has arrived and you feel it’s the right time, you can invite guests to join you at the dinner table. The dinner table is where all the serious conversations need to happen during the main course and dessert.
“How to host a murder mystery party” video transcript continues below
Ensure your guests know that they can’t go sharing their secrets before everyone is seated at the table. This is so that no one misses important information that will help them to work out who the murder is. As the host this is where you can help to guests share their damning secrets about other characters. Should there be a lull, heck you can even kick things off to show them the way. But once all the secrets have been shared it’s time for the props to come out.
The autopsy report should be circulated amongst the guests so they can take a look at the cause of death and any noteworthy injuries found on the murder victim. The will should also be brought out and read by one of your guests. Pick one of your more dramatic players. The props are designed to eliminate some of
the suspects, so that everybody has a better chance of working out who the murderer is. Once you’ve milked the props for all they’re worth it’s time to move on to the final stage of the game.
By stage four all of your hosting work is pretty much done, because there are only a few things left for you to do. Number one, encourage the guests to make their final accusations of who they think the
murderer is. Step 2 call the murderer to confess. Step 3: call the group to vote for Best Male
character and best female character.
You might even want to have prizes on hand if you like, but before we end off, let’s go through each of the elements of your Print and Play game. The character list: this is the list of character names and their mini bios. It’s helpful to circulate this amongst your guests before the game so they can get to know their own character and how that character fits in with the rest of the
players.
Place cards: these place cards are for seating guests at the dinner table and they’re a handy reminder of characters’ names. Just make sure they’re outward facing. Clue cards: the clue cards are the handouts you can place at each guest’s spot at the table. They have the big secret about their own character they are trying to keep and the big secret for them to share. Don’t forget that the secret should only be shared at the dinner table while everyone is listening.
Confession cards: the confession cards should only be handed out after the props have done their job of reducing the number of real suspects and after all of the secrets have been revealed. They will alert each character who receives one to their guilt or their innocence.
Recipes: these recipes are inspired by the theme of the game. You don’t have to use them, but if
you want to create an authentic experience in line with a theme, you can try these recipes out.
Menus: the menus have been designed to match the recipes for your starter, main course, and dessert. There’s even a lovely homemade liqueur you can make as the final menu item.
The autopsy report: the autopsy report needs to be filled in and will form part of the props to help reduce the suspect list the will the will is part of the props and helps to eliminate some of the lesser suspects.
So to sum up our how to host a murder mystery party video, once you’ve printed all of your murder mystery dinner elements you can expect the game to proceed like this.
Purchase a Murder Mystery Guide Print and Play game here. Keep reading to learn how to host a murder mystery party.
Step 1 of how to host a murder mystery party: the invitation process where you decide who to invite who to assign which character to and how to invite them. Step two involves all the on the day preparation and helping your guests to relax when they arrive, expecting a bit of a transition period, which is totally
normal.
Step 3 of how to host a murder mystery party is where you’ll lead your guests to the dinner table where all the secret-telling can begin until everybody has revealed all of their secrets. And finally, step 4 is where all the secrets and evidence have been revealed, dinner and dessert has been eaten and all that’s left for your guests to do is to decide who the murderer is.
If you like you can even vote for best male and female characters. And that, my friends, brings us to the end of this video on how to host a murder mystery party, which means you’re one step closer to hosting a brilliant murder mystery dinner party. One word of advice is take photographs. If you have the money hire a photographer because you’ll be creating memories that you’ll want to look back on for years to come. And don’t forget to tag us on Facebook and Instagram so we can see how you get on.
If you’re looking for more inspiration or if you have any questions you can ask all of those questions on our social media channels, or just comment on the blog. Till next time, see you soon.
This “how to host a murder mystery party” video wouldn’t have been possible without the help of friends and family who spent their precious time and contributed various talents and skills to help make this video come to life. A HUGE thank you to each one of you for investing in this project! We hope you know how to host a murder mystery party after watching this instructional video on how to host a murder mystery party.
