Top Tips for Hosting a Murder Mystery Night
Basics of How to Organise a Successful Fancy Dress Costume Party
Aug 16, 2009
Boxed murder mystery games have declined in popularity in recent years so they can be hard to source. Charity shops or auction sites such as eBay are a good place to pick them up. Alternatively, there are some excellent games available on the Internet to download and print off. These can include character outlines. invitations, plot points, recipes and props such as wills, letters and newspaper cuttings.
Creative types might like to write their own plots, or recreate a movie or a novel, but it's a lot of work. Wherever the game comes from, here are some hints to ensure success.
Sending Out Party Invitations
Start a month in advance. It’s important to give guests plenty of time to prepare as they have their outfits to think about and they may want to revise and rehearse their characters.
In addition, the host needs to be certain who is coming because characters have to be allocated. This is perhaps the hardest part of the arrangements because if one person cancels it can really throw a spanner in the works as far as the plot is concerned.
Allocating Characters for the Murder Mystery Party
Many murder mystery games suggest allocating invitees a character ahead of the party. Guests are told who they will be playing and are asked to dress as if they were that character. This is great fun because by the time the party comes around, everyone has had a chance to learn their back story and can act the part.
However, as mentioned above, it can make things difficult if someone drops out or declines the invitation. A way around this problem is to allocate characters on the night when guests arrive. The invitations should still go out a month in advance, telling people they are invited to a murder mystery party and that they will be required to dress up in costume.
Dress Code Advice
A general dress code can be dictated by the theme of the game or the era in which it is set, for example, gangsters and molls; Hollywood stars; Orient Express; the Roaring Twenties, the Victorians.
One host, Danielle from Glasgow, said: ‘My murder mystery party was on Christmas Eve and I thought some people would be too busy to sort out fancy dress, or might just want to wear their party season outfits. So I told them all to wear an ‘alibi costume’ because they might have to explain where they were at the time of the murder.
‘One guy turned up in a tux and said he’d been at the opera, while Henry VIII and Carmen Miranda said they had been at a fancy dress party. Several girls wore cocktail dresses or disco clothes and said they had been to an office party, while others wore jeans, lounge suits, or hired costumes.
‘I wore pyjamas and slippers and said I’d been in bed at the time of the murder. This was also a low maintenance outfit which made it easier to deal with the cooking and serving at the start of the party. Later I got changed into something fancier and took on the role of another character. I said my other character had gone back to bed!’
Picking the Perfect Time to Start the Party
It is crucial to have everyone arrive promptly, as a late arrival can play havoc with the plot. One way to ensure this is to pick and odd time. Danielle explains: ‘The invitation said 7.25pm sharp and the result was amazing. By 7.30pm everyone was here and I allocated them all their character outlines. I know if I’d said 7.30pm, guests would still have been arriving after 8pm.’
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