Murder at the Four Dueces

[MelissaD]

This was my first murder mystery party. I was asked to host a Halloween party, but didn't want the typical boring get together. This was great! I made sure I only had people who actually wanted to play the game, so the guest list I originally came up with was NOT the guest list I ended up with! Very few people actually knew each other, but it didn't matter because they had to talk to one another.

I made the party an appetizer only party, because I wanted people to mingle, and that worked great. So we started the evening with everyone picking at the food table and trying getting to know who was which character. I had a table set up with a "gift bag" for each character including: a copy of the character workbook and a name tag (in case they forgot them at home), a small notebook, a pen, and some money. After reading the host announcement, I gave everyone about a half hour, enough time for the victim to complete all tasks.

Once the (overly dramatic) murder took place, I handed out the confidential booklets. I couldn't believe the way everyone rushed to get theirs and went off to read it all hunched over so no one else could peek! haha. I gave the inspector the evidence, and let him decide when everyone else was ready to hear it. After all my "hosts tasks" were complete, I grabbed a camera and started taking pic's of everything.

To be honest, I didn't think anyone would care about the Certificates at the end, but boy, was I wrong! By the time I had all the voting cards counted, the party was in chaos! As soon as I said "I have the certificates", the whole group rushed to find seats and waited patiently for the results. After the party was over, every single guest came up to me one by one to make sure they would be invited to next year's party. So my one-time-halloween-party is now official an Annual Murder Mystery Dinner.

As I said, this was my first time, so I have a few things I will do differently next time. First, I would start taking pictures MUCH earlier in the evening. I didn't realize how long it would take me to decorate, so I was a bit behind when the guest started showing up. And I would give more time at the end for people to try to figure out the killer. One guest turned his card in right away so everyone else thought they had to rush to get theirs in. So the first guest was the only one who got the murderer correct. And we only had 1 extra murder, because of the rushed time. Some of the guest had ideas too. They were upset because they couldn't tell if people were lying or not, so they want to make a rule that if you are offered a certain amount of money, you have to tell the truth to any question. But, we have a year to iron out the wrinkles.

Thanks for the fun night! And thanks for making me look like a great party host!

[2coolbaby]

I am glad your new annual event went off so well!

Personally, I would vote against any forced truth telling. A couple games by other companies do that and they really suffer for it. In real life are you forced to tell the truth for enough money? Umm, that is a no. This would give too much of an advantage to those with lots of money. Not a fair one at all. I like my games to play like real life. It's why I let people make their own decisions on where they take the game. I only control what is necessary to make the game work well. Forced truth telling would be an issue and if you decide to do so, please make sure that your guests know that isn't a part of our games, but something you guys added. Don't want people thinking we would do that. We are constantly getting the questions on if our games do that, because they hated it when they played those that did.

[MelissaD]

Thanks for the tip! I guess they can deal with the lying, I want this year to be better than last, not worse! I am getting ready for this year party (Murder at the Four Deuces 2) this October. We are all very excited. Everyone from last year is attending, and we are inviting some new people. Do you have any recommendations to the size of the party? Last year we had about 20 people and that worked well. I know more people would like to attend, but I feel that if the party is too big, it might lose some of it's charm....thoughts? Also, are you working on any new parties? I like to bring options for everyone to vote on for the theme of next year's party.

[2coolbaby]

20 is a good size. You can go bigger and if you decide to, our first extra character packet adds characters that are helpful to a party. Bartender, lawyer etc... Anything over 50 is too big. I personally prefer to stay under 40 myself. But, 20 is the sweet spot in my opinion, but adding another 10 that want to attend would not hurt the party.