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!