by MiryRoses » December 18th, 2010, 12:26 pm
Hey gfearon,
I had similar questions to yours, as I am holding my daughter's Sweet 16 party in a very poor, rural community. I know some of my participants can't afford costumes, and I knew my daughter wanted to host the party herself. I just received our purchase, The Immortal Murders, in the mail and I've read through all the materials.
For costumes, The Immortal Murders is broken up into five groups: The Watchers, the Fae, The Were, The Mage Court and the Vampyr. There are about four people in each group. As favors and as costumes, I am buying each group a craft from Oriental Trading Company or am making them out of cardboard: fangs for the vamps, key charms for the watchers, fairy wings for the fae, wands for the magi, Egyptian collar/arm bands for the Were. This can be done for $20 or less and provides everyone a way to be a character without breaking the bank. Additionally, the theme of the party WITHIN the Immortal Murders is a costume party. So really the kids can wear any costume they can come up with, including toilet-paper-mummy. Some of our girls are going to wear their dresses from the winter formal.
For hosting, our wonderful author has made it so you could set the whole party up and still participate. The only "spoiler" knowledge you'll get is who the victim is, because you'll need to assign that person a backup character. Other than that, you can remain blissfully ignorant. Since you're an educator, I'll give you one caution: Have someone available to help the kids with their confidential booklets which are received during the party, so you can stay unspoiled. We have a couple with learning disabilities and they'll need their booklets read to them. Also, if you choose to do the Immortal Murders, I recommend you play as the Inquisitor or Isis, both good characters for an adult to play in a mixed-age crowd.
*Edited to add: You don't really need anything else but what you mentioned. Everything comes in the kit. It's pretty well-done!