Murder Mystery Parties

The first step in planning your mystery party is to choose a date. We recommend allowing at least one month to put the party together, but the more time, the better! Standard parties require 1-2 weeks for delivery, and customized parties require more time.

If you have less than one month until your party’s date, please contact us directly to get things going ASAP!

Next, you’ll want to prepare your guest list. Invite your friends, colleagues, or participants to take part in the mystery. We have invitations available for download, or you may purchase custom-printed invitations to match your party’s theme. Alternatively, you may use online invitation services, such as evite.com to save paper & postage, while connecting personally with your guests!

Visit our Mysteries Page, and choose which theme will best fit your group!

If you have a specific theme in mind, but do not see it on our list, please contact us. We are always adding to our mystery selection, but will also write mysteries on demand. Have a special request or unique idea for a story? No worries, as we are always able to write custom mysteries.

Now you’re ready to place your order! You may order online or via phone. You’ll need to know the number of male & female attendees. If you don’t know this exact number, simply plan for an estimated number of attendees (please let us know if your list is estimated, so we can plan for additional guests).

Please allow one to two weeks for creation of your party before shipping. Parties with customizations may take longer.

Once you receive your murder mystery party, you will receive a FREE party planning consultation. This may take place in person or via e-mail, phone, or video conference. In our consultation, we will walk you through how to host a successful party and answer any questions you may have.  Your host guide will also give tips for your menu, beverages, decorations, and other details. If you have questions at any time, please feel free to contact us!

You’ll want to assign each guest a character. The best way to do this is by matching the personality of each guest to our character list. There is a guest list worksheet included in your Host Guide to assist you in this process. At least one to two weeks before your party, you should distribute character information to your guests. This will allow your guests ample time to prepare their costumes, props, and life stories. Please remind guests to keep the details of their character secret until the party!

Your Host Guide gives suggestions for setting the scene. It also has tips for food and decorations to help with the ambience of your party. Each party has a Pinterest board with great links for recipes, decorations, character costumes and more.

Keys to a successful party: Have fun with your characters! Interrogate your fellow suspects! Find all the evidence! Bribery, blackmail, and rumor-mongering are allowed! Award certificates are provided for: Wealthiest Player, Best Costume, Best Character Performance, Solved It!, and Super Sleuth. For tips to solving the mystery, checkout our Sleuthing Tips.

Think of this mystery as playing a live board game of CLUE! You will use CLUE Cards and evidence to solve the crime. There are three different CLUE Cards: Suspect, Weapon and Motive. Plus, there is also evidence items that will help narrow down your list of suspects and reveal Who Dunnit?!

In your efforts to solve this crime there are many questions you will want to ask the suspects. For example: “How did you know the deceased?” “Do you have any evidence that relates to the crime?” “Do you know someone who is a suspect in the murder?” “Why would our fellow suspects want the victim dead?” “Do you know of anyone who has a weapon?”

You are looking for the character who is a suspect, has a motive, and has the correct murder weapon. Once you find the character with all 3 of these that matches the evidence you will solve the crime.

If a suspect card says someone is not a suspect you can cross them off your list.

Those who have evidence are able to use these items however they wish; bribery, blackmail, barter, etc… If you have a piece of evidence you cannot lie. You must share it. It is up to you though if you are sharing it for free, doing an exchange or charging a fee. The number of evidence items that are relevant to the murder will be revealed during your party introduction. These items will assist you in solving Who Dunnit?!

You may have to find the correct clues to know what a piece of evidence means or whom it represents. For example a king of hearts from a deck of cards could be used to represent a male character that is an avid poker player. You would then need to connect this evidence with the male character that likes to play poker.

Please be sure to carefully look over the evidence. There may be more than what meets the eye!

Many of our mysteries not only feature a murder, but also include a sub-crime, giving your group another mystery to solve. In many cases, the sub-crime will actually be committed by the guilty character at the party, while the murder may happen before the party. There are separate evidence items that relate to the sub-crime, and the number of items that relate to the sub-crime will be disclosed in the Party Introduction.

Do you want to win the Wealthiest Player Award? Optimize your funds? This is the section for you! There are several ways to increase your party wealth.

One way to increase your funds is to sell the clues and evidence you have gathered. To do this you would say something along the lines of, “I have a great clue! I will share it with you for a $100!” If you come upon a group, simply charge each person to view your item.

You can also barter with clues. “You share yours and I will share mine!” This gets you a clue for free that you can always sell to someone else later.

Sometimes you have to spend money to make money. Rather than buying a “peek” at a piece of evidence, why not buy the evidence itself and profit from your investment?

Did you run out of money? You can sell your services (for example: if you are a singer you could offer to serenade another guest), steal another character’s money when they aren’t looking and much more. Remember this is a game, have fun with it!

In some instances it can be advantageous to partner with a friend at the party. You can share the information you have gathered and ideas on solving Who Dunnit? A word of caution though: this person could slip you wrong information!

Several parties have rewards. If you solve the sub-crime, you may receive a monetary reward! If a reward is being offered, it will be given by the individual who was affected by the sub-crime. For example, in “Wild West Showdown” Wild Bill Hickok has a series of incidents where his stagecoaches are robbed. These thefts are not good for business, so he offers a reward to the individual who can solve who has been robbing his stagecoaches…