Murder Mystery Parties

I write custom designed murder mystery games. These range from small murder mystery dinner parties to large games for youth groups.

With all of these games, my aim is to create a unique experience that’s tailored to you. Perhaps your friends are all Mad Men fans and you’d like to spend the evening in a 1950s ad agency, with a touch of LA Noire and a couple of Breaking Bad references. Or maybe your church youth group is spending a weekend studying Exodus, and you’d like a game themed around travel, exile and desert lands. Whatever your interests, I can write a murder mystery to fit, incorporating any little references and in jokes you want me to include.

I write games in two different formats – dinner parties and large groups.

Dinner Parties

If you’ve played a boxed murder mystery game, you may know that they don’t always make a lot of sense. You might find out half way through that you’re the murderer, or the vital clue might be so tenuous no-one gets it. Sometimes you’re stuck with a character you don’t like, or spend fifteen minutes sat silent, waiting for other people to deliver oddly out of context information.

The parties I write are different. You each get a detailed brief telling you everything they need to know about your character. You all have your own agendas, giving you something to do when you’re not spilling the beans or interrogating a suspect. The characters will be written based upon your ideas and input, so that you can be sure you’re playing someone you’re comfortable with and interested in. Nobody gets stuck with a duff role – everybody gets to be who they want.

These games cost £20-£40 per player, depending upon the level of detail involved and use of in character documents. Based on your ideas I’ll provide full instructions for the game and briefs for each player, letting you have one of the most memorable dinner parties of your life. If you’re interested, or want more information, then email me.

Large Groups

These games are designed primarily for schools and youth groups. Those of you running the event play the suspects, and the attendees move from one suspect to the next, asking questions and trying to work out who committed the crime.

Each suspect gets a bullet point brief, giving the details the investigators can get out of them. It tells them who they are and how they relate to the other suspects, in a format that’s easy to remember and refer to even when you’re entertaining sixty excited teenagers. The investigators get a simple worksheet and instructions to guide them through the game.

The price for these games starts at £60 in total, and goes up from there depending on the number of suspects. Based on your chosen theme I’ll provide clear, simple instructions for the game, a bullet point brief for each suspect, extra clues for other leaders to drop in, and a worksheet for the investigators to complete. It’s a fun, challenging social game that’s great for entertaining a large group of young people – or even older ones – while encouraging them to use their thinking skills. If you’re interested, or want more information, then email me.