Murder Mystery Parties In California
How to Host a Murder
With all the excitement and intrigue surrounding a murder mystery, it’s little wonder that people enjoy attending a good murder mystery party. These parties became popular several years ago and are quite enjoyable for all the guests. They are also easy to organize.
You can get these in board games for 10 – 100 people or you can choose to write your own. It’s totally up to you and your imagination. If you choose the board game version, there will be everything you need for your party including invitations, character descriptions, scripts, and costume instructions for each character. Creating your own can be a lot of fun but will also be quite a bit of work as you strive to make it as spooky and as much fun as possible.
When I was living in LA, there was a company that came out to our work party and did a Murder Mystery California, with a theme about the region. This was a thousand times better than any out of the box murder mystery. Murder Mystery Los Angeles style with real actors.
When deciding on your guest list, be sure that you invite people who are going to really get into the game and enjoy themselves. Role playing isn’t always for everyone and many are not comfortable doing so. If there is someone who doesn’t enjoy role playing but who would also be hurt if you don’t invite them, create a position of supervising for them. In that way, they can be invited to the party and still have fun.
Plan your dinner or refreshments around the theme of your murder mystery party. For example, if you’re doing a murder mystery set in the 1920s, you may want to use decorations from that era
as well as food and beverages popular then. Your female guests may enjoy wearing flapper dresses and long necklaces while the men will be geared in suits and hats from that time period. Whatever the year of the murder, be sure to include costume suggestions for each character when you send the invitations.
Once your guests arrive, begin to set the stage at dinner. The scripts should have been passed out by then and everyone knows what they are to say. According to the script, one or more guests will be “murdered” during the course of the evening while the rest of the guests try to solve the mystery of who the murderer is. Sometimes it is best if the murderer does not know his or her own identity unless it is someone with an excellent poker face.
Make your clues lead the guests into spooky and eerie situations. This keeps up the excitement and thrills. Have a great prize on hand for the person, or persons, who solve the mystery. Also, don’t be surprised if people clamor for invitations to your next murder party.
