Murder Mystery Night

WHAT IS A MURDER MYSTERY?

A Murder Mystery is a sequence of events acted out on a particular night, usually through dinner, in front of a group of guests (ideally 30-50 people) ultimately leading to the untimely death of one of the characters.

This is done by the characters enacting scenes in front of the guests, usually in conversational style. These scenes give the guests valuable clues as to the relationships between different characters and the plot and possible sub-plots going on.

At the start of the night when the guests are shown to their tables, they find Murder Mail. This mail lists the different characters in that night's plot with a brief description of each. The guests use this during the night as a reference to the different characters and often find it useful for jotting down valuable clues.

The characters all sit at the one table and act as if no one can hear their private conversations/arguments.

At various stages through dinner, the characters mingle with the guests to involve them in the Murder Mystery by various means such as confiding in them or flirting with them, whatever is suitable to the particular character.

During the various dinner courses the scenes are acted out, usually 12 to 15 depending on the intricacy of the plot.

As the last scene draws near, the relationships between all characters are well established and in most cases it will be obvious who the victim will be.

However, each of the characters will at this stage have established a valid reason for wanting the victim dead and it is them up to the guests to figure out who the murderer is.

After the murder has been committed, the body is removed from the room and the remaining characters distribute Murder Mystery Answer Sheets to each table/guest as decided by the organisers. The guests must say who the murderer is, how the murder was committed and what the motive was.

The characters, which the exception of the victim, are then available for questioning by the guests for a limited period. The Murder Mystery Mail is then collected and the winner determined. In the case of a draw, the table/guest with the motive closest to the truth is the winner.

It can be fun for the guests to dress up but this is completely optional.

Find out more about Hollywood, Western, Gangster or School plots and don't forget:

The idea is to get into the spirit of it and have fun …. Of course winning has its benefits too!!!