Choosing a murder mystery party game
It can sometimes be
a bit difficult to choose the right murder
mystery party game for your guests (particularly when there are over 20 murder mystery party games
featured on this site). Here, then is a simple guide through
the process.
How many people?
Why start with the number of people? Because it's the most important constraint when choosing a murder mystery game. You can't play a game for 20 if you only have 16 coming to your party.
In general, I would try to fill a party. So, for example, if you've got 15 people coming and you're torn between one for 10-17 people and one for 14-40, I would generally choose the former.
If you don't know how many people are likely to turn up you should make an estimate and choose a game that caters for a wide range of people.
- Up to 10 people (including the host)
- 11-25 people (including the host)
- 26-40 people (including the host)
- 41 people and more (including the host)
Theme Parties
If you've got a
specific theme in mind, you should check my
themed
parties page (these games are also included in the pages above):
Kid's Parties
Kids can play murder
mysteries too! If you are mixing kids
with
adults, then you can just use one of the games above - quite a few of
the games already have parts for kids in them. (However, for some you
might want to vet the roles beforehand just in case they aren't
suitable for your kids!)
Alternatively, there are also some murder mystery party games that are designed for kids.
Good Clean Fun
While none of the
murder mystery party games are explicitly
violent
or contain swearing, quite a few of them have references to drugs and
include a wide range of frankly dubious characters who might be
blackmailing each other or having affairs.
(Of course, I can't guarantee that someone won't find something in one of the games offensive - these games include murder after all. You know your guests and must use your own judgement.)
Plus the games inevitably have a murder - sometimes more than one!
Murder mystery games
are ideal for most open-minded people
with a
sense of humour - however some people are more conservative than
others. Luckily, some games are more suitable for those types of groups
and don't have references to drugs and have fewer shady characters.