length of play, ordering time, flexible numbers

by Katie
(St. Louis, MO)

We're hosting a 16th birthday on Friday the 13th - less than a month away. We'll have ages 16 to 70 and probably between 15 and 25 people. I want something easy to organize and easy for beginners to play. I'm especially concerned about the length of the party and don't want it to get too long.

Merri Mystery's The Luck of the Irish and Freeform Games' Way Out West are the two that seem the likeliest choices. Can you tell me the difference in length of play on these? Is one or the other more flexible in terms of number of guests who actually show up? Is there any difference in ordering time? I need to have the game fairly quickly.

My response

I'm not entirely sure how long The Luck of the Irish takes to play, but Way out West lasts for about 3 hours, plus a bit of time for meeting and greeting and settling in.

The Luck of the Irish is slightly more flexible as it caters for more guests. If you get the full 25 guests for Way out West, you'll need to use the extra character on the Freeform Games website. (On the other hand, if you only get 15 guests then Way out West is the better game to have.)

As for ordering time - both are ordered and downloaded over the Internet. So it should only take a few minutes or so.