Allocating Prizes
You don't have to have prizes at the end of your murder mystery party - but they are a lot of fun.
You can have several different prizes - for example:
* Best Costume
* Most Valuable Player
* Best Roleplayer
* Most Outrageous Accent
* Most Impressive Death (for those games like Death on the Gambia and All at Sea where the characters might die).
The prizes themselves might be a simple certificate (you can get these from office suppliers), a box of chocolates, bottle of wine - or something more suited to the game itself.
Some of the games have specific prizes. For example, in The Last Gasp the player who has the most money at the end of the game wins a prize. However, those who start out with money aren't eligible for the prize. If you want everyone to be eligible, you could calculate how much everyone has increased their wealth by. So if you end the game with £200 but started with nothing, you've done better than someone who ends the game with £300 but starts with £400. (This does require a small amount of maths - but not much.)
When it comes to allocating prizes to your guests, my preference is to let everyone vote for them. If I am including tips I therefore include a voting form in each character envelope, and at the end of the game the guests hand them in for counting - and then it's prize-giving time.
Prizes add a fun element to a murder mystery party and can help draw the event to a satisfactory close.
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Article by Steve Hatherley. Find out more about hosting interactive murder mystery games for your friends and family at http://www.great-murder-mystery-games.com.