A question about Night of Mystery

by Eric

Have you heard of the company: "Night of Mystery.com"? I'm just wondering if these mysteries are freeform mysteries.

My response:

I've heard of Night of Mystery.com, but I don't really know their games. I've not seen one in detail - but from what I can tell on their website the games appear to be "freeform" in style.

(However, they appear to be partly scripted and don't appear to be as completely interactive as those by Freeform Games.)

Unfortunately they don't offer a refund if the game isn't to your liking. If you try one - do let me know how it goes!

Update: See the comments to find out why I'm not particularly impressed with Night of Mystery...

Comments for A question about Night of Mystery

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Sep 14, 2023
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Best time at Night of Mystery parties
by: Anonymous

We have run and been to Night of Mystery games and had a great time both times

We were first turned onto them when I went to a friend's house and they did Ho Ho Homicide -- HILARIOUS! And super easy to dress for for me (I already had some reindeer ears).

The way the games are set up made it very easy to intermingle with all the guests, since I didn't know all my friend's friends, and we all really got into both our characters and the mystery. That also made it fun.

Then, we threw Trailer Park Tragedy the next summer. It was fun and easy to set up and so, so, so fun with the characters and the mystery. No problems. Everyone had a great time! The money got bartered around at ours, and it was crazy what some people were doing with it.

We plan to do the 80s prom next or the Gatsby one.


Apr 23, 2023
Rating
star 		Terrible customer service. Greedy! NEW
by: Anonymous

Ok First of all, let me say that I completely understand that murder mystery writers deserve to make money on their intellectual property. Of course! I'll happily pay what the company charges, and this company charges more than most others, but they also have clean games which is necessary since I run games for my students. So, I was willing to purchase their games. Ok, so here's the story...

I've run different companies games several times for my students, but was looking at a theme from night of mystery. We've done one of their games before for our friends, and I thought it could be a good fit for my students this year. I saw that they had a business license, but as I'm not charging for the party, and I'm not a business of any sort, I assumed it didn't apply. I double checked, just in case, as the language of the license seems to say you must purchase a business license if running it for any group, even if not charging. But I'm not a lawyer, so I thought I'd just double check. What can I say, I'm a rule follower.

Yep, business license required. An extra $225!! For a teacher to run it for an end of year celebration for her students. Out of my own pocket. Not a fundraiser or any sort of money being exchanged. Just a fun time before summer! I'm flabbergasted.

The only time you can use it without the business license is if it's with personal friends or family. Class celebration? License. Team building with coworkers? License. Youth group? License. I'm just surprised. I'd get it if I were charging, but this just seems greedy for an already expensive product. There are better companies out there. I'd rather write my own murder mystery than give this company one more dollar.
Apr 12, 2022
Rating
starstarstar 		Wanted... but never responded NEW
by: Michelle

Trying to get in contact with the company. I bought a different mystery from another company that was too complicated for a simple back yard 30th birthday. Had a couple questions before I bought from Night of Mystery, just so I do not waste any ore money. If I am spending $100 on a mystery I want to be sure it is what I want... right

Well its been over a month of me emailing through the website, on facebook, the presidents email I found and nothing... crazy
Mar 11, 2022
Rating
star 		Not impressed NEW
by: Anonymous

I ran one of their mysteries and was not impressed overall.

My main issue is they say "our games are custom written for the size of the party (ie, we don’t just create a mystery with 8 characters and then keep adding more characters to it)". But nothing in playing it really gives me that impression. Someone wasn't present, so people kept asking me questions as they had missions and needed info from someone who wasn't there. It just leaves a huge narrative gap, and it feels incomplete as a result.

The interaction required from some characters was very poor. For the first half, mine had to do one thing. Most of it was reactive, but I literally had one or two 'missions' to speak to a character or two.

There was no real flesh to the characters, by the end of the evening I can't say I was any the wiser really on characters or their motivations.

I appreciate that I could get an all male version but reading it you can clearly see which characters have been gender swapped. When you as a male character are being encouraged to wear jewellery.... well while men can wear it of course, it's clear that they were female characters previously.

There were multiple spelling mistakes including one character name, which again caused confusion. After years on the market I can't believe it's still got mistakes.

And finally they locked the PDFs making it hard to do the simplest of things. You can't fill in the cast page, as the PDF is uneditable. You can't even copy the names from the files to your own spreadsheet to keep track of things. It's literally locked down so you can't do anything.

Having done a lot of murder mysteries, but the first from this company, I feel this one just didn't hit the mark.
Oct 21, 2019
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Ran Terror in Transylvania, went very well! NEW
by: J

I ran their new Terror in Transylvania mystery for 30 people - I found their documentation very thorough and easy to follow, and my guests really enjoyed the mystery itself (a lot of smaller sub plots were included besides the main murder plot, which gave all of the guests a lot to do - and every guest got specific goal lists, even the "extras").
May 16, 2017
Rating
star 		Poor Customer Service NEW
by: Anonymous

Extremely difficult to deal with. I have sent multiple emails regarding a problem with one of the games. I think I have a better chance of winning the lottery without a ticket than getting a return email. The funny thing is that our first party went off without a hitch....it was great. This is our second party and the download has a problem.

Still awaiting a response...5 emails and 6 days later. Whatever happened to customer service. My advice is to stay away.

Also I see on some other chat boards ficticious likes by the owner his name is Ross. Take a look at Yelp and you will see him praising the company and response. According to the domain registry it is the owner.
Oct 08, 2015
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		They do not value their customers NEW
by: Anonymous

Wouldnt let me upgrade when my guest list turned out to be larger that I had initially expected. This is common when you throw a part - people don't always RSVP in time! I was sort of amazed at how inflexible this company was. Would not recommend and will not buy from them again.
Dec 08, 2014
Rating
star 		Terrible customer service
by: Anonymous

The company tried to make me pay twice for a party because they sent the wrong info. I will never recommend them or use them again.
Dec 08, 2014
Rating
star 		Terrible customer service
by: Anonymous

The company tried to make me pay twice for a party because they sent the wrong info. I will never recommend them or use them again.
Jun 02, 2014
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Always turned out great
by: Jonas

Every murder mystery I have either hosted or gone to with a night of mystery murder mystery turned out great. It seems like a site that gives everyone enough to do, and is always tons of fun. I've tried the knight of murder, till death do us part, murder at deadwood saloon, and murder among the mateys.
Sep 28, 2011
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Had a great experience!
by: Anonymous

Hello. I have used Night of Mystery and had no problems. I found the games to be intriguing, fun and when I emailed with questions, got a great response. Their message board is the best and filled with ideas. My guests can't wait for the next one. We're planning our second one for this Halloween!
Jul 15, 2010
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Night of Mystery a SCAM!
by: Anonymous

I paid $40 for a mystery from the website "Night of Mystery" and promptly received a receipt to my email... however, there was no link to download my mystery. I waited for another email. None came. I tried to log back into the website and it stated on my login that I had not made a purchase.

I forwarded the emailed receipt to the info person listed on the website and got no response. I also called the phone number listed on the website- you guess it... NO RESPONSE! After 3 emails, 2 phone calls from me and one from my husband, and STILL NO DOWNLOAD info, we had to dispute the charge, notify BBB and order another mystery from another website.

Jan 07, 2008
Rating
starstarstar 		Thanks Mary
by: Steve

Mary,

Thanks for the heads up - I'll steer clear of them in future!

steve
Dec 23, 2007
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Ripped off Dinner and a Murder
by: Mary Lee

She actually ripped off Dinner and a Murder. She bought one of my games about 4 years ago and then released one almost exactly the same. I mean in every way, even same theme. Different characters were the only difference. She didn't even bother to reword things, as she told me, you cannot copyright rules and my whole system I developed is considered a rule. I asked her to at least use a little imagination and change something to make hers unique from mine and she told me that if I would tell her what to change she would change it!

Her themes are almost exactly like mine and every time I mentioned releasing a new theme, she came out with the same theme first. Fortunately for me, you cannot steal talent too;-)

She used to really bother me, but I have had too customers tell me horror stories about her and her business. It still bothers me in the fact that when someone puts out a bad game, it hurts the rest of us, as we have all just lost a potential future customer.

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