Hosting: Beneficial to play or not

by Cameron
(California )

I am hosting a murder mystery party for about 30 people for the first time. It will be males and females and will take place at the end of May. I am now looking into which game I want to purchase.

This leads me to my questions: If I am not a player in the game what is my role?

Do you recommend the host to be apart of the game?

Also, if I am a part of the game and I know the murderer then will that ruin the game at all?

My response:

In an interactive murder mystery (most of the games I talk about on this site), the host generally has a different role from the players. The role's job is to organise the party and be a neutral referee who helps everyone else to achieve their goals.

In these games, the host needs to know who the murderer is as they need to understand the whole game so that they can make the right decision when helping the players.

In terms of a "character", the role given to the host is usually a minor servant role, such as the Deckhand in Death on the Gambia.

I also talk about the host's role on this page, including some games where the host can play a character.