What are interactive murder mystery parties?

By Steve Hatherley

What are interactive murder mystery parties and how are they different from the other types of murder mystery parties?

what are interactive murder mystery parties?

Murder mysteries are interactive party games for anywhere between 7 and 200 guests.

Murder mysteries come in all sorts of shapes and sizes - dinner theatre, interviewing suspects and turn-based games.

Because I like them so much, I concentrate on "interactive" murder mystery games.

Interactive murder mystery games differ from the ones you can find in the stores (such as the popular How to Host a Murder... series) in several ways:

• They usually cater for more guests - often up to 40 guests.
• Everyone is involved! Everyone has a character with their own background, secrets and objectives.
• As well as needing to solve the murder, each guest has other goals and problems to solve. In a typical interactive game you might have to solve the murder and pay off your gambling debts. Another character might want a certain object, while yet another is having an affair.
• You are given all your character’s information at once, at the start of the game. If you’re the murderer then you will know how and why you committed murder – and you will have to deflect suspicion away from yourself.
• Unlike the dinner party games, interactive games are not usually played around a table (although there is often food served, it is usually a buffet or finger food). Instead, everyone mingles and talks to one another. It’s up to them to decide who to trust and who to blackmail in order to solve the mystery and achieve their goals.
• Interactive murder mysteries are completely interactive. While there is a set solution to the murder, how your guests achieve their other goals is entirely up to them.
• These games sometimes require a little more preparation, and sometimes need a dedicated “host” who doesn’t actually solve the murder but organises everything instead.

(In case it wasn’t obvious, I think that the interactive games are much more fun! Click here to learn why!)

If you don't fancy an interactive murder mystery party, then click here for more information on the other types of game.

I’m Steve Hatherley, an experienced designer of interactive murder mystery games, creating and hosting them since the 1990s. I co-founded Freeform Games and Great Murder Mystery Games to bring this distinctive, character-driven style of game to a wider audience. My work—including Death on the Gambia, Hollywood Lies, and
—has been enjoyed by thousands of players worldwide. I’ve also written a book sharing my approach to creating immersive, freeform mystery experiences.