A murder mystery party (for those who don't know) is an interactive dinner party where 6 or more guests get together, each playing a specific character, who all work together to solve a murder. The aim of the game is to guess correctly which character is the murderer, and to have as much fun as possible doing it!
Each guests gets a character outline that tells them their relationship with the deceased, their feelings and relationships toward the other characters, and their overall personality. There are customized actions for the characters, and throughout the night clues are revealed, alibis uncovered, and reactions between guests analyzed. At the end of the night, everyone considers the evidence and takes a guess at the murderer. Then the culprit reveals themselves and explains how they did it!
- Put some thought into your guest list. Make sure you invite people who will enjoy this type of event and really get into it. Assign the more outgoing characters to the least shy of your guests, and the less involved parts to the more timid people in the group.
- As the host of the party it is your job to keep the script going. Don't let the group get sidetracked with conversation about the last episode of such and such or 'did you see what that coworker yada yada'. Keep the ball rolling and encourage guests to stay in character.
- Encourage guests to come in costume. Let your guest know ahead of time who their character is so they can prepare.
- Tell your guests to keep their characters an absolute secret, (even partners or spouses!)
- Do a buffet instead of a sit down meal. It will let you focus on the guests and the mystery at hand.
Murder Mystery Party Games Free Download For Windows 7
- Murder Mystery Party for Kids (up to 36 players) A wonderful and age appropriate game for kids.
- Sour Grapes of Wrath (6 players) One early autumn day, six people passed through the gates of Killingsworth Farm - one of them, a cold-blooded Killer...
- Casino Theme Murder Mystery (5-17 players) - This Murder Mystery allows party guests create their own character’s backstory.
- The Business of Murder (7 players) This murder mystery has a backdrop of academia.
- The Little Engine That could Kill (8 players) On Wednesday, August 5 th , 1932, you and eight other passengers boarded a three-day express train from Bombay, India to Lisbon, Portugal. Unfortunately, one did not survive the journey.
- The Romanian Uranium Mystery (6 players) - Follow Inspector Clueles and INTERPOO in solving the greatest scams of all time.
- The Pungent Pumpkin Poisoner (8-10 players) 'The Pungent Pumpkin Processing Company' is celebrating its first anniversary. Founders, Friends and Associates have gathered together in a luxury restaurant to toast the company's success and to mark the launch of the company's two latest products. But one member of the company is about to find out that 'Pungent Pumpkin Rat Poison' is lethal!
murder mystery dinner invitations and favors
magnifying glass theme invitations and favors
body outline wall decal
All of our murder mystery party games are designed with colorful characters, plot twists & picture perfect photo ops. Instant Download Every party kit is instantly downloadable. Over a dozen free murder mystery games that are perfect for a murder mystery party or dinner. Includes printable scripts, biographies, and clues.
evidence decorations
This free mystery party sample story is a small part of our whole Mystery Party theme. Make sure to check it out for lots of free printables and loads of free mystery party ideas.
We’ve created a Mystery party sample story for you to get an idea of how to set up such a party. You can use the basis of this story and change details, add or delete characters, change the setting, etc.
The Free Mystery Party Story Plot
Diana Buckingham, a famous entrepreneur who has made her living from creating the most popular strawberry jam in the world, went suspiciously missing on Dec. 12, 2008 while she was writing her will. All of her relatives and staff of her estate are suspects to her disappearance. All of the suspects are invited to her estate (the Mystery party place) to prove their innocence, find out who is responsible for Diana’s disappearance, and discover who Diana left her fortune to on her will.
The Free Mystery Party Sample
The invitation is written out as a letter from Diana’s lawyer with a small paragraph citing Diana’s disappearance. The guest is summoned to Diana’s estate to prove their innocence and figure out Diana’s will and testament. You can add a pseudo newspaper clipping with a picture of Diana (this should be a person who is wearing a wig and glasses, for example, and will be coming at the end of the party when the mystery is solved). The newspaper clipping can give out clues to Diana’s disappearance and to other suspicious characters.
You can create each character by the guests you choose to play that character. For example if one of the guests is a soccer player, you can create a character that is similar to the interests of the guest. For example: “David Beckham, Diana’s nephew who has won major soccer games all around the world. He has always loved Diana’s estate and has often remarked that it could be turned into an excellent soccer field.”
Diana’s estate (your house or a different party area you designate) should be decorated to fit the high-class life of Diana. A few adults you assign are also suspicious characters:
- Butler – Geford Peabody
- Maid – Charlotte Rue
- Chef – Sophia Tart
- Artist – Van Gogh
- Wine maker – John Grape
- Gardener – Nicholas Weed
- Bodyguard – Hef Tee
- Lawyer – William S. Percy
These are just made up characters, you can make up your own with your own made-up names. They all should be dressed up as their character (the lawyer in a suit, the butler in a tux and white gloves, the chef with an apron and chef hat, etc.), possibly with nametags as well.
Another idea for this free mystery party plot is to play classical music in the background while each arriving guest is greeted by the butler and maid. Each guest also gets a pen and suspect sheet. The suspect sheet has descriptions of all of the suspects. The guests need to start mingling and begin to guess who’s who (which guest is which suspect on the suspect sheet). If they guess right, they get a signature from the suspect. During this whole introduction, the kitchen staff serves cocktails (non-alcoholic of course) and all kinds of small appetizers.
There are different rooms in the “estate” (just like in the famous board game CLUE). Different areas of the party area can be assigned as different rooms of the estate, add signs to each area (The Kitchen, The Conservatory, The Parlor, The Library, etc.).
After the mingling, the lawyer William S. Percy calls everyone to the Parlor to watch Diana’s will and testament (this can be a pre-made recording of Diana using a camera or web-cam, shown on a computer screen or on TV). On the TV screen, Diana addresses all of the relatives and expresses her concern about someone she thought was out to get her (she is pretty sure it is someone in that very room). In the video, everyone sees Diana lock away a manila envelope in a safe (she explains that inside is a paper showing her suspicions of who it is). She is about to say who she wants the heir of her will to be and then suddenly a completely masked person storms through the door, Diana screams, is able to take a photograph at the last moment and the video is blacked out. When this is over, the lawyer hands out floor plans of the estates with flashlights.
The place where Diana is located in the video is the first clue, this is where everyone goes to (for example: the Conservatory). There they find the last picture Diana took before her disappearance; it is a picture of a huge wooden spoon. (The host should be with the kids during the whole mystery just in case the kids don’t really get any of the clues, or need a few more hints to where to go and what to do).
They all run to the Kitchen and ask the chef what she did the evening Diana disappeared. The chef Sophia Tart shows them a theater-ticket stub that shows she was at the theater at the time Diana disappeared (this is the chef’s alibi). The chef then gives out the next clue (for example: she says that she remembers Diana walking around with a dictionary a day before), then all the kids run to the Library to find the dictionary (inside is the next clue and/or mission). With each new clue the kids get another suspect’s alibi as to their innocence.
For this free myster party it’s best if the clues make the kids run from one side of the “estate” to the other – to make it more exciting and fun. Other alibi’s could be a voicemail of one of the suspects right at the time of the disappearance, or a drawing one of the suspects (the Artist – Van Gogh) had drawn at the same time and date showing that they couldn’t have captured Diana since they were some other place.
Free Murder Mystery Party Games
The clues should get a bit harder each time, they can lead to the daily newspaper where you’ve circled letters that spell a word that gives a hint, to a tape recording, a picture, a certain website on the internet, a difficult crossword puzzle, etc. The final clue leads them to the Bedroom where they find the huge wooden spoon (the one they saw in the picture at the beginning) and a note from Diana saying she ran for help and to find the gardener.
Then everyone runs to find the gardener out in the yard. He denies that he did anything wrong but shows them a key he just found in the garden. All the kids run to the Conservatory and open Diana’s safe, they all guess who they think is responsible for Diana’s disappearance and open the envelope. Inside they find a letter from Diana saying she had suspected it was the maid!
At that very moment there is a knock at the door and a police officer walks in with Diana! She explains to everyone that she knew Charlotte Rue (the maid) was jealous of her strawberry jam factory and wanted to take over it (Charlotte also had dreams of having her own jam factory). In fact, Charlotte was making a new batch of strawberry jam (using the big wooden spoon) the night Diana was making her will.
Not wanting anyone to inherit Diana’s estate and jam factory, Charlotte kidnapped Diana and tied her up in a dark room. During the brawl between them the key of Diana’s safe flew out the window (that’s where the gardener eventually found it). Diana escaped from that room eventually (and the rest is history ;-).
If you’re not the type to write your own mystery, you can check out these really cool and creative ready-made kids mystery kits… These kits can be personalized to fit your Mystery party.
For more free Mystery party ideas, click here to check out the main Mystery Party theme page for lots more free mystery party ideas, printables, decorations, etc.