I am a veteran murder mystery host, looking for something different..

by maureen
(vancouver )

I have been playing and hosting murder mystery parties for 25 years, both in England and Canada, starting from the small boxed dinner versions, to our latest interactive 25 guests' extravaganzas!

We have played ones from 'Dinnerandamurder'(Murder at the Four Deuces - excellent) and several from NightofMystery-also very good! We have attended professional murder mystery nights and weekends away.

Although we have enhanced our evenings with performances from the guests, games, music and dancing, I am starting to feel we need to change the format, as it is starting to feel a little predictable. I love the ideas of adding special powers/ more murders, but I'm not sure I want to be just the host. I enjoy playing along with my guests, and no one else could be the host. For instance, could I host The Arabian Nights game, WITHOUT knowing who the murderer is, or the guests' secrets? Are there others you might suggest? (We have done Hollywood, Wild West, Vegas, 80's themes recently.)

Your advice would be much appreciated.

My response:

I wouldn't normally recommend that an inexperienced host try to run and play Arabian Nights at the same time. However, you're clearly not an inexperienced host!

In order to run and host and play at the same time, you simply need to be careful not to read too much when you print and prepare the game. The areas to be cautious about are the solution (er, obviously) and the character backgrounds (as the murderer knows who they are from the start).

And it's not the end of the world if you do find out who the murderer is - there are lots of other plots in Arabian Nights to keep everyone entertained.

I've also written some tips for playing and hosting a murder mystery game here.

Anyway, I hope that helps.

steve