the perfect murder mystery party venue

Where you choose to host your murder mystery party can have a big effect its success or otherwise.

While you are busy organising guests and sorting out the game, it can be easy to forget some of the other, perhaps more mundane, aspects of hosting a party - such as where you're going to host it.

Here are my tips for choosing or preparing a venue for your murder mystery party game.

A large room used for the Curse of the Pharaoh murder mystery party game

Size matters

The size of your murder mystery party venue is probably your most important consideration.

After all, you do need to make sure you can fit everyone in. In general, interactive murder mystery games (such as Hollywood Lies or The Auction) involve your guests in their own private conversations. As a result, this tends to mean that the party will spill out into corners and corridors and side rooms.

While I'm happy to encourage that, there are some areas I don't want my guests going into, so I tend to post notices saying which areas are "off limits" to guests.

If you're holding a dinner party style game, you will of course, need somewhere for everyone to sit and eat.

Food and drink

Even if you're not serving food, you will need to have refreshments on hand (murder mysteries make for thirsty work).

And that means that you'll need the space to serve them and maybe access to a kitchen.

If you are serving a buffet, you will need space both for the buffet itself and also for people to sit and eat.

And if you are having a sit-down meal, you will need space for the dinner - and you may also need space away from the dining tables for people to talk quietly (particularly if you've chosen a dinner party game).

breakables

I hope I'm not stating the obvious here, but please do look around your venue and secure or remove anything breakable.

While nobody plans to break things, accidents can happen when everyone gets caught up in the party spirit...

So if you've got anything delicate or precious, it's best to remove it from harm's way - just in case.

Safety first

While I'm on the subject of breakages - please make sure that your murder mystery party venue is a safe venue.

Watch out for trip hazards (such as cables, toys and the like), low tables (to bang shins on) and sharp edges.

If you have guests with limited mobility attending, you need to consider your venue even more carefully.

lighting

It can be very tempting to dim the lights to create an appropriately mysterious atmosphere for your party - but do take care.

Game materials (character packs, etc) will be harder to read in dim light, and also stairs and other potential trip hazards will be harder to negotiate.

Not the most atmospheric of venues for Death on the Gambia, but that didn't stop everyone having a good time!

anachronisms

For historical games you might want to remove your television, lava lamps and computers to a spare room.

Fire

Candles and lanterns can create a great atmosphere but they also come with a huge fire risk.

I'd certainly think twice (if not three times) before allowing them, and I'd want to make sure that I'd minimised the risk of them getting out of hand.

(I once hosted a Christmas party with lots of Christmas decorations and candles. About half way through one guest came up to me and asked "Is that decoration supposed to be on fire?" Luckily we caught it before any serious damage was done.)

Insurance

If you're hiring a hall or a hotel function space or similar, you need to check if you're covered for insurance. If not, the venue should be able to advise you further.

parking

Does your murder mystery venue have enough parking?

These days, most of your guests will drive to your venue (unless you're hosting it in a location with excellent public transport) so you need to make sure that everyone will be able to park.

When working out how much parking you need allow one car per couple, plus one car per individual or single guest - and then add a few car spaces for those couples that for whatever reason decide to come separately.

If parking isn't obvious, you will have to tell everyone where to park when you send out directions.

Speaking of which...

Location Plan

This may sound obvious, but don't forget to include directions to your venue to your guests.

I tend to err on the side of caution on this point - I'd send the directions to everyone, no matter how obvious or easily-found you think the venue is.