Murder Mystery Parties: A Guide To Planning One

15 min readAug 2, 2022

What is a murder mystery party?

A murder mystery party is a type of themed party in which guests assume character roles and play a detective-style party game where one of the guests is “murdered” and they need to figure out the identity of the murderer.

This guide will mainly cover how to plan out the game of a murder mystery party (since that’s the most important aspect), but it will also touch on subjects like designing invitations, choosing party food, etc. Basically, this is an in-depth guide to planning a really fun, engaging night with friends!

How are murder mystery games played?

Typically, these games are played through talking, reading prompted information, and examining documents all at a single seating area (no moving around necessary). However, this guide teaches you how to plan a murder mystery game that integrates aspects of escape rooms in which your guests will walk around, find clues, and solve puzzles to figure out the solution to the murder.

I usually divide my murder mystery games into 4 rounds:

Preliminary information: Character backstories.
Finding evidence: The escape room part. Guests walk around and find clues.
Discussion: Once all clues are found, guests sit down and go over the clues and discuss. More info will be provided throughout this round by the host. At the end of this round, guests each write their hypothesis as to what the solution could be.
Revealing the truth: Reveal solution and guests see how close their hypotheses were to the truth.

The murder victim will NOT be one of the actual guests attending the party in real life. They will be a fictional guest. Additionally, the murderer WILL be one of the guests, but they won’t know it’s them (unless they figure it out through the actual gameplay). Not all murder mystery games do it this way, but I think this makes the most sense since it allows all the guests to participate equally.

The objective of the game is for the guests to find a solution to the mystery. As they gather evidence and clues, they should work together, but at the end, each of them will write an individual hypothesis as to what happened. Winning the game is NOT about getting away with the murder or avoiding being the murderer. Winning is about making the hypothesis that is closest to the true solution.

Planning the game

The guiding principle in planning your mystery game is: to create a mystery that is clear enough that someone could possibly solve it, while not being too obvious that everyone can easily solve it. The entire point of the game is to achieve this balance! Here is a brief summary of all the components of planning the game, AKA what you will need to do or create throughout the process of planning your party.

Story: Who will die, who killed them, how they killed them, and all the other details involved.
Clues: All the documents, evidence cards, puzzles, etc that will be hidden throughout the house to be found by guests.
Dossiers: In real life, a dossier is “a collection of documents about a particular person, event, or subject.” In mystery parties, dossiers are character info books. Each guest will receive a dossier specific to their character with background info and other clues, as well as some blank pages for notes.
Script: What the host will use to tell the story and guide the game.

Story

You’re trying to create a mystery story that will be both engaging and cohesive. Figure out the basics of the solution first and work backwards to the more detailed things. Murder mystery novels or real murders are good places of inspiration (it’s okay to completely copy an existing plot since this is just a game for your friends, as long as your guests haven’t heard the plot before and as long as you don’t plan on publishing your game for money).

Basics

The core elements of the story will surround the murder itself. You need to figure out a few key plot points:

Characters: Before you flesh out the characters, just figure out the basics of who are involved. There should be 1 character for each guest, plus two additional characters for the victim and the host. Identify which of the guests will be the murderer.
Motive: The reason for killing the victim. Possible motives include jealousy/anger over an affair, greed for wealth, to hide a secret or avoid blackmail, revenge, heat of the moment, etc.
Method: The way the victim was murdered. This includes the weapon of choice. Possible methods include stabbing, shooting, poisoning, strangling, hit and run, etc.

Details

Once you’ve figured out the basics of the story, you need to add the padding. Adding more details to the story both develops the story and makes the solution less obvious. Since each guest will be a character, the characters need backstories and details. Adding more details not only develops each character but also makes the solution more difficult to figure out.

One thing to note about the story is how it is framed by the party itself. Some people will go the extra mile of making the murder work with the party. Having the victim killed at the party will affect the story, method of killing, etc.

For example, if the guest is killed at the party you have to consider how the murderer will be able to kill them in a crowded house. Will they drug their food? Will they corner them upstairs and strangle them? Will they bring a silencer with their gun? Alternatively, you could make the story separate from the party setting, giving you more freedom in how the story turns out. Making the murder work with the party is more difficult but more immersive.

Red Herrings

Add red herrings, information that will not contradict the existing story-line or solution but will serve as distractions or unnecessary details. This will also make the solution less obvious. One very good thing to do is give all the characters a motive for the murder to make the solution less obvious. Giving all the characters a motive doesn’t mean all of them did it. It just means the guests will need to dig around a bit harder to find out who actually did.

Here’s an example story:

Characters:
Mr. Solomon Sutherland: The murder victim. A wealthy man who recently became president of Rourkshire Dairy Company. Has many enemies.
Ms. Evelyn Oak: Used to be the principle ballerina of the American Ballet Theater, but a tragic car accident left her legs broken. She was dating Mr. Sutherland before he died.
Ms. Vivian Ash: Always dreamed of being an actress and used to be engaged to Mr. Sutherland, but he discouraged her from pursuing her dreams. After breaking off the engagement, she is now able to pursue her dreams but is having trouble finding work.
Mrs. Miriam Pine: Works as a lawyer. Her husband always comes home late or leaves on mysterious business trips. A new law firm opened with support from Mr. Sutherland is threatening her business.
The murder:
Murder victim is Mr. Sutherland. Death was at 7:30 PM in upstairs parlor.
Murder was planned by both Ms. Oak and Ms. Ash. They were in a secret relationship together. They wanted to kill Mr. Sutherland, take his insurance money/inheritance (according to the will, some money was left to Ms. Oak), and then run away together.
Ms. Oak killed Mr. Sutherland with poison lipstick. Since the poison is slow-acting, she had time to administer the antidote on herself. She kissed Mr. Sutherland earlier in the night, and he died in the parlor 2 hours later. No one else was in the parlor when he died.
Everyone had a motive:
Mrs. Pine: Her husband is cheating on her with Mr. Sutherland, and Mr. Sutherland wanted to deliberately sabotage her business by giving support to the new rival law firm.
Ms. Ash: Mr. Sutherland treated her badly when they were in a relationship. She was having trouble finding work because Mr. Sutherland deliberately told acting companies not to accept her auditions.
Ms. Oak: Wanted money and resented Mr. Sutherland for treating Ms. Aguilar badly. Wanted to run away with Ms. Aguilar.
Additional details:
Ms. Oak and Ms. Ash tried to frame Mrs. Pine by planting the antidote syringe on her.
The poison cannot be found because it was ingested by Mr. Sutherland. Only antidote and syringe can be found.
Mrs. Pine and Ms. Ash used to be friends.

Clues

The story contains all the possible information to be discovered, while the clues are the mechanism through which that information is brought to the guests. Through the clues, you control what information to omit, what red herrings to include, and what will actually lead to the solution. Clues can be separated into 2 categories, each with some sub-categories:

Puzzle clues

Clues with puzzles (riddle, word game, etc) that need to be solved. There are 2 types of puzzle clues:

Puzzle-info clues: The answer to the puzzle is information about the mystery. The information should NEVER be a red herring because that would be too confusing.
Puzzle-location clues: The answer to the puzzle is the location of another clue, usually one that is especially hidden and cannot be found just by looking around.

Ciphers and codes are good ways to encode messages as puzzles for guests to solve.

Info clues

Clues with just information. There are 2 types of info clues:

Regular info clues: Clues with information that will contribute to solving the mystery.
Red herrings: Distracting or unnecessary information. For every red herring you include, there needs to be a way to possibly disprove it. The game would be way too hard if there were, for example, 3 clues with 3 possible murder weapons and no indication of which weapon is the real one. There needs to be some way to disprove the red herrings or prove 1 of the clues as the real murder weapon. An easy, somewhat cheap way of showing to the guests that a clue is a red herring is to include a symbol, image, or word that means “red herring”. For example, the clue has an image of a dress and the brand is called “Scarlet Fish”, hinting that the clue is a red herring.

Some clues will have both info AND a puzzle. Clues come in many forms. Some examples include evidence cards with an image of an object and a label, newspaper clippings, photographs, letters, a last will and testament, receipts, postcards, scraps from a book, diary entries, and more.

When creating clues, it’s a good idea to organize every clue into a table to keep track of them. The table should include:

Name of the clue
How to find it: some clues are given (like dossiers), some are hidden and have to be found through searching, some are hidden and have to be found through puzzle-location clues
What the clue means: the explicit information revealed and the implicit conclusions inferred

Dossiers

Dossiers serve as character info books. Each guest receives a dossier personalized according to their character. The dossiers are about 9 pages long with each page formatted with a heading, body paragraphs and a footer.

Headings instruct the guest on what they should do with the information on that page. The heading will either say “READ THE FOLLOW ALOUD” or “DO NOT READ THE FOLLOWING ALOUD, READ ONLY TO YOURSELF.”

Body paragraphs contain the actual information, written in 1st person from the perspective of the character.

Footers instruct the guest on whether they should proceed with reading the next page or stop there. The footer will either say “CONTINUE TO NEXT PAGE →” or “STOP READING HERE. DO NOT CONTINUE UNTIL INSTRUCTED.”

Example dossier page:

READ THE FOLLOWING ALOUD
What a tragedy. My ex-fiance was certainly a controlling beast, but he didn’t deserve to die. Our relationship might not have been very good but to even insinuate that I would kill him is preposterous. At the time of the murder, I was snacking on hors d’oeuvres in the kitchen. I was with Evelyn at the time. I have no clue of Mrs. Pine’s whereabouts. Perhaps you should interrogate her?
STOP READING HERE.
DO NOT CONTINUE UNTIL INSTRUCTED.

Script

The host of the party will need a script to follow along as they discuss the game. This script will primarily contain instructions rather than story elements. Almost all of the information on the story will be found in the dossiers or clues. The only piece of story in the script will be the initial revelation of the victim’s death, setting off the beginning of the game.

Here’s an example of a script I used:

ROUND #1
Dr. Li’s annual Christmas party is the only time of the year where the citizens of this gloomy town can come together in mutual celebration of cheer and good will. This year’s party, however, has been struck with tragedy.
At 7:30 PM, Mr. Solomon Sutherland was found murdered in the upstairs parlour of the mansion. One of you is the killer. The killer does not know who they are, and they will not know until the end when we finally reveal who killed Mr. Sutherland.
We will conduct an investigation into who commited the crime and how they did it, which will be separated into 4 rounds.
Round #1: Preliminary information
Round #2: Finding evidence
Round#3: More info and discussion
Round #4: Revealing the truth
Your objective is to work together to find a solution to the case by piecing together what happened. As you gather evidence and clues, you should work together but each of you will write an individual guess as to what happened in Round #4.
Throughout the investigation, you will receive a lot of information and clues but not every clue contributes to the solution. Some of this info may be red herrings or may contribute to side plotlines that are involved in building the overall story but are not part of the actual solution.
Now, let’s start Round #1!
The dossiers that you each are about to receive contain important information. There will be instructions at the top of each page telling you whether or not to read the info aloud and when to read it. Please only read information for a certain round during that round and do not skip ahead.
The person with the dossier labeled #1 will read aloud first and so on.
Read from dossiers.
ROUND #2
Now, Round #2 will be the lengthiest round, in which you find evidence throughout the mansion.
From now until the end of the investigation, I will only be here as a facilitator. I will give instructions at the beginning and end of the rounds and you can also ask me for hints, but everything else has to be figured out by yourselves. Of course, you have each other too.
The first clue all of you are receiving is a map of the mansion. Good luck!
ROUND #3
These are all the pieces of evidence. We will now begin Round #3 by reading from our dossiers again. This time
the process will be a little different. There will be information that you read aloud like in Round #1 but there will also be a section of secret information that you are only supposed to read by yourself.
Let’s start with Dossier #1 like last time and go from there!
Read from dossiers.
Now, we will have a discussion time for everyone to discuss the evidence and ask questions to each other. The point of the discussion is to go over the evidence but also to try to figure out the secret information that each person is withholding from each other.
If someone asks you a question and the answer can be found in your dossier (even if it’s secret information), you must answer truthfully. Please only answer according to either your dossier, the info you know from the evidence, or an educated guess. If you cannot answer the question, just say you can’t.
Discussion ensues.
ROUND #4
The final round. Now, it is time for all of you to guess who killed Solomon Sutherland. Write your guesses on these sheets of paper. Then we will reveal the solution.

Revealing the Solution

After the discussion is over and each guest has written down their hypothesis, the solution can be revealed.

Since the host will be well-acquainted with the story, they can simply verbally reveal the solution to the guests. Alternatively, the solution can be written out and separated into different parts so that each guest takes turns reading a section and slowly revealing the truth.

Additional Party Items

Food

Almost as important as the murder mystery game itself is the party food! You’ll probably want to serve 2 types of food at this party:

Hors d’oeuvres for easy snacking as guests walk around and look for clues. They also give a very fancy vibe to the party.
Sit-down dinner food for the actual dinner part of the party which can be eaten after clues are all found and the discussion begins.

Invitations

Designing and giving out nice invitations to guests can be the first step in setting the mood for the party. Details like these contribute to creating a murder mystery game that is both engaging and interesting! Canva is a good site for designing and ordering invitations (5 invitations on premium paper with a matte finish, plus envelopes, cost $14.20).

The invitations should not only include the basic info for the party (venue address, date, etc) but also the background information on the story. On the back of the invitation, write an enticing premise that sets the scene for the party (but don’t reveal the murder yet).

Example premise:

Once a year, the citizens of this dark and mysterious town gather for Dr. Aliza Li’s Christmas party, hosted in her grand Larkhill Manor.
This year’s party is particularly exciting as Mr. Solomon Sutherland will be in attendance. Recently named President of a successful dairy business, Mr. Sutherland has become the talk of the town as many speculate the future of this charming but scandalous businessman.
Join us for a night of fun, food, and mystery as we uncover the scandals and secrets plaguing this gloomy town.

Optionally, you can also include a QR code on each invitation with a link to individual character bio’s, so guests are prepared in advanced on the role they will assume.

Tips and Advice

Tailor the mystery and its difficulty according to your audience. If your guests are seasoned mystery fans, make it complicated and difficult! This might require borrowing ideas from existing stories and games. If you’re hosting a kid’s birthday party, choose a simpler and lighter story.
Carefully consider where to hide clues. Hide clues in places that aren’t too obvious but still possible to find. Clues that are meant to be found with puzzle-location clues should be hidden in nearly impossible locations so they can only be found with the help of the clue.
You can give hints but do it sparingly. As a rule, I only give out hints if all the guests agree on it or if I see everyone going down a direction that might take them far away from the real story. That being said, don’t be afraid to let your guests flounder a bit. Although the ideal outcome is that at least one guest figures out the solution, it isn’t the end of the world if none of them figure it out as long as they have fun and get decently close to the answer.
Make a map of your house and label each room. If you’d prefer the guests to explore the house more, you don’t need to use a map. However, if your guests are already familiar with your house, a map can add a layer of puzzle solving. For example, a puzzle-location clue can direct your guests to the “ballroom” (which is actually your living room). Your guests will need to consult the map to know which room that is.
Start preparing well in advance. Planning the story will take a while. Designing documents, dossiers and invitations will take even more time. Print, cut and fold everything the day before. On the day of the party, you’ll need at least an hour to hide clues and run through the script to make sure everything is smooth. Give yourself extra time so that if you find any glaring last minute mistakes, you have time to make edits and rework details. The last thing on your list should be cooking, so the food is fresh and warm when guests arrive.