# Murder Mystery games for middle schoolers?



## Hauntcast (Oct 3, 2007)

I am having my Daughters annual Halloween party and the kids are getting a little old for mummy wrap etc... Are there any murder mystery type games for kids?


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## SunElaine (Sep 14, 2008)

I'm sure there are murder mystery games that are made for teenagers. My sister hosts murder mystery dinner parties two or three times a year. Hers are for adults and she buys them off eBay I think. You could check there. Or I googled "murder mystery games for teenagers" and here are links to games I found:

Mystery Games and Parties
Mystery Games and Parties

If you go with a murder mystery game, they usually involve a story and the guests are assigned a character and they come dressed accordingly.

If you wanted it to be less involved and were just looking for a fun game, you could play the winking murderer game. I learned about it on this forum. You make little cards (one for each guest) and on one card you write "murderer" and on the other cards you write victim. As the guests arrive you distribute the cards instructing people to keep their card a secret. Then explain that there is a murderer in the group who will be taking out victims by winking at them. When a victim is winked at, he or she must die within so many minutes, and the murderer must leave the vicinity of the victim quickly so he or she isn't identified.

You can tell the victims how to die by writing it on the cards or you can let them come up with their own death. The person with the most creative death wins a prize. The murderer wins a prize if he or she goes undetected all night. If someone figures out who the murderer is he or she gets a prize.


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## Hauntcast (Oct 3, 2007)

SE,
I love the simplicity of the winking murderer game. I think we have a winner.


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## Ryadread (Oct 24, 2006)

I know there is an extensive list of Halloween Games to play for children's parties on this amazing forum, but for some reason I'm not able to relocate it. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that I have had 3 esspresso's this morning and a touch of short attention span (Trying to get my invites done for our Adult Halloween party!!! Time is almost out!) lol

Anyways, I am in charge of my 9 year old's classroom Halloween Party this year! I'm super excited! However, for my own children's Annual Halloween parties at my house, I normally go with whatever I want for games. Since this is a school activity, I am now almost at a loss for "proper" games that we could have the children play.

I think they would really enjoy the wink murder game, but what would we call it? Would it be improper to call the "it" person a murderer and all the children his/her victims? LOL

So I need some creative ideas on what to call the participants, but I want to keep it Halloween themed. Any ideas? How about other games that 9-10 year olds would enjoy that are not too "pre-school'ish". I apologize for asking you to rewrite your idea's if you have in another thread. Any links to that evasive topic would be very appreciated as well!

Thanks in advance and Happy Haunting! 
~Rya


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## SunElaine (Sep 14, 2008)

Ryadread said:


> I know there is an extensive list of Halloween Games to play for children's parties on this amazing forum, but for some reason I'm not able to relocate it. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that I have had 3 esspresso's this morning and a touch of short attention span (Trying to get my invites done for our Adult Halloween party!!! Time is almost out!) lol
> 
> Anyways, I am in charge of my 9 year old's classroom Halloween Party this year! I'm super excited! However, for my own children's Annual Halloween parties at my house, I normally go with whatever I want for games. Since this is a school activity, I am now almost at a loss for "proper" games that we could have the children play.
> 
> ...


Hey Ryadread... I've been thinking about how you could play the winking murderer game in the classroom without offending anyone and I'm not sure this would work, but it's a possibility... 

What if you change it so the "it" person isn't "murdering" people, but instead is "turning them into" something like ghosts, mummies, pumpkins, etc. I'm not sure how you could work it out so that the "victims" would have the appropriate items to turn themselves into those things... Maybe it could be a hat or a sticker or face paint that they would have to wear after they are winked at. 

When you pass out the "it" and the "victim" info you could do it brown paper lunch bags and inside each would be the item the victims would need to put on to show that they've been "changed". When they are winked at they go slip away and put the item on. The "it" person's bag could be appropriately padded so it would look like the others but would just have a card saying "it" or whatever word you come up with for the "it" person.

Anyway, that's what I came up with... Not sure if it will work but I think it might! Good luck.

As for other age appropriate games, there was a thread started about it. I'm not sure what it where it is though. But another game that I think could work for the "tween" age group in the classroom would be the Toe Tag game. Give each kid a toe tag and then announce a forbidden word. The kids try to get each other to say the word and if anyone is caught saying it, the kid who catches them gets his/her toe tag. The person with the most toe tags at the end wins the game.

Oh yeah! Thanks for the ideas for the prizes for the Tempt Your Fate game. I went to Target over the weekend and found that they have a great selection of Halloween items that would be good for adults... from candies to cocktail mixes.. I can't wait!! But I wanted to ask you how you determine how many of each kind of fate you're going to have available. Do you allow guests to play more than once? Do you do an even mix of good and bad fates?

Thanks again!


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## Ryadread (Oct 24, 2006)

Brilliant! I love the idea!! We could make the "It" person a Witch and as he/she winks at his/her victim's they will be turned into a ghastly creature or other frightening thing. (Or maybe even have them turn to stone?)

I think that will do nicely. Thanks a bunch for your help SunElaine!

As for your question on the fate's and how many ill-fated vs. good-fated to have, I would base it on your buget. This is a gambling game, so you don't want to have more good fates than bad. I normally have WAY more bad than good fates. It keeps things interesting.  Last year we had a vampire masquerade theme, so we included a single "Immortal" fate. We used this as the grand prize. Lotsa fun!


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