# Anyone who has hosted a WhoDunIt, please read!



## DebBDeb (Sep 27, 2011)

*Hi there!

This year I am hosting a WhoDunIt Party for the first time and am ridiculously excited! 

Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, anyone who has ever hosted a Halloween WhoDunIt, please spill to me your success stories, disasters and everything in between!

Thank you all so very much!
DebBDeb*


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## chinclub (Oct 6, 2011)

I have always wanted to do this. Did you buy a script or are you writing it yourself?


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## DebBDeb (Sep 27, 2011)

That's the thing. I have a bit of background story but having a hard time getting everything to culminate together. Lol ... No one has replied to this who has done it so, I guess I'm just going to wing it.


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## camsauce (Sep 20, 2008)

You need more then just a bit of a backstory. Each actor should have a little write up of facts that only they should know and it should have a little background about their character so they can draw from it during the night. The last one I participated in was a mixed success. Some people got really into it and didn't break character, others not so much.


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## kab (Oct 13, 2010)

I have done many Murder Mystery dinner parties. I have never been able to come up with the stories on my own though. I have used mymysteryparty.com each time. That website is great. It isn't very expensive and they email you the whole party. Invitations, instructions on when to hand out clues, etc. Each time it has been a complete success. Good luck and if you have any questions, let me know.


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## ThAnswr (Dec 17, 2008)

I've hosted several Halloween murder mystery parties. They've all been a blast. Even when things don't go the way they should, they're still a lot of fun. 

Feel free to ask any questions.


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## UnOrthodOx (Apr 24, 2007)

In my experience, you really need the guests to GET INTO IT, TOTALLY. 

This proved incompatible with most folks around us. I also agree with buying a pre-made one, it's not that expensive and is all set up for you. But, some are better than others.


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## krnlmustrd (Oct 14, 2010)

I've written many murder mystery party games. One of these days I'm going to do a Halloween themed one. But as people said above, it can be a challenge if you put in a lot of effort and the guests aren't that into it. They're better for small, intimate parties. Last year, I did a simple version of a murder mystery game where I wrote up a story using horror movie villains as suspects. I used characters of which I could find those plastic door covers so that I could have "them" lurking around the house. (I really would have liked stand-up cutouts, though!) I also planted potential weapons around the house. After that came setting up the scene of the crime. Guests were able to - at their leisure - read the story sheet for background information about the scene of the crime. To solve the mystery, they had to track down all of the suspects and the weapons - each of which was tagged with an "Evidence" tag and contained an extra clue. Once you found everything, you would have all the information to solve the crime. Once they thought they solved the crime, they'd have to come to me to find out if they were correct. Then they would get their name on a winners' board. I would have liked to give out a small prize for each correct solution, but my party was already WAY over budget. Here are some photos:

Grim Reaper pointing toward the "Scene of the Crime". It's kind of hard to see in the picture, but he's holding a magnifying glass that reads "Murder Mystery" with an arrow:








The Story Sheet. I provided Halloween Themed pencils so guests could take notes if they wanted. And I thought the Blue police light was a fun touch:








Who Killed The Invisible Man? (We Think...) The Scene of the Crime:








One of the Suspects: 








One of the Weapons:








Overall, it wasn't a HUGE success. But neither was my party!  

On a completely non-halloween note, if anybody is looking for a free non-halloween murder mystery party game, I have one I wrote available here for download: http://whodunitmysteries.com/sour.html Enjoy!


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## DebBDeb (Sep 27, 2011)

THAT is ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC!!! Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh to have your brain. Ok, maybe I'll have to cancel it and just have an OctoBEER Fest instead. 

Boo.


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## Chrissee (Jul 12, 2012)

I have a big group of friends and we tried to do a who done it, but we found that doing it more like the game CLUE worked better. By giving each perosn a check list, and making up the clues around the barn. By process of elimination you know who done it. This way you dont have to have a script. It took me a trial and error the first year but it has worked out well ever since. Plus you can get creative with the diffent clues you leave around for them to find. 
Our party is adult only, and after the first year i had to give different people different order of clues to find, cause they cheated by looking off other peoples sheets! But my clus have become grosser and harder to figure out over the years.


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## AthenaHM (Oct 27, 2011)

I have tried several different murder mystery party services, but have ultimately found Red Herring Games, LLC. to be the best by far. They have separate prop kits you can buy with police tape, and everything. The scripts are easy to follow, and funny. You can get really into it, or not it is totally up to you. They have a great selection of themes, too.


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## natascha (Jul 21, 2004)

I did one a couple of years ago - I wrote it - we had our 'crew' as the actors and the guests had to figure out the murderer - it was Great!


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## JustWhisper (Nov 16, 2008)

I have one I bought over a year ago, still sitting on my bedroom dresser, unopened. I keep thinking I will do this. But never make the time. I like the sound of doing it Clue style. I would love to hear more detail on how that works.


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## AthenaHM (Oct 27, 2011)

We had a pre-determined group that was going to play, as well, and the rest of the party-goers were spectators. That is one thing about Red Herring, you have to know exactly how many people you will have when you order the game.


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