tips and tricks.
Print-At-Home Format|Receiving the Party Kit|Printing the Party Kit
We realise that there are a couple of things that may be useful for you to know before you buy your party or to have the most successful mystery party that you can. So, we have made a list of tips and tricks to help you get the most “fun to die for” in your evening as possible! Just scroll down to view the different topics. Once you have purchased a mystery party, the “for the host” page has a lot more information to help you out. You may want to read the “How to Commit a Crime” section on that page to find out how a mystery party works.
If you wish to ask additional questions, then simply head to the “talk to us” page.
What is it?
Print-At-Home format is the way that we distribute our mystery parties to you. It simply means that we send you all the documents for your party (see the "for the host." page for a list of documents) in locked PDF files (read below for more). You can then print the documents at home or with a professional printer at your own pace and in any way you want. For printing suggestions and more information on the files and how to view them, see below. For information on how to print the party - especially the character handbooks, see the "Assembling Your Mystery" section of the "for the host." page.Receiving the Party Kit
Our parties are sent via email in locked PDF files. Don’t be worried, PDF – or “portable document format” - is just a common Adobe® file format used to maintain and preserve the natural good looks of documents as they are transferred between computers. Also, when we say locked, it means that you are able to view and print your party documents but not able to copy any of the images or text.
To view these PDF documents, you will need a 100% free program offered by Adobe® called “Adobe Reader®” or at least a program that enables you to read PDF files. You may already have this or something similar, but if not, you can download it from the offical site by clicking here.
All of the files are sent in a “zipped” (or compressed) folder which allows you to download them quicker from the email and allows our emails to be sent quicker, along with just keeping everything in a nice bunch. Most computers come with software that enables them to “unzip” such folders. Simply right-click and select “unzip”. If you do not have this software, we have recommended an unzipping program here. Once it is installed, simply right-click and select “- extract here”.
If, for some strange, reason you do not have all the components of you mystery party, contact us immediately at "helpme@whomysteryparties.com”. A list of everything that should be in your Who Mystery Party can be found on the “for the host” page. You should check you have all items immediately after receiving your kit.Printing the Party Kit
The total number of pages your mystery party will be (based on an eight player game and assuming you follow all the guideline we provide - including printing double sided and skipping unnecessary pages) is 95. Even though this is a big number, paper is very cheap - a usual ream is usually 500 pages. It breaks down as follows - 9 pages per character booklet; 1 page per invitation; 2 pages for the name tags; 3 pages for the floor plans; 8 pages (approx.) for the scandalous clues; 1 page for the host's guide.
Some of the documents in the mystery party kit are not to be viewed until you are actually playing the game. These “secret documents” are: The Scandalous Clues, The Murder Report and all of The Character Handbooks. Reading these documents will give you an unfair advantage which many like to call cheating. Even looking at the maps too much can be advantageous. Take care when printing them that you don’t read them. The Scandalous Clues are especially secret and you should follow the instructions with them carefully.
All of the Character Handbooks are double sided except for the cover page which must be printed separately to the rest of the booklet. Take care when printing that everything is set correctly because you don’t want to have to reprint booklets. Full instructions on how to print the Character Handbooks can be found on the “for the host” page.
There is no need to have your mystery printed in all colour. There are several options if colour is an expensive or unavailable option.1. Simply printing in black and white will not affect game play and is a perfectly acceptable choice.
2. You could print your mystery on coloured paper similar to the colour scheme of the mystery party. For example, if you purchased the An Arabian Night murder mystery party, you would print on orange paper.
3. Just print the cover of the Character Handbooks in colour and print the rest in black and white. You may want to print the Name Tags or Scandalous Clues in colour as well to help visually tie everything together and continue the colour theme.
4. If your printer has an economy mode or similar you could do a test to make sure the text is easily readable when printed in that setting. If it is acceptable, just use that mode. You will save ink but still retain the colour scheme
Another good idea is to print the front covers of the Character Handbooks on a thicker cartridge of paper. If will help everything stay in the folder as well as looking visually professional.
There is not much you can do to save paper as you need all of the documents for the game to function. However, only one page of the Host’s Guide must be printed (the “How to Commit a Murder” page, pg 6.) so you can easily save a few pages there by simply not printing the whole Host’s Guide.
Of course, you could always get your party professionally printed; perhaps a more expensive option but the printers may fold everything for you if you ask. Otherwise, you could print it at work...we promise we won’t tell.
Copyright © 2009, H.G. Rodgers in conjunction with Who? Mystery Parties. All rights reserved.