what is a mystery party.
We at Who? Mystery Parties have been quite disturbed by the lack of knowledge shown about mystery parties. It seems most have only heard whispers of what they are and rumours of how fun they were. It would seem that their legend has been lost. Well, the time has come to join in the new generation of mystery parties with Who? Mysteries. We hope that everyone in the world will soon be playing mystery parties once again and having fun to die for. For more information on anything below, send a message to helpme@whomysteryparties.com or visit our "talk to us” page.
So, you want know what a mystery party really is? Well, here you are.
Our mystery parties are unforgivably fun events that you host and invite your friends to take part in. Now, there are only a certain number of characters, and therefore players, per mystery. That number is indicated on each party’s cover (the cover of the “A Host’s Guide” document in your mystery party kit) or on their unique mystery page (see the “choose a mystery” page). Each of your guests is given a character to play during the mystery party and all of you are suspected of committing a crime. For this description, we will say that the crime is murder.
This murder will have already occurred and is set in another time period and another place. Both the invitation and the introduction round of the party will set the scene for you.
You and your friends are basically stepping into a story and becoming the characters. However, none of you know who the murderer is – not even the murderer himself. The game is to figure who did it by manipulating others and revealing their past and what they did around the time in the murder occurred. Everyone will have done things which will make them highly suspicious; you must decide who is the guiltiest.
The party is split into several rounds:
1. The Introduction – Contains the rules and scene setting.
2. The Cover Stories – Character’s learn their dark secrets and have a cover story to tell everyone. You will also have the murder report (a description of events) and floor plans (a diagram of the murder location) to reveal and read after this time.
3. Rounds 1-4 – Character’s find out information about themselves which they try to conceal and information about others which they must reveal over the course of four rounds. Several special scandalous clues are also revealed during this time.
4. Accusations – Player’s now make their accusations in the form provided as to who, what, when, where, and why the crime happened. You can, of course, suspect yourself if you must.
5. Solutions – Now each character reads out their solution (a description of what they really did during the time of the murder) in the order indicated on the page. They must read in turn.
Summary
There you have it! It is really easy to play – but not so easy to solve. So, just to clarify, you and your guests dress up as and pretend to be characters in another time and place. You get given clues to conceal and reveal over several rounds and by the end you should have worked out who you want to accuse of the crime. You then read what really happened in the solutions – which each character reads in turn.For a full set of rules for playing a Who? Mystery Party, go to the “for the host” page and read the “How to Commit a Crime” section. Alternatively, click here and we will whisk you away ourselves.
Copyright © 2009, H.G. Rodgers in conjunction with Who? Mystery Parties. All rights reserved.