Write your own murder mystery games - Part 10 - Finishing touches

So, here we are – your murder mystery game is almost complete!  Just to recap you should now have: 

• Character packs for every character in your game complete with their secrets, personality profile, secret tasks, costume suggestions, conversation starters and movements during the party.

• Hosts information pack with murder scenarios and confessions for every character

• Maps of the venue

• Scenario Slips

The next thing we are going to look at is something very simple, the Suspect Sheets!  The suspect sheets are simply to be used at the end of the game for people to write down who they believe the murderer is and why (just to avoid any cheating when the murderer is revealed!)  You can choose just to give out blank bits of paper for this, however I always like to have something which looks a little more in keeping with the game.  By following this link, you can view our game templates including examples of the Suspect Sheets. You can modify and personalise them in a way to suit your game.

So now on to the final piece of the puzzle, the extra character statements!  Now the extra character statements are there so that if you don’t have enough guests to play all the characters (or if a planned guest doesn’t turn up), you can still carry on with the game.  It is completely up to you how many characters and which ones you write the extra character statements before, however I would advise that if you focus on the more obscure characters who don’t play a central role in your game.

So if you had a 10 player game which centred on a manor house mystery, you might choose to write 4 extra character statements so the game could be played with a minimum of 6 players.  Within those 6 minimum players, you would want to ensure that all the main characters are there, e.g. the owner of the manor house, the person who is at the focus of the gathering, etc. 

You could potentially write extra character statements for every character in your game, however it is important to remember that the fewer players you have, the less fun the game will become.

So to write an extra character statement, you need to start with the character’s name and then embellish their “conversation starters” to give people a little more information around that character.  You should also choose selective points from the character’s “secret” information which may help in solving the murder but without giving too much away and making it too easy.  Each extra character statement should be about 6 or 7 paragraphs long.  Repeat this for every character you wish to have as an optional extra in the game.

When playing the game, the extra character statements are read out by the host after the “additional information” has been given out about the murder.

And that’s it!  Your murder mystery game should now be complete!  The last point I would recommend is going back through your game and making sure everything ties in.  Read through each character pack, the host’s information file and the scenario slips to make sure everything matches as it should do.  Also ensure that the maps of the murder venue have had the murder details removed!

In my experience of writing murder mystery games, you learn a lot about what works and what doesn’t by playing the game.  When starting out myself, I made many changes to my games after playing them for the first time, taking out things which didn’t work and adding in things which I felt were missing.  Make sure you get feedback from your guests, they will be the ones who can give you the real guidance to help your game be even better in the future!

Once you have completed your murder mystery game, if you wanted to sell it on-line as I do with my games, I would be happy to speak to you about it and help you with the process.  I’m also more than happy to help out with any questions or queries you have over your game.

Once you’ve hosted your very own murder mystery party with your own game, I would be delighted to hear all about it and possibly feature it on a future blog post!  I hope you have found this guide useful and look forward to hearing about your creations in the future!