Historical Characters Murder Mystery Party

October 14, 2000

Ideas

Have a detective or policeman character who can ask pointed questions without him/herself looking suspicious. Make that person ask each character for alibies; have clues that may contradict some of those.
Announce the exact circumstances of the victim's death at the beginning of the game.
If no-one's even getting close, have an emergency clue that someone can find. This might be a physical clue planted by the murderer, or an emergency clue that the group can open if they all decide they need extra help. The emergency clue should be obscure enough that people wouldn't be able to solve the mystery with that alone, but that would help get people back on the right track.
Have the murderer kill a second time during the evening.
Have envelopes for characters to open instead of pre-emailed clues, or else remind people to print out their clues. This was because some people forgot exactly what their clues were and couldn't check them at the party.
If possible, have the guests be people who don't know each other well. This minimizes the temptation for guests to slip out of character and start talking about "real life" things. (We were lucky in that everyone stayed in character pretty much the whole time!)
Have the guests be outgoing people who are not shy. Again, we really lucked out with this, but we could see where it could be awkward if a shy person had to do something dramatic.