Murder Mystery Birthday Parties

A lot goes into planning a birthday party. You have decorations, food, gifts, a guest list, and many other things that pop up last minute. A lot of these things are needed for a murder mystery party as well. You need to choose the right friends to invite, make snacks, and decorate the place. The great thing about having a murder mystery birthday party is that all of your entertainment needs are covered. You don’t need to organize games to play or go around making sure everyone is having a good time. For 2-3 hours, everyone is going to be completely immersed in their role and trying to find the killer.

Benefits of Murder Mystery Birthday Parties

Spotlight on the Birthday Holder: If you’re hosting the birthday party for someone else, you could tailor the story to make the birthday holder the focal point of the mystery. If you read through the story they provide, you’ll have a clear idea of the victim/s and the killer. You could assign the birthday holder as the killer or a victim that needs to solve their own murder. Victims normally have to act out their death, so it could be quite fun for the birthday holder.

Interactive Fun for Most Ages: Birthday parties often have smaller groups of people hanging out separate from each other. When you have a murder mystery party, everyone can get involved. Young adults and older adults can work together to help solve the mystery. It’s gets people talking to each other and performing silly actions that are mandated by their character sheet. It also gives everyone a common goal to work toward – with award certificates handed out at the end. And those that don’t want to get involved get a free comedy show acted out for them.

Customizability: Murder mystery games come with costume ideas and personality traits for every character, but you can always spice things up the way you want them. If you know the story well enough, you’re free to add additional characters or change the story in fun and exciting ways. The story might be set in an old manor, but who’s to say it wouldn’t work in a medieval castle or in space. Your imagination is the limit.

Lasting Memories: Because murder mysteries are so engaging, they create a lasting impression on everyone involved. You all have a united experience with lots of stuff going right and loads of stuff going very wrong (which is even funnier). The types of parties are ones that will be talked about for years to come.

Things to Keep in Mind Before Throwing a Murder Mystery Birthday Party

You’ll want to choose the right type of game for your friend group. Some people enjoy the glitz and glamour of a 1920s party while others prefer something more medieval. Depending on who you’ll be inviting, there are tons of murder mystery games to choose from.

You’ll also need to keep track of how many men and women you’re inviting as most games have characters sheets written with a specific gender in mind (clothing, dialogue, etc). Our murder mystery Shadows Over Shrouded Island, has gender-neutral names, clothing and dialogue for every character, so you’re free to invite whomever you like and assign them as you please. There are also no relationships or love affairs between characters, so everyone can feel comfortable and enjoy the game fully. And there are 3 deaths in this murder mystery, so lots of acting and lots of clues.

You should always assign roles way in advance. When looking at the character sheets, you can match up your friends into who might play that role best (or who would be funniest in that role). They’ll need their character sheets sent to them in advance in order to get their costumes ready in time, and to get into character.

One thing I always advise people to do is to stick to finger foods at murder mystery birthday parties. You’ll be too busy following the story along and taking photos to worry about warming food up. Get food that can be carried about in a paper plate, so that your friends can eat and solve the crime simultaneously.

Lastly, it’s common to give out award certificates at the end of the game (provided) for best dressed, best detective, etc. For birthday parties, I’d recommend having a birthday gift ready to be awarded to the birthday holder as the final award. This will put the spotlight back on them at the end of the festivities.