Who’s Who - Top Tips for matching your guests with different characters at your murder mystery party
Hosting a murder mystery involves several important steps to get set up and keep it running smoothly. Once you have picked out your perfect theme, got the game bought, and picked the date, it is time to invite your guests, and with fancy dress involved, that means picking which person will play which character.
When you have a list of up to 20 options, that can seem a tricky task, so here are a few of our top tips to get you started…
1 – Check you know your core characters
Each game that you buy will have varying numbers of characters that you will have seen before you purchase depending on the number of guests you have. Whether that is 5-10, 8-15, or 10-20, the smaller number will let you know how many people you need to play the game so that it works the way it should. This number tends to match up with certain characters in the game.
For example, in our 10-20 player evidence based mingling games, the first 10 are suspects, victims, and hold crucial information, so you need to assign these to people that will definitely turn up. For that more flighty or busy friend who is more likely to drop out, that’s where our expansion characters come in.
2 – Check the Character Overview
Included in your game you will find a useful document titled character overview, which gives you a quick description of each character in the game including brief character traits and a costume suggestion. This is really the best tool when choosing which of your guests will play which character.
The first characters you see will be the core characters, and depending on the game, often these will be ranked from liveliest, or most involved, to more chilled and less essential. The top characters on the list tend to have more reading and acting to do so save these for your drama kings and queens who love to steal the spotlight, and give your more shy friends a different character!
3 – Think about the kind of costumes they might like to wear
Another great factor to help you choose who will play who is the costumes. Some groups have players that are keen to take the opportunity to have fun dressing as the opposite sex, with women playing male roles and vice versa. Just remember if you do this to take a few pictures early on as fake moustaches and other props can soon go missing in the fun and chaos of the game!
Similarly if you have a friend you know won’t have time to shop or who doesn’t really like dressing up, there are always a few characters you can play with just a prop or two to compliment your usual clothes.
4 – Give them the choice
Finally, many hosts decide that offering their guests a choice can be a great way to organise who will play each character. Set up a WhatsApp group or similar where they can check off the character they want to be from the descriptions in the character overview. Just make sure if there is one you really want to play yourself that you remove it from the list first!
Remember that it is your game, your party, your night, and the key is to enjoy yourself as much as possible while entertaining a group of friends. Don’t sweat the small stuff, whichever character your guests end up with, they are sure to have a ball!
