How to do amurder mystery party for 12 year olds

[partyplanningseason]

DD and her friends are really into murder mysteries, and she wants a murder mystery party for her 12th birthday.

Has anyone done one using a kit? There are so many of them, can anyone recommend a good one?

Also any other tips much appreciated!

God me & my friends loved those at that age, did a fair few kits! Won’t be the same ones around anymore for me to recommend I’m sure. So fun though! Themed food and outfits etc. Sounds like you have a v fun kid 😁

She really is! 🥰

We've never done anything like this before, do you have any tips?

Do people usually do their own costumes or do you provide props? (Or both?!)

I would definitely provide props - they'll probably do their own costumes if they have done something similar before but it's always better to be over-the-top with costumes. Great opportunity to get some fake beards and feather boas and vicars' dog collars to play with!

Yes, I agree a load of props would be great. Takes the pressure off then - guests can plan their own costume or get dressed up at ours.

I'm looking at the murder mystery sets online but getting overwhelmed by the choice, and I have no way of knowing which are actually fun to play!

Can anyone recommend a company?

Hopeful bump! I'd love to hear from anyone who's done one of these - what game did you use?

I've found one company whose games I like the look of as it looks relatively easy to host and gets good reviews, but DD's not sure as it's all scripted. I think she as imaginign something where they can ad lib a bit more.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/MurderMysteryFlexiParty/page/64C6DDA8-C435-4732-9400-85F5A6228D3E?ref_=ast_bln

That company's games say 18+ but if you look through the content and reviews it's obvious where you can adapt it for kids. (Like one has an "adult actress" as one of the characters but you can just not use that character).

I'd love a set that's actually aimed at her age though.

What an amazing idea! There is a massive surge in young adult murder theme and crime books so I imagine there would be uptake. Let us know if you find something

We did one of those kits with my DD when she was around that age for her birthday party. It came with invitations which had the character's back story and costume suggestions. I organised the menu so it was in theme and then I played the part of one of the characters (think I was the maid or cook) and tried to keep them on track and made sure they followed along (we had film clips to play and I had to read out clues etc). They were able to add lib quite a lot and they had great fun dressing up and basically being very silly. 😀

My mum did a great gatsby style one recently, people came in costumes (ish) or formal wear, I made proper canapés and a duck a l'orange (ok wrong decade but duck was on special at the farm shop and its french!) then a baked American cheesecake as a nice to the USA. Was pretty cool scenario for teens as long as none of the parents will complain it's themed on a murder.

Yes, DD and some of her friends are really into the Murder Most Unladylike series so this will be right up their street.

tootiredtobeinspired and mitogoshigg they both sound like great fun 😍

Do you remember which game they used by any chance?

DD did stagecoach and we did a Stagecoach h party (weirdly it is the party they offer) at a similar age and she loved it - we did get a very good deal on it thiugh as she went and knew the party host v well

my youth group used to host nursery mystery weekends. We would be given a description of our characters a month before the event, and then would put together outfits for 2/3 days of in character nonsense.

Think the company is called masters of mystery but can't remember the name of the scenario, wasn't actually great gatsby it was just that style

I did one for DD2 when she was about that age. It was high school themed one and i gave each child an envelope with their character, how they should dress and the hints etc they had to drop. I was the head teacher and oversaw it all. It was a lot of fun. I got it on the internet somewhere but it was a long while back - she is 27 now!

That sounds awesome!

Obviously MURDER not nursery ! But yes they were awesome. I was a Swedish shot putter in a 1940s one, and had a suitcase full of fur coats ans clumpy shoes, on another weekend I covered my head in clingfilm to dress
as an extraterrestrial!

OK, I'm feeling inspired!

DD and I have decided on a 1930s train mystery. It's from a company I found online called Murder Mystery Flexi Party that gets good reviews and you the murderer gets chosen randomly on the night, so it's really easy to run, you don't have to worry about the key characters not turning up. That sounds good to me!

Has anyone done one of theirs?

I've got the pack and it looks like it's adaptable for DC. I read in one of the reviews that the actress role isn't kid friendly (she's an "adult" actress") but the rest are, so we can just remove that one.

I think I'm going to have to make new versions of the scripts they get for their characters though as the game is split into 3 acts but you get all the answers for all the acts on one sheet, with different answers for if you're innocent or guilty so it might be a bit confusing I think.

Also it would be easy to peek over someone's shoulder and see if they were reading the guilty or innocent script.

But once I sort that out, it looks like it's going to be a good game.

Any tips for running a murder mystery party / turning my house into a 1930s train appreciated!

Am I right in thinking the fun of it is mainly acting the characters, rather than solving the mystery as such?

It was really hard to find a game actually suitable for DC. (This one is suggested for 18+ but lots of reviews said it was actually fine for DC).

If anyone's looking for a gap in the market, Murder Mysteries for tweens is one!

I would say that one of the things you could get are coupe-style champagne glasses for appletiser etc - think you can get multiples quite cheaply from Tesco.

Maybe also tiered cake stands for any food you are going to serve

Chairs arranged as if down either side of a carriage

Deco style signs such as First Class and Sleeper Carriage this way or what have you

Hi @partyplanningseason Did you go ahead with the train party? How did it turn out? Am thinking to do something similar for my 13 year old and looking for some recommendations!

Hi, yes we did and it was great!

I'd say to definitely run through the game yourself (without your DC so as not to give it away) beforehand. The script on ours was aimed at adults, and some of it would have gone over their heads so I had to rewrite some of it a bit.

It took longer than I thought it would, we should have allowed more time or chosen a shorter game, we had to rush it at the end.

I definitely needed help to run it. DS helped out in role, he was the train conductor, and DP focussed on the food while I facilitated the game.

Invites as tickets worked well. As did setting up a WhatsApp group so the girls could discuss their roles and costumes prior to the event.

We invited the girls individually and let them choose their own character from the list rather than giving then one without asking.

I forgot to take photos which I regret as they all looked brilliant in their outfits!