Murder mystery game

Murder mystery games are generally party games wherein one of the partygoers is secretly, and unknowingly, playing a murderer, and the other attendees must determine who among them is the criminal. This may involve the actual 'murders' of guests throughout the game, or may open with a 'death' and have the rest of the time devoted to investigation.

Murder mystery games may also refer to public performances in venues for events, team building or corporate entertainment, where the suspects are played by actors, and the role of detectives falls to the other guests.

Dinner party murder mystery games are generally played with small groups of individuals, e.g. 6-20. Murder mystery events for larger groups are usually run for numbers between 20 and 250 attendees, though events can be run with 400+ in attendance.

The murder mystery genre itself didn't exist until the 1800s; and began as a direct consequence of the Road Hill House murders committed by Constance Kent and detailed in the novel "The suspicions of Mr Whicher" by Kate Summerscale.

1935 saw the release of the first murder mystery game known as jury box, which differs significantly from modern murder mystery games. In jury box the players or jurors are given the scenario of the murder, the evidence presented by the prosecutor and defendant, two photographs of the crime scene and ballot papers. Jurors have to make the decision as to who is guilty and then a real solution is read out.

Cluedo or 'Clue' in North America, the first murder mystery board game was released some time later in 1948, and has continued to be popular. However, Cluedo is again, a vastly different game to the modern role playing dinner party mysteries.

The earliest mention of role playing murder mystery games in their present boxed format is in the 1980s when they were thought to be a bit of a one-year wonder in the game shops. Back then the scenarios were simple, the acting directions minimal, and the games relied on the guests being comfortable ad-libbing responses to each other's questions.

In the last 20 years those basic games have increased in complexity into the more complex role playing dinner party games available today.

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Wikipedia