Hosting a Murder

[McBish]

Hi there guys and gals. Have you ever seen those Host a Murder Mystery boxes they sell at game stores. They have always intriguied me, but I have never really tried one. So before I went out to get one I thought I would come here and see what you guys thought of them. Are they fun? Is there a really fun one? Are there any free murder mysteries online that are way better then the box ones?

[KillianHawkeye]

I've done it a couple times. I didn't really enjoy it very much, but other people had a good time. The setups usually seem a bit too contrived and the interactions between people can be a little over-scripted (compared to D&D or another roleplaying game).

[CarpeGuitarrem]

I know nothing about them, but try searching "how to host a murder" on Boardgamegeek, which is a prominent site for all things boardgame.

This seems to be an excellent review (http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/929499/how-to-host-a-murder-the-last-train-from-paris-a) from the perspective of someone who's never played one before. It explains a lot about the structure of the game.

[olelia]

I've been in several. Generally everyone has a good laugh, and most of us try to actually stick in character. Like Killian says they are generally very very scripted...but...we've liked them so far.

[banthesun]

I've been to a few of these, and they definitely are a fair amount of fun, but I really can't consider them 'games' as such.

By that, I mean that there's no real objective for the players to aim for, and very few ways to interact with the story. Sure, there's a mystery to uncovered, but it's uncovered by working through the script, rather than any sleuthing work by the players. In this way figuring out the mystery is closer to watching a tv show or reading a novel than playing a board game or a RPG.

Another point of note is that, whilst you're given your characters at the start of the game, you're not told your character's secrets until the script chooses to reveal them. This means that you might be playing as the murderer, and not even realise it until the end of the game. This can be a good thing, as it stops any horribly inept liars in your group spilling the beans five minutes in, but it can also be a problem. In my experience, the following immersion breaking exchange will occur several times in each game:

"Ms Scarlett, why were you sneaking around the back garden with a suspiciously large and heavy sack?"

"I, uh, I honestly have no idea."

"Oh, well, next question then."

Add to this that the mysteries are generally comically convoluted and you end up with what I found to be a confusing mess. This might vary from person to person though, as some of the more experienced people I've played with kept extensive notes and came close to solving some of the murders.

Whilst I've been mainly negative so far, I should point out that there's a positive aspect to most of these issues: the game is perfect for non-gamers/non-roleplayers who want to mess around with the idea. There's nothing you can really do wrong and no winners or losers, so there's no pressure to turn off new players. Basically, it's a chance to dress up in costume talk as period characters without any of the scary nerdiness LARP would entail. When you get down to it, that alone is generally a ton of fun, just don't go in expecting any sort of gameplay.

And since this has gotten quite big, a tl;dr

The Good
Very accessible for non-gamers
Dress-ups are tons of fun

The Bad
No real gameplay, mainly following a script

The Ugly
Not having a clue who your character actually is
The tape/cd that comes with it is terrible

Hope this was helpful! :smallsmile: