What does a custom written murder mystery game look like?

Actually this isn’t as easy a question as it might sound. The key word here is “custom”. If you contract us to write a custom written game then two options are possible:

1. It will conform to one of our standard style games – but have a custom set of characters and scenario. In which case we can probably tell you exactly what will go into your game because it’ll be the same contents as our others in that same style. (For information on standard games check out this blog on the differences between murder mystery game formats )
2. It will different completely from anything we currently stock “on the shelf” because we’ve customised both the characters and scenario and also the format of how it plays.

But Jo, I hear you ask… how can we possibly know what to ask for if you can adjust everything?

The answer here is you can’t.

So here at Red Herring we always flip the question.

What do you want the game to do?

We are exceptionally experienced in murder mystery game creation. And without blowing my own trumpet, I’ve personally been writing games since 2003, created brand new formats and structures, been the first to attempt to categorize the different formats of games actually OUT there, (something no other writer has attempted before) AND I’ve now written more scenarios than Agatha Christie has books, as well as experimented with different structures to games, AND seen how they play out first hand as a host in a variety of countries and settings. I can usually think up a way to make something possible. And I haven’t yet been asked to do something that I haven’t been able to work out.

So what I usually ask is what YOU want and then come up with some ideas to help get you there.

A few examples…

To give you some examples of things we’ve done before… Just so you can get an idea behind how adaptable games can be…

A game for over 50 guests where everyone has their own character, but none are confident role players.

We created this game for a very special customer who worked with us in the early stages to ensure every single guest had a character they wanted to play. The game was historically set, including real life history, photographs and facts from the period. It had to work over a formal dinner. It had to have one solution. Everyone had to have different characters but still somehow reach the same solution. And there had to be an early stage “mix and mingle” element to the game so the guests could meet and greet each other over drinks.

To create this game we used a scenario where each table had the SAME information but the different characters at the individual tables had mirroring information on the different suspects and as a result each table reached the same conclusions. We then went from this “round table” discussion to a final formal Q and A with the established suspects which allowed for the entire room to take part together creating a cohesive and enjoyable denouement.

This was a big scenario with a lot of moving parts. As a result I went in person to deliver this game.

We’ve created a few similarly constructed games since this one, but for every scenario we’ve hosted in person. This means a lot of travel and the team and I have been in Egypt and Hawaii supporting these type of events. If you want something really unusual, that’s very complicated then it’s often best to have the creator with you hosting!!

A Live Action Role Play scenario – with all suspects in full on role play.

We’ve written a number of these scenarios now for a variety of confident and less confident role players.

Always my first question is “How confident are your guests in role playing?” As live action role play scenarios aren’t the easiest to play.

We’ve set one in 1901 with over 40 guests, another in the future based on a time traveling doctor (Yes! With a custom commissioned game you can have all sorts of scenarios that would usually be inaccessible due to copyright law – PROVIDING you don’t sell tickets and the event isn’t for commercial entertainment).

Live action role play games are usually quite hard to play, so over the years we’ve developed our own system of game card support, and structures within these game to allow people a little “assist” in the plot and also create evidence packs and mission objectives.

None of these have ever been the same twice. They’re all unique and nothing you’d ever see for sale on our website.

A pub crawl murder mystery – where the guests don’t know whodunnit.

Pub crawl style mysteries are something we pull together quite frequently and usually we use our multi-room style format with actors in different pubs that groups meet as they move from bar to bar. But this scenario was different as the group wanted to simply move from bar to bar together, and it was a small group, so they didn’t all want to be in the know, but rather enjoying the game together. They also had around 12 guests.

With this game we ended up using our interactive mystery game as a base, creating a series of “rounds” in each bar, with evidence distribution in each one to break up the scenario. The suspects received new information in each bar, rather than using a booklet format, so each guest didn’t have to carry things between bars. We cast everyone as either suspects or witnesses, which meant only the most outgoing guests were in “suspect roles” and performing in character. But everyone had a role to dress up to and play.

Wedding – in a mix and mingle style format with non-role players.

If you’re mixing, then you really need to have ALL the information so you can mix effectively. For this one, we created a series of question menus, and answers on cards in first person. We also broke up the sessions by allowing guests to hunt through the house for further questions that were left with the evidence.
Again like the bar crawl party above, we were not contracted to support the event in person, but rather delivered the entire game box via mail for a host they contracted to deliver it.

Hopefully this gives you a flavour of a few different scenarios we’ve successfully written murder mystery games for. Costs… well that’s a whole other ball game and we suggest you take a look at this page if you want to know prices: How much does a custom written murder mystery game cost?