I participated in a virtual party that my friend found on Red Herring Games. Now, you do have to pay for these stories, but unless you are a crazy creative person with a sick mind, you should probably just cough up the $30 for one of their 80+ games. They have a wide variety of themes from their old western Death at Dodge City to the more sophisticated Bad Vintage. The latter was our game of choice, and boy, was it fun to drink wine during that game!
The idea behind each game is to have a specific character role for each guest at the party. (You can search the site to find which game will work best for your party size--they have stuff for groups of 6-20 people.) Everyone should know who they'll be playing before the date of the party so they can dress up appropriately! On the day of the party, everyone will receive a packet (or, in virtual cases, an e-mailed pdf) filled with their character's dialogue, questions they should be asking, and answers they should be giving. When playing the game, be sure you only read the information for the particular round you're in.
Each round you'll get a chance to talk to the other party-goers, hopefully finding some answers! The goal of the game is, obviously, to figure out who the murderer is. But be warned! You may not realize you were the culprit the whole time! That was my case, though I sort of wondered at the end of round 3. It's actually kind of fun to find out you were the murderer. You listen as they clear each guest one by one, noticing it's down to you and one other person, and you just know they didn't do it!
Whether you're the bad guy or a side character, you interrogate people in person or via Zoom, or you host or are a guest, these murder mystery parties are to die for. :)
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| Photo by Stephanie Simpson, Bad Vintage host. |
