Murder Mystery Flexi Party Murder at the Manor 6-14 Player Dinner Party Game

Played by 6x 40 somethings and 7 kids 7-13 yrs for a New Years Eve dinner. Played it straight from the box - no preparation, invites etc. This let the kids choose everyone's characters live at the table, which was fun. Don't be phased by the 18+ designation. Pretty tame and oblique innuendo that mostly went over the kids heads, and what did not was pretty harmless. No worse than what they would probably have heard anyway. We themed the evening as 1966 Nassau jazz club to get a more fun dresscode and playlists, then wrote our own story link tying the jazz club to the nearby colonial governor's residence, The Manor. Worked fine. The murderer is chosen at random at the start of the game and can be any of the characters. Everyone put on funny accents. We didn't use the CD. Great fun and the murder unmasked themselves at 23.59. Perfect timing. We will reuse this game lots.[Here's the link to the jazz club if you want to recycle it - most facts from wikipedia - find the Eddie Harris track on spotify]It’s a hot and humid New Years Eve at the Calypso Horn jazz club in downtown Nassau, 1966. The anticipation of the Junkanoo celebrations, starting an hour after midnight, tides the crowd over the disappointment that the main act, the US sensation of 1966, Alabama’s finest son, Percy Sledge, will not be performing tonight. Along with a number of other American artists planning to see in the New Year in Nassau, Sledge’s flight was cancelled due to bad weather over the Florida keys.The support act, Gladys Bright and the Mango Pips, extend their repertoire one improvisation further. Eddie Harris, one of the US artists who made the trip before the storm broke, lifts the crowds with his own jazz sax version of Percy Sledge’s latest hit, which the local Bahamas DJ’s had been overplaying since its release in April that year. [play track].Sir Roland Theodore Symonette approaches tentatively from the Baillou Hill Street side of the club. He has mixed feelings about crossing to this side of town, and to this particular venue, on this particular night. The British Governor was enjoying his looser ties with London over the last few years, but felt his free-wheeling days of autonomous governance might be numbered. The Progressive Liberal Party was building up quite a head of steam under Lydon Pindling, the leading contender to become Nassau’s first non-white Governor. Sir Roland didn’t want to give these amateurs any unneeded ammunition for their electoral campaign. He was less worried for himself, but more for his houseguests Lord Heathcliff and his shrieking fiancée Naomi. Frightfully arriviste, they had neither tone nor manners, and it was much to Sir Roland’s chagrin that he has agreed to accompany them to the Calypso Horn so early on New Year’s Eve, with so much that could go awry.Lord Heathcliff was clearly tiring of the jazz club already. Maybe the music was too avante-garde even for his tastes. He proposed to Sir Roland that some of the new friends they had made at the bar should return to the Governor’s residence, known locally as The Manor, to enjoy a traditional colonial dinner, cooked by the inimitable Blanche Batter, before returning to the Calypso Horn for the Junkanoo festivities in the earliest hours of 1967.Sir Roland’s relief was palpable. As the party sucked the last drips of rum from the ice of their cocktails, he almost came to appreciate Eddie Harris’ sax cover of the Percy Sledge hit of the year that he sheepishly had had to admit to never having heard until tonight. Everything now would be fine. What could possibly go wrong….

We needed a theme for our annual birthday get together that involved kids from 9 to 17. Having hosted lots of the more structured murder mystery parties I was a bit apprehensive about how the flexi party would work. I had read all of the reviews regarding the 'adult' content as the 18+ warning concerned me a little. I really need not have worried. It was all very panto-like. That is, if you understood the double-entendres then it was saucy and if you were too young to understand it then it was fine. There was absolutely nothing explicit in there which was a relief. The murderer was selected on the day and it is all down to the scripts so if you are the murderer you read the guilty and answers and everyone else reads the innocent answers. It all makes perfect sense. We had the full quota of 14 and it went off without a hitch. The kids and adults loved to dress up and the characters were really specific. There are invitations and a question menu each with questions to be asked to every character which can be amended if you have fewer guests. My only big complaint, which is why I gave only 4 stars, is that on the invites you get only a name and a costume suggestion. The invitation doesn't say exactly who your character is (eg the Housekeeper)and I had to keep referring back to the Amazon website to find out who everyone was. This could easily be amended by having a page in the Hosts's guide to list everyone's name and their role and to include the roles on the invites as I had to text everyone to say what role they had. Just saying the you are Em Fatale doesn't tell you that you are the widow of the murdered man and that would have been really useful to everyone.Other than that a great game.

10 adults ranging from 26 to 65, all in perfect character, played during a sit down meal. Absolutely brilliant, thoroughly enjoyed by all

I was looking to host a murder mystery evening, but where to start? I am very pleased I started with this kit. The kit contains guest invites, a guide for the host, some whodunit cards - one selected by each guest, evidence in printed text & spoken on CD, along with 14 character sheets and finally, a question menu.The evening starts with each guest selecting a numbered whodunit card, there is then introduction audio from the CD. Each guest then introduces themselves, then there are three "Acts", were guests question each other. After that, each guest makes an allegation as to who they suspect to be the murderer, which is followed by each guest revealing their innocence or guilt.We had a half-way break for a buffet and the evening was such a success - everyone in fancy dress & staying in character whilst eating. We now run a murder mystery each week, with all the other kits produced by the same authors, who have been very supportive & responsive. There are several supporting websites by the authors, were electronic character profiles, scripts and invites can be found. The audio evidence can also be downloaded in MP3 format from the authors for playing from a phone via bluetooth to an Amazon Echo!We have had endless fun with these kits & play via Zoom remotely during the pandemic lockdown each week. The authors have produced remote whodunit tickets, which can be seen easily over video chat.