They’re Back: Murder Mystery Games

---

Run out of jigsaw puzzles and board games? Marina Go test drives the nostalgic pastime making a comeback: murder mystery games.

---

I love a good murder mystery. I couldn’t wait to see the (fourth) screen adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express in 2017 and I’m looking forward to the release of Death on the Nile next February. My current favourite books are by Richard Osman: The Thursday Murder Club and The Man Who Died Twice; Only Murders in the Building is my most recent TV-series go-to. So, imagine my delight when a friend suggested that we replace one of our regular Zoom drinks sessions with a murder mystery game. As I was hosting the event, I began to research online options and settled on Masters of Mystery. What sold me was the fact they had an ’80s-themed option which was fitting because the ’80s was our decade.

I thoroughly recommend hosting an online murder mystery with a bunch of friends. It’s about as much fun as you can have without being in the same room with a variety of gin-based drinks. For two-and-half hours, 15 people residing in Queensland, NSW and the ACT, managed to forget about the fact that we were enduring lockdown and laughed harder than we had in months. Here’s how to ensure you maximise the laughter.

---

Match your friends to the characters as diplomatically as possible
I sent a note to my friend Karen to let her know that casting her as Heather Hurtful wasn’t in any way an indication of how I felt about her. On the contrary, as the nicest person in the world she was excited to play a villain. Other characters included Polly Pingwald, Keanu Heaves and Leggy Varmer, as well as a Russian explosives expert to throw us off the scent of the murderer.

---

Dress up!
Our group requires little encouragement when it comes to fancy dress and everyone, including our poor man’s Arnie Schwarzenegger and our resident Ghostbuster, were able to show off the best of their ’80s dress-up boxes. It was a Zoom gallery of pink hair bows, lime green Lycra and bad wigs. The effort put into the costumes was quite extraordinary.

---

Treat it as a fun night out
We kicked off at 8pm on a Saturday and everyone prepared food and drinks for the occasion which guaranteed things seemed funnier as the night wore on.

---

Try to follow the script
I say “try” because there were more than a few times during the evening when we believe some of the characters went off-script. There is a specific script for every character but it is easy to get lost when there is alcohol involved.

---

Pay attention
Apparently the clues are in the script. But with raucous laughter and some sensational over-acting, concentrating on the clues can be challenging.

---

Relax and go with the flow
It became clear from the outset that the goal of the evening was to have a laugh and that in the process we might manage to unmask a murderer, without the murderer unmasking themselves due to too many drinks or lack of concentration. At the end of the evening, each of the characters gets to accuse a member of the group of being the murderer, outlining motive and opportunity. Only one person in our group managed to accurately guess the winner, but that was enough to give us a satisfying conclusion to the game.

---

---

Words_ Marina Go
Photos_ CottonBros/Pexels

---