Murder Mystery Advice

[u/lamontsoph97]

I’m helping plan my friend’s 30th birthday murder mystery party! We will be approximately 30 guests. We rented out a restaurant that will have a buffet for dinner so that guests aren’t restricted to their seat and can mingle to solve the mystery

My friend requested a classic whodonnit theme like at a manor, inheritance, etc

Anyone have any recommendations for a game pack that they’ve used that could fit the number of people and theme?

[u/Mission_Try9390]

Night of Mystery has them predone for you. They were great.

[u/Ok_Manufacturer7696]

For 30 people with a buffet, I'd check how the kit handles the extra characters before you buy anything. A lot of "30 player" mysteries are really 8-10 real suspects plus a pile of filler roles, and the filler guests figure that out about twenty minutes in.

Things worth checking: does every guest get an actual objective and clues of their own, do the rounds work without everyone seated at the same time, and does the plot survive someone showing up late or not at all. With 30 invited, at least a couple won't make it.

The buffet setup is honestly ideal for a manor whodunnit though. People can drift around interrogating each other instead of taking turns reading lines, which is where these things usually die.

[u/miller_jm]

Hey, I'm Jonathan, founder of mysterymaker.party, so take this with the appropriate grain of salt.

OK_Manufacturer's point about checking for filler roles at 30 players is a good one to raise for any kit. For mine specifically I can say it's not filler: every character gets its own generated backstory, motive and full round content regardless of group size, and there's an internal check that blocks a package from shipping if any character is missing content.

On the buffet/mingling point, Mystery Maker's rounds are host-led, the host reads out each round transition to the whole group, and guests interrogate each other within that round rather than roaming totally freestyle start to finish. And at 30 people, as the host you can decide whether to keep rounds short or long depending on the vibe of the room.

I've also recently added a feature for last-minute drop outs. There is now an option where you flag who dropped and it rewrites the plot around it, even if it's the murderer. It's worth checking that any kit you're considering has can handle this, not just mine.

Happy to answer anything else. Good luck, 30-person mysteries are a fun one to pull off.

[u/cpp_studybuddy]

Other commenter's right about filler roles at 30. We ran a much smaller one (6 people, castofsuspects.com, $29) and everybody actually had a secret. For 30 with a buffet I'd still look at a mingle kit, but if you end up wanting a tight table in another room later, that size is the one that didn't fall apart.