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

We had so much fun playing this murder mystery game. I loved that this one was able to accomodate a lot of players. We almost had the max players but someone couldn’t make it.This comes with everything you need the instructions, hand books for characters and even little invitations you can send out to your friends and family. I addressed each invitation that it was from Lord Heathcliff. Award cards are also included for categories like best detective and best costume. Rather than award who I thought was deserving I let guests vote on little pieces of paper in baskets in front of each award. We all dressed in costume for our characters and couldn’t stop laughing throughout the game. It was so much fun and I’d definitely reccommend it.The instructions are very clear and easy to understand. The disc you can play along really adds to the whole experience. We had dinner then played the game as the other option didn’t seem like it would best suite our group. This was my first murder mystery game but others in our group had been to several. They commented that this one was more fun than some of the others they have attended.We had a long dinner table for our dinner with some old candelabras going to down to add to the atmosphere. Pinterest has some really great decorating ideas for your party. You can find some great decorations on here as well.I gifted this game to my cousin who lives far away so that she can enjoy her own murder mystery. I told her to pass it on when she’s done to keep the game traveling. They will just need to make their own invites or awards at some point when they run out.

I recently hosted a murder mystery dinner party for the first time, using this kit, and I thought this kit was great! It did really well in explaining everything, setting the scene, and entertaining guests. I believe it was some of my guests' first time playing this type of game as well, so it helped that the game was really simple: you basically rotate between eating, listening to the audio, and then speaking up in the form of character introductions or questions. In terms of setting the scene, I really loved the audio portion. The audio included music and sound effects (for the portion where they're revealing the evidence), and the narrator spoke with an English accent, which helped set the scene. Not to mention, the audio files were on both a CD, which they provided, and online. I found this helpful because my computer doesn't have a CD drive (I was able to play it on my phone, using their online audio files). Last, the story itself was entertaining and it intermingled different characters' histories together, which made it really funny at some points. Overall, the kit was definitely a great buy. As the hostess, I think it helped me a lot in entertaining my guests and creating a fun atmosphere.In terms of timeline, a little more than a month before the party, I asked some of my guests which date for the party worked for them. Once I got everyone's input and determined the best date, which was about a month before the party, I sent out invites and their roles. This gave everyone ample time to prepare their costumes. For the character sheets, I sent out copies to my guests the morning of the party, so if they wanted, they'd have time to develop their characters' accents and/or idiosyncrasies. Some of them even memorized their lines, which made the conversation flow better.I'd definitely consider buying another kit from this company!

First - there are a lot of positives about playing the game and how cleverly the game designers made the game flexible. The directions say you can replay, but they recommend you wait a couple of months so you forget the details. That may be possible, but if you replay the game, probably use the characters you didn't use before. I loved that we could add or remove someone at the last minute. The character variety allowed people to pick a character they were comfortable with. The flow of the game was pretty easy. I also love that there are a lot of characters so maybe you can play the game multiple times, and you can definitely give the game to another group of friends and they can play. No part of this is consumable!We have a group of 10 adults that regularly get together for dinner and some sort of game. I bought this on a whim because someone said "Can we do a murder mystery one time and dress up?" We did have a great time PLAYING the game. We all sat in one room and read the Acts, questions, and answers so everyone heard everything at the same time. I can't imagine it would be great with mingling because it would take SO long for everyone to talk to everyone and ask the questions.Here's the beef: No one guessed the murderer! Even after we were done, the murderer was revealed, the murderer read his confession, we were all confused about how we were supposed to come up with the motive and murder scenario. Most of us were paying pretty good attention for inconsistencies in people's story, but the motive and scenario required too many leaps. It's possible that we just got unlucky with one poorly written character and that any of the others would have been more obvious. I will probably play again, just eliminate that character and recommend that if I loaned the game to someone, they take that person out too.

I did a lot of research and review reading before purchasing Murder at the Manor. It was a perfect choice for our first attempt at hosting this type of event. Everyone had a great time and commented on how easy it was to understand plus not selecting the killer ahead of time made it very flexible. The unexpected twists as suspects were questioned made for a fun evening also. We can’t wait to do another one. We had 12 guests and just mingled to ask questions. From arrival to departure, it took us three hours but only a little over 2 hours of that for actual game time. I made hosting easy by having people bring heavy appetizers.