Photo courtesy of Mike Miley

SPOILER ALERT!!!

Editor’s Disclaimer: if you are playing or are thinking of playing the murder mystery game The Spy Who Killed Me do not read this article, as I give away all kinds of stuff.

On Saturday, February 18 I attended my very first murder mystery party. The evening was the best kind of controlled, community-minded chaos. Approximately 20 of us put on 1960s-era and/or “higher education” clothing, adopted a “Cold War mentality”, and did our best impressions of students, administrators, academics, spies, assassins, and even a reporter who all found themselves together in Maudlin College, a hypothetical university with a great rowing team somewhere in England.

The character list was outstanding. It included a Headmaster, four eccentric and duplicitous professors, grant and scholarship administrators, and a bunch of students who ran the gamut of intellectual and athletic ability; from “expellable” to “rock star”. Oh, and within these cover stories were MI6, CIA, KGB, and Indian Secret Service agents, a secret society, an assassin, and a reporter who was trying to pull everything together.

My character, Professor Aberhart, was not only the murderer (I strangled poor Beth with my cello string right before my concert that evening), but I was also a musical sensation and an MI6 agent who, in collaboration with my CIA counterpart and fellow faculty member, Professor Thompson, killed Beth because of our suspicions that she was a double agent.

Complicated stuff. I know.

Speaking of complicated, during the evening I not only had to get away with murder, but I also had the following things on my list of objectives: expose double agents (I found one and killed an assassin), earn a research grant (success!), publish my manuscript (I received a non-committed “yes maybe we’ll see” for my sterling work on 18th-century violin manufacturing), and recruit people to spy for MI6 (I had some over-imbibed undergrads singing their secrets and ratting out classmates with great enthusiasm).

By the end of the evening, I had failed, though, as the college’s Headmaster was actually a KGB double-agent who had been exposed by Beth, the young woman who I murdered to start the whole darn party! In short, Thompson and I couldn’t put the pieces together because the Headmaster played me like Professor Aberhart plays his cello: very, very well. Oh, and I mistakenly “disappeared” Professor Thompson’s assistant, which I still feel terrible about.

Needless to say, I had a fantastic murder mystery party experience.

Here are three tips to ensure that you have a fantastic murder mystery party experience:

1. Invite Characters who Know Their Role. My character’s bio and the “Cold War Primer” document was about four pages long – single spaced. And the point is this: to know your role, you need to put in time and study your character’s back story, opinions and objectives for the night. If someone with an important role doesn’t put in the effort then the whole game can be a non-starter. And, speaking of characters, invite people who have personalities that jive well with role-playing and acting. Part of the game’s instructions involved “making things up” and “expanding on the biography” of one’s character, which requires a bit of creativity and thinking-on-feet to say the least.

2. Use your powers, weapons, tricks, and tell all sorts of dirty, dirty lies. In my character’s envelope I had an MI6 badge and a gun – I also had abilities that allowed me to get information from even the most secretive person. And my game-mates had some of these things, too; however, by the end of the night very few people had used their guns, poisons, antidotes, or nuclear missiles (seriously, this was a possible outcome). Now, I’m absolutely non-violent and do not condone the actual use of the aforementioned objects, but, for the sake of the game, it would’ve been good fun to have a few more people bend the truth and coerce folks into – or out of – sticky situations by channeling their powers. So, when you play, be sure to use everything in your toolkit with intention and great aplomb before the night is over! I mean, when are you going to get the chance to do so again?

3. Have fun with it. Whether you’re an amateur Sherlocke Holmes or a soon-to-be improv champion, approach the game with an open-mind, enthusiasm and an incredible amount of suspicion. Because nothing is what it seems. Well, nothing except the fun!

So there it is. The recipe for a great murder mystery party.