Best Murder Mystery Games
Murder mystery games let groups of friends dress-up in cool clothes and try to discover which one of them is a murderer. It's a super fun way to spend an evening with food, drinks and lots of funny moments. These games let you act out to your hearts content as someone interesting that may be from the 1920s or even from the future - depending on the type of game that you choose.
Here are my favorite murder mystery games that you just have to try. Check back as I find more more amazing games to add to my list. Only the best of the best games will make the final list.
Printable Murder Mystery Games for Adults
Shadows Over Shrouded Island
This is a game designed for 8-20 players that's lets players play as a variety of characters that are all easy to dress up as. Our friends were all able to dress-up as characters for this game by using stuff from their own closets. Clothing options were provided on their character sheets to give ideas.
We had an equal number of men and women in our game, but every character can actually be played by any gender. The names, clothing options, and everything else are written in a way that anyone can play any character in the game. So, if you have all women or all men at your game - you won't need to change a single thing.
Jazz, Moonshine and Murder
This game is also for a minimum of 8 players and a maximum of 20 players. It's a 1920s Prohibition murder mystery game. Characters can dress up in any 1920s clothing that they have available, ie. nice suits, dresses, etc.
This game has a really unique points system that I haven't seen in any other murder mystery games. Players get points for saying certain lines or performing certain tasks throughout the night. They might need to say certain sentences that could lead other players to discover their secrets, but make them sound innocent. This made the game super interesting and we all had tons of fun trying to figure out everyone's secrets.
It also helped in choosing an eventual winner of the game. It wasn't just choosing one of the people that guessed who the killer was, as there's normally multiple people. The winner was the person with the most points from carrying out actions and also guessing the killer (extra points).
Murder Mystery Game Kits
These kits come with everything you need to host one of these parties. These will include things like character sheets, costume ideas, award certificates, name tags, etc. Oh, and obviously also instructions on how to play the game. So, even if you're never hosted a murder mystery before, these kits will give you everything you need to get started. And yes, I know murder mysteries seem very confusing, but if you choose the right kit - you'll understand everything you need to know in the first few pages of content.
Murder Mystery Games for Parties
These types of games are amazing for work team-building events, birthdays, and holiday parties. It's somehow both cooperative and competitive. You'll have work together to solve clues and decipher evidence if you want to find the killer, but you also need to simultaneously figure out the secrets of all your friends. Their character sheets will tell you what their secret is, and there will be clues that could lead you to figure it out if you're paying attention.
Murder Mystery Games for Dinner Parties
This has been the best use of murder mysteries. If you love having friends over for dinner and drinks already - this just adds another layer of enjoyment on top of them. Your friends will need to uncover the secret that every character has hidden and figure out who the killer is during the evening.
Murder Mystery Games for Large Groups
The games that I enjoyed the most are flexi-games, in that they allow for a flexible number of participants. There are 8 primary characters that are needed to play the game. Additionally, you there are 12 secondary characters that your remaining friends can play. You can choose whichever of those 12 characters you want to use, and if any of those friends can't make - the game can still continue as normal.