Let me start by saying the thing that surprised me the most while researching these parties - the pre-made kits out there are pretty darn pricey. I think the cheapest one I saw was $50, and they all had limits as to how many people could play (which is a bummer if you have more guests!) so I knew right away I definitely needed to orchestrate this thing myself. Truth be told - it was WAY easier than I expected it to be! You just need a plan (theme!) and some character development (not so scary!) and you can pull this off yourself!
The first thing you need to do: come up with a general "theme" idea as to why the dinner/party is taking place. I wanted to keep this simple (I didn't actually know many of the guests coming as it was a surprise party for a friend) so I didn't want anything too in depth or complicated. Therefore I chose a "rock star" theme - that made it easy for people who wanted to dress up and really get into their "part" but it also still worked for those who were a little more reserved.
Here's the general party outline:
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When the guests arrived, they each received a packet with their character details all laid out:
Phase 2 - dinner. As we ate, the girls all had additional things to spill - the stylist had a fight with the rock star right before his music award show that night. The paparazzi both had stories of blackmail and confrontations with the star (along with details of pics they'd captured in the past, like photos of him with the country super star who was adamant they never had a relationship, pics of the 80s has-been rocker letting the air out of the tires of his tour bus because of her jealousy, etc). This is where all of the "motives" came out. Everyone essentially had some type of issue at one point with the rock star (relationship jealousy, music industry conflicts, etc). At this point, the murderer really could've been anyone. All the girls, even the more reserved ones, really got into this which made it super fun! Before I knew it, they were catty with each other, accusing each other of the murder - it was great!
Phase 3 - the wrap up. We all had a chance over dessert to hash out publicly who we thought did it and why, and everyone had their rebuttals in their books ("even though we fought, I was in love with him, so I never would've killed him!") etc... Some last bits of evidence were introduced (the last paparazzi photos taken before the murder, other past photos taken by paparazzi that also had some clues, etc) - you can set these up ahead of time so all your ducks are in a row.
Then each girl had to fill out a piece of paper with the name of the murderer and the motive. This was my favorite part because it worked out PERFECTLY as I'd planned - almost every person there named someone different for different reasons! Only one, yes ONE person got it right! (Which was my goal of the night - and she won a nice pretty decorated bottle of champagne... :)
So here's the deal - if you want to throw one of these parties (and you should try it - it was so much fun!)