As lockdown eases across the world, we once again have the joy of seeing our friends and family in the flesh! However, as socialising resumes in real life, many of us are living with some degree of restrictions or socially distant guidelines, so here are our top tips for hosting a socially-distant murder mystery party!

Top Tips For Hosting Your Socially-Distant Murder Mystery Party

• Remember that if any groups of people live together they won’t need to remain socially distant from everyone else. You can use this to your advantage allowing these people to interact more freely together. For example if there’s a husband and wife in the game, cast a married couple in these roles. Also you may want to cast the detective/victim to a grouping like this so the detective can inspect the body.
• Mention on the invitation what precautions you will be taking. I.e. if the game will be outside, if it has a time limit, if you will have hand sanitising stations, bathroom arrangements and whether or not mask and glove-wearing is expected.
• If you need to cater for large distances between guests, consider your venue, ideally playing outside or even spread through a number of different rooms in one house. This cafe in Germany came up with a good solution to keep people socially distant.
• Set up an inspection table: If there is evidence or documents in your game for players to inspect, have the detective or host leave these on a table where everyone can review these without touching.
• Don’t forget about the refreshments. Either encourage your guests to bring their own food and drink or provide individually wrapped portions
• In the first instance check your local health advice in relation to maximum numbers and how exactly to be socially distant.
• Keep a record of who attended and their contact details, circulate to all guests after the party just in case anyone needs to do some contact tracing after the game.
• Think creatively! Put all that practice using Zoom to good work and consider including guests remotely who live abroad or are unable to travel. All of our games work when played wholly in person, at a social distance, via Zoom, or through a combination of all circumstances!
• Most importantly remember to HAVE FUN and TAKE PHOTOS! It’s a game, and laughs have been in short supply during lock down, so enjoy making new memories with the people who matter to you!

Shop our top-selling isolation and social distancing print-at-home murder mystery games including the 1920’s extravaganza, The Great Has Been; a classic Murder at Stackallen Castle, and The Wizard’s Dagger, a 2 for 1 magical game perfect for teens! Visit the store now!