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

My husband and I went to a mystery party a few years ago. I had a yearning to do something fun in mid-winter with friends, so I purchased this kit. We invited 4 couples and two ladies. With hubby and I, we had 12. While the game has 14 characters, we really didn't miss the two characters not covered. We served finger foods, buffet style. For the game, for the first act, we mingled, but quickly decided for the second and third acts to sit in the family room and bounce around from person to person for the scripted questions and answers.What's in the box?Party Invitations - Can also be used for table place cards, if you're going to do a dinner. On the back of the invitation, there is brief information on each of the characters. I did not assign characters to friends, but rather put "first come-first serve" on the front of the invitation. As people responded, I had them pick the character they wanted to be. If it was taken, I had them pick something else.Instruction Book - Gives you an overview of what and when.Story Book/CD - You have the option of reading the mystery introduction and the opening for each of the three acts, or listening to the CD. I chose to use the CD because they were dramatic, with stormy background sounds. Each intro was 2-3 minutes long. The group found the initial introduction difficult to understand - the male speaker had a heavy English accent. I ended up reading that one over again after the CD. But, the others were a female speaker with a lighter English accent and we all understood easily.Character Bios/Scripts - When each guest arrived, I provided them with their bio and script. Yes, the whole party was scripted. This was a plus - really!Last, for lack of another description, the guilty slip - This is where the "Flexi" comes in. As host, you'll have slips for each participant. I folded them up and had each guest secretly draw out of a bowl. One will be marked guilty. That person will use the script portion marked "if you're guilty." Others will read the script portion "if you're not guilty". No one - not even you - will know who the guilty person is until the end of the night. And you can use this kit over again (flexi) if you desire because it just depends upon who picks the guilty slip; it's not always the same person.I resisted reading the scripts. Then, I started to panic when my husband reminded me that a previous mystery party we went to was a total bore! NOT SO FOR THIS ONE! It's totally scripted and hilarious. You can't help but have fun.We did take a break between each act to refill our snacks/drinks, etc.I need to add - one of the reviewers said they used this for a kids party (9-14 year olds). We had just adults - and we found that appropriate. For example, one of the characters was a police officer. Through the acts, it came out she moonlighted as a stripper in her police uniform. I wouldn't want that at a kids party. (Maybe they didn't use the police character?) And, other characters were in adult type situations, too.I highly recommend this! Everyone went home laughing and each time we see someone, they comment how much fun they had. We are already planning our next party with another group of friends.

This was one of my favorite nights of the year. I did for my birthday. Everything was so fun! Highly recommend!!

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.

What a wonderful and unusual evening we hadAs host and hostess, we found the instructions complete and the script carefully created. No one, including the hosts, knew who the murderer was except for the murderer, revealed to him alone at the game's start when the guests drew slips from a hat. Each character's script told him what to say if innocent or if guilty. We had given each guest a small notebook and a pen to keep track, and at the end made our accusations, giving our reasons. Then the murderer revealed himself (or in our case, herself).Not appropriate for children, but is it too risque for adults? There are occasional allusions to regrettable pasts, which are a stock motive in many a detective story, but if you're comfortable with TV detective shows like Law & Order, Brokewood Mysteries, Mallorca or even some of the old Monk episodes, I don't think you'll find these references too shocking. (I also am not sure why someone can be totally comfortable with being "the murderer," but totally discomfited that her character once had an affair. It is, as children would say, "just pretend.")My husband and I loved seeing everyone's costumes and how they brought the characters to life. I'll never forget the "maid" with her cockney accent, blowing a huge bubble from the gum stuffed in her mouth as she waved her feather duster, or the raspy voice put on by General Custard. There's no getting around that this game took considerable prep from both the guests and the hosts, but it made for a memorable and fun evening - and everyone enjoyed the photos we sent around the next day.