Two years ago we threw our first annual Clue Party. It was really just based off the 1980's movie and the board game, but since this was a new thing for our group of friends, it was still exciting. The next year we had to bump it up a notch. We decided to go with a crime scene theme, all of our friends would work as cops or investigators and they would figure out which one of them "murdered" their "associate".
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| Photo from DIY Mugshot Photobooth |
When we did our first party, we established a system for how everyone would figure out "who dunnit". We took notecards and wrote "clues" and then hid them in envelopes around the room for our guests to find. This year we went with the same system but the envelopes and notecards look different. However we had to make one crucial change.
Hiding the clues for the first party was a two minute process and a month long clean up. We literally found clues a month later. When discussing clues this year we came up with the following system:
We numbered the clues and made a master list (not shown). This list had everything from which clue was what number to where each number was hidden in the room. We also enforced a rule about putting the clues back exactly how the guests found them.
We disguised our Master list by calling it a master notebook and making it look similar to the ones we passed out to our guests. In the notebook we also included our opening and closing speeches, a list of all the guests and thier assigned aliases, and a place to write how many guesses each guest had made.
Every year we assign aliases, character bios, and alibis. We keep track of these things and write clues to confirm their alibis...or not confirm the "killer's". These alibis are sent to the corresponding guests with the invitations on notecards, as well as recorded in our master notebook.
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| Finished invitations with rough drafts of alibis and bios. |
This is a system we find works well. You can find the attached page of clues here. We wrote these for 10 guests plus the two hosts. Drugs and sex are mentioned, for children we would advise changing these things. However these were written for a very specific group of young adults. Unfortunately I don't have the bios for everyone anymore but it shouldn't be hard to come up with something based off of the alibi clues. If you really can't come up with anything email us and we will track it down for you from our files which are not with me currently.
For props and such we tend to DIY a lot of things. We did buy some crime scene tape and evidence markers (not shown) at a Halloween store, but for the most personalized experience we choose to make most things. It also usually costs less. For instructions on what you see below and a couple more ideas check out our Cop Party DIYs
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| DIY Laminate Badges |
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| Unfinished DIY Mugshot Background |
You can also find a list of rules here. These are what we found works best to keep the party going for a decent amount of time.
If you have any additional questions or would like more information on this years clue party feel free to email us at our contact email or comment below. We will do our best to track down some more of the info. We apologize for not having the answer to the mystery posted, we have it on file and will post it here pretty soon.
We recommend explaining the rules to everyone as they come in, it makes it easier not to break character from that point forward. We do this every Halloween, so this is from the 2014 clue party. We will post 2015's party after it's conclusion so our guests can't cheat...not that we think they would.
Until Next Time,
John and Courtney
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