Medieval Murder Mystery Party: Go with the Flow
Following on the heels of last weeks post came this wonderful comment about the medieval murder mystery party. The moral of the story- Go with the Flow, it’s their party:
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The kids at this party were not quite up to speed for the most part. However, the kids that actually did a little work ahead were right on the ball. In retrospect, I would have either had an hour set aside ahead to explain the game/parts to the kids who didn’t understand or I would have had a pre-party party. Fortunately, I allowed 4 hours so I just explained as necessary and gave them tips to help them along. I could have used more time. [BPGL Note: I often counsel parents to make a phone call to parents requesting their assistance in making sure the party guests have been through the murder mystery party material, stressing that it’s much more fun for everyone when they do. This seems to work very well.]However, I did have just myself running it and I ended up with 2 extra kids that RVSP’d 2 days before the party and then one other cancelled an hour before so I was trying to play the part of the kid who cancelled and direct. Definitely have more help. [BPGL Note: Absolutely have help. If the kids don’t need it, the extra hands will still have a great time watching them improvise and role-play during the murder mystery game.]
They loved the trial the best and could have done that all night. I would do this again, but I would do something differently to ensure everyone was on the same page. Maybe just a phone call or reminder, but they still had fun.
For the 2 extra kids, I made up parts. One was Stephen and I just had him die at the end of the supper so she didn’t have to sit out so long and she got to jump up at the end (it was a sedative, not poison) and they loved that. Not hard to adjust around that. I didn’t want the added parts to be difficult to learn. The other kid was the “Joint Council Mediator” and her job was to enforce the “sacred scroll” and she was borderless, ie entitled to go wherever she chose. She helped Kinsha keep people in line at the trial. The Sacred Scroll was done in old fashioned writing on parchment paper and signed by King Oscar, King Leopold, King Howard, King Edwin and Queen Lisle’s dead husband. It listed rules for the trial, marriages, etc. to help keep them in line and add interest. Also an easy part because there isn’t a lot of thinking so suitable for a late comer.
For rules, I noted that females and illegitimate children can vie for the throne if the others in line are deemed unsuitable and that this is done by ballot. The kids loved that. Lord Saracen was still king, though. My daughter is an actor (yes, she actually has an agent and some small TV credits plus many plays) and quite bright so she controlled the whole bloody thing and had one united country by the end with an agreement for food supply, succession plan, democracy and rules for fair treatment of animals. Yeah, I know, control freak. The king was merely a figure head to impress other nations. But, the other kids accepted it. I’ll have to try one again with the drama company she belongs to and they’ll give her some stiffer competition.
Overall, yes, they loved it and the whole school was buzzing about this cool grade 7 party and one previously unpopular girl is now accepted - she got to be Kinsha and was very fair and I let her make cool rules like “cake in the face” for the murderer in stead of execution since he wasn’t really dead. At this age, being invited to the cool party can make such a difference - stupid but it worked.
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I ALWAYS encourage my customers to make any adjustments to the party package that they think will work best with their group of kids, since every group is different. As you can see from these comments, it all works out.
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