A Murder Mystery
How to play a Murder Mystery Game in Your Social Media Group
Please make your own graphic, mine has copyright
Playing games in your virtual direct marketing parties is key, your guests are having fun, your group is getting some engagement, and the more a member visits the group the more often they see your posts in their feed. When I do an online direct marketing party I want the party guests to feel like they had fun when the party's over, not like they were in an infomercial.
It is also important to change up the games and be unique, I want the games in my parties to be fun & fresh. FaceBook wants that too, so much that if too many people post the exact same image with text it gets blocked as spam. In addition, there are whole Pintrest Boards out there with answers to games such as these.
In the search for uniqueness, I ran across a discussion in one of my Pampered Chef Consultant groups where someone posted a "Clue" game, I found it intriguing. However, and this is very important, "Clue" is a movie AND a Hasbro game with a trademark and copyright! Never ever refer to "Clue" when playing your murder mystery.
I read how they were playing the game, several people posted slightly different rules and titles for their versions. I took that all in and came up with this Murder Mystery game for my parties.
Communicating with Your Host
Communicating with your host is very important. You will be using her guests as suspects., and some of her guests may not like this.
I post this graphic in my party group and private message my host on the first day of the party:
"When you see the Role Call Post today, be sure to engage your friends in it. I use the first 6 as suspects in a murder mystery I do on [DAY]."
Picking the Suspects
When picking the suspects I go down the list and pick the first six who commented. If six did not comment I look at other posts to find suspects. If I still don't have six I go to the member list and start at the top.
Once I pick my suspects I send the list to the host to make sure I didn't pick someone who would be too weirded out by the game. You never know what is happening in someone else's life.
Picking the Answer
To pick the answer I roll three dice. There is no way for someone to google an answer and I have not played favorites with any of the guests.
I also pick a "Plan B" in case the first guest out of the gate gets it correct. It has happened!
In this example the 4th suspect, 2nd weapon, and sixth location is the game answer.
How to Play the Game
I post my Roll Call on Thursdays, pick my suspects on Saturdays, and post the game on Monday evening. I find that posting this game in the evenings around beer-thirty or wine time get a much better response, more people involved, and a healthy competitiveness.
Post your game graphic with the following text:
**** It's a Murder Mystery! ****
Who murdered Chef [HOST], weapon used, and location. Post your guesses In the comments. I will let you know if you have any correct and how many. Guess once an hour or after I comment on your guess. If you get all 3 correct you win [PRIZE].Feel free to tag your suspect or confess to the crime!
Send your host a private message that he or she may not guess, however he or she may taunt the suspects.
Please make your own graphic, mine has copyright
When the game starts I wait until 3 or more people guess. If any are exactly correct I go with "Plan B".
Example:
- Player 1 guessed: Damon, cast iron skillet in the camper
- Player 2 guessed: Shanna, mix n chop, garden
- Player 3 guessed: Sharon, marble rolling pin, in the barn
Don't hit "reply" to any of them, you want everyone to see your reply in the thread. In the example I would post and tag the players in one comment like this:
- @player 1 - 1 correct, @Player 2 - 1 correct, @player 3 - 0 correct.
Then keep playing until you have a winner, letting several people guess before commenting the numbers again. The game is usually solved in the same evening. I like this, I find if a game lasts too log or is too hard to solve, people lose interest.
This game has become a favorite among my hosts and now I do one in every party.
My Recipe for the Graphic:
When making your graphic you don't have to be as fancy as mine, pick a style in your abilities and unique to yourself.
For your weapons pick six products you sell with the actual name, be creative, and use classic products that are not likely to be discontinued. You will have to change them out if they do get discontinued.
When picking your locations think of your average customer location and activities, I have many customers that live in rural towns and do outdoor activities. Also think of your business and locations your products are used. Do not use the rooms from the clue game, that could get you in trouble.
Murder Mystery Game Graphic
Equipment
- Graphic Software such as Canva or Paint Shop Pro.
Ingredients
- Royalty free graphics
- 1 Party Host Name for the Victim
- 6 Party Guest Names For the Suspects
- 6 Product Graphics For the Weapons
Instructions
Making the Base Graphic
- Find a nice, royalty free, graphic for your base. Pick a rectangle with a landscape orientation. You can uses something that fits your theme, a product, or a solid color.
- Upload your graphic into your editor, this will be your background.
Making Sections - You will need 5 text areas,
- Area 1:Title section "Who murdered Chef [HOST]" (You will edit this area for each party)
- Area 2: Rules section "Post your guesses In the comments. I will let you know if you have any correct and how many. Guess once an hour or after I comment on your guess."
- Areas 3 - 5: Suspects, Weapon, & location.
- I added 50% transparent backgrounds to my text areas so they would be readable, depending on your background you may need to do this too. Eather paste in or draw one as it's own layer, just behind the text.
Suspects
- In my sample I added silhouettes for effect. If you don't have a good editor this may be a bit too much to work with in each party.
- Type the suspects first name and last initial only. (use Xxx x for your template) Never use last name. Each suspect should have their own text box so it can be hidden later.
- For each party, overwrite the names and save as host name and date.
Weapons
- I recommend sizing, styling, and labeling your product graphics in separate files then paste in. You may need to redo if something is discontinued, this will make it easier.
- Paste your product "Weapons" in the weapon section separately, arrange so they are easy to read. You will need to hide them to make the answer graphic.
Locations
- Add you six locations, I don't edit these, they are always the same choices. Each location needs to be a separate text box so you can hide them for the answer graphic.
Branding your Graphic
- Be sure to add your business info or VIP group info somewhere on the graphic, you don't want someone else using it and getting YOU spammed or in FaceBook Jail
Making the ANSWER Graphic
- In each section hide all but the answers. If your editor allows hiding, use that function. If not you need to copy the page and delete all but the answers.
- "Save as" or download the answer in a separate file.
- Go back to the original file and undo until all the choices are showing.
- Save the original file for use in next party.
Notes
www.juliegirlfriday.com
Facebook Comments