Most people booking one of these have never been to one, and the thing they are quietly worried about is being made to act. So here is the whole evening, plainly, including that part.
The short version: it is a game your guests play, not a performance they watch. Nobody has lines. Nobody stands up in front of the room. You eat, you talk, and while you are talking you work out who did it.
Before the night
You pick a date and a venue — your own venue, wherever that is. A private dining room, a rented hall, an office, a hotel function room, someone's home. We ask roughly how many guests and whether there is anything we should know about the group.
Your guests need to do nothing in advance. No reading, no preparation, no memorising. Some people like to dress to the theme and it adds to the night, but it is entirely optional and plenty of guests turn up in ordinary clothes.
The first twenty minutes
People arrive, get a drink, and are given a character. That is a name, who you are, who you know, and a few things you happen to know that nobody else does. It is a card's worth of information, not a script.
The host sets the scene: where you all are, who has died, and why everybody in the room is a suspect. From that point the evening is running.
The middle of the evening
This is where the food happens and where the game actually lives. Guests talk to each other. You ask people questions because you need what they know, and they ask you because you are holding something they need. The information is spread deliberately across the room so nobody can solve it from their seat.
Nothing is on a timer in a way guests feel. The host moves things along between courses, drops in new information, and keeps it from stalling. If a table goes quiet, that is the host's job to fix, not yours.
The accusation
Near the end everyone commits to a theory. Who did it, and why. Then the solution comes out, and the room finds out which of them was right and which of them was confidently, catastrophically wrong.
This is reliably the loudest part of the night. There is usually one person who had it from the start and will mention it for years.
"What if my guests won't join in?"
The most common worry, and the answer is structural rather than reassuring noise. There is no performing, so there is nothing to be bad at. Talking to people at a party is a thing everyone already knows how to do — the game just gives them something to talk about.
In practice the reluctant guest is usually engaged within half an hour, because somebody needs to ask them a question. And a guest who genuinely wants to sit back can do exactly that and still enjoy the evening. Nobody is dragged into the middle.
How long it takes
Two to three hours including food. That fits an evening dinner slot, a conference night, or an afternoon. It does not need to run late.
What your venue needs
Somewhere for everyone to sit, and a room where people can hear each other. That is genuinely most of it. We are not putting up a set or needing a stage. If you are unsure whether a space works, describe it to us and we will tell you honestly.
What we bring and what you provide
We bring the game, the host, the characters and everything the evening runs on. You provide the venue, the guests and the food and drink — which most people are arranging anyway, since this usually replaces a dinner rather than being added to one.
Group sizes and cost
Eight is a comfortable minimum and it runs well up to around a hundred. Cost depends on the size of the event rather than being a flat fee — pricing and availability sets out how it works.
Booking one
If you have a date and a rough number, book a private event. If you have questions first, the FAQs cover the practical ones and we are happy to answer anything else. More planning pieces are on the blog.