Have you ever thought about bringing the characters from a board game to life? How about hosting a mystery dinner party? It’s easier than you might think.

After homeschooling my kids for 20 years, we have found a lot of fun ways to fit drama into our homeschool and love to share what we've done with you. 

Act out the Game of Clue

A popular board game for mystery is the game of Clue. There are multiple variations of the game today, and it is so popular they made a movie with the same characters and premise. This can be a fun theme for your next birthday party, holiday get-together or just a fun excuse to get together with friends. It’s also not limited to the enjoyment of teens, as adults can have fun with this activity as well. Parents only evening, anyone? 😉

If you own the game, then you can simply transfer what you do on the board to what you do live and in person at your house or another location. 

To get started, send out the invitations. You can use the premise of the game for the reason of the invite or come up with your own. Have everyone come dressed in the different characters represented in the game. You can either have them choose on a first come, first serve basis or assign them based on who you think is most like the character.

I recently bought a semi formal dress for an event that is the perfect color for Mrs. Peacock. It may not be the same style for her character, but that’s where I can be creative on how I portray her. She is definitely an odd character to represent, but my dress is the perfect color, so I would choose that role for that reason. Maybe you have someone who has been or wants to be in the military that could portray Colonel Mustard or a girl who looks fabulous in red that could be Miss Scarlet. Have fun with it!

It is really entertaining when everyone stays in character throughout the evening. Sometimes there's a quirkiness to their character that they bring out when walking around or talking. It is helpful to give everyone some background on the character they are portraying, so they can be prepared to act them out. Have each person consider the following before they come to the party: 

• What would that character sound like? 

• How would they walk and move around? 

• Do they talk with a lot of gestures or very monotone? 

• How do they interact with the other characters? 

If everyone truly embraces their character, this can be even more enjoyable to experience than the game itself.

Setting up for the Mystery Dinner Party Game of Clue

For the chosen evening, you’ll want to designate each room in your house as a different room on the gameboard. I have the gameboard with nine rooms, but there are gameboards with even more. If you don’t have that many rooms, consider some outdoor spaces or cut back on the cards you use. You don’t need to have all the rooms to play the game.

You can go all out and decorate, or keep it simple and place a sign in each room to help your partygoers know which room they are in. Some rooms may be more obvious than others. Since you probably won't be able to see all the rooms from where you are dining, it might be helpful to have a little drawing to show where the rooms are in your home, to help your guests move from room to room.

The dining room is easy since most houses have a room with a table and chairs in it, whether it is a formal dining room or an eat-in kitchen. The kitchen is easy as well, but the ballroom is probably something you don't have in your house. I would use a spare room or bedroom for this one. For the conservatory, I would use my little patio in the back. Maybe you’re in an apartment and have a balcony you could use for this space. I do have a room with books, so the library is another easy one for me. However, we don’t have a billiards table; but we do have a small foosball table, so that’ll work just fine. I have a little space with a desk behind our couch, so that can work for the study. The spaces don’t have to be large. Being cramped can add to the entertainment as you enter each space. You could also divide a room to make it into two spaces.

You can keep it to a small dinner party, or a larger group depending on the number of character cards you have. Again, you can remove a card if you don’t have enough people to fill them. If the card isn’t in the game, then it doesn’t get factored in to how you play.

To set up, place weapons in a central place so your guests can choose one when it's their turn to head to a room to make a suggestion. You can use the miniature ones that come with the game or use something more life size, like the candlestick below. Similar to the board game, you will be moving a weapon to a room to find out if it is the right one, but you will not be moving the character you are suggesting since everyone will go from room to room together. You can suggest any of the participants as the suspect, but the weapon and the room are based on which one you are holding and in which room you are currently standing.  When it's time to go to another room, that weapon can be placed back in the central location and another one can be chosen by the next person. The same weapon can also be used if that person chooses to use it.

How to Play the Game of Clue at a Mystery Dinner Party

Before the evening begins, select the character card, weapon and room card to go in the confidential envelope to be revealed at the end of the game. Be sure not to look at them if you are playing, or have someone not involved select the cards and tuck them away in the envelope. This will be the murderer, the weapon that was used and the room in which the crime took place.

After choosing the three cards that go into the confidential envelope, divide the rest up between all the players. For instance, they may all get three cards. It’s helpful to divide them up so most players have a character card, weapon card and room card; however not all can due to varying quantities of each set or the number of players involved. In the real game, you could randomly receive all room cards, so it’s okay if they don’t have one of each; it just makes it a little easier for each person to guess if they have something from each category they can rule out.

When everyone arrives start with dinner or keep it simple with some light hors d'oeuvres. This is a time for everyone to get to know each character, what they do and maybe how they know Mr. Boddy, the owner of the mansion. 

At the end of the meal, the host should announce that Mr. Boddy was found in one of the rooms as the victim of foul play. The host can be a player, or it can be someone that chooses to help the game move along but won’t be solving the crime. This is when you hand out the individual envelopes to each player along with pencils and notepads (you can use the ones supplied in the game), then explain what they are supposed to do next. This is a good time to read some of the rules, especially as it refers to making a suggestion, proving it true or false and finally making an accusation when you think you know who did it, in which room and with what weapon.

Choose someone to go first. This person will choose the weapon first, then move to the room they first want to enter. Unlike the game where you roll dice to move around the board, a player can pick any room and have the guests follow as that player “makes a suggestion” as to what he/she thinks happened. When they arrive in that room, they will suggest a character, the weapon they are holding and the room they are standing in. 

No one needs to know each player’s reasoning for suggesting a character, weapon or room because they don’t want others to know what they’ve already ruled out. Remember, each player has cards that help them rule out certain items. Even if they have those cards, they can still use the character, weapon or room in their suggestion to help them rule out the others.

For regular game play a suggestion is made and the player to the left of the guesser looks at her cards to see if she has any that were suggested. She chooses one to secretly show the guesser, without anyone else seeing it or passes along to the next person on her left if she doesn't have any of the cards. For this to work, it might be helpful to have everyone remember the person to the left and right of them at dinner. This way, when they enter a room, they can form a circle in the same order so they know who is supposed to show them their card. Also, this will help determine the next guesser as it will be the person immediately to the current guessers left who will go next. With six players it’s pretty easy to keep track of, but with ten, each person will just have to pay attention a little more to know who they are standing next to. 

If a player feels like he is ready to make an accusation, then he can say who he believes the suspect is, along with what weapon was used and in which room the crime was committed. After guessing, he can look in the confidential envelope to see if he is right. If any of the cards are incorrect, then he slips them all back in the confidential envelope and continues to play without making any more suggestions or accusations. His job now is to show his card to someone when it is his turn to prove someone else’s suggestion is false. If you have a facilitator of the game, then that person can check the confidential envelope and if the accusation is incorrect the game can continue for everyone as normal, since the results were not revealed to a player.

The game finally ends when someone makes a correct accusation on all three elements: suspect, weapon and room crime was committed in.

Mystery Dinner Party Last Minute Thoughts

You do have the time to fit drama into your homeschool with a mystery dinner. 🕵️‍♀️This can be a fun evening for your teens, or you could choose to have a parents only night instead.

If you have a younger group playing, or don't want it to involve murder, just come up with another crime that could be committed. The person could have been hurt by one of the weapons, or they could have had something stolen. The game would play the same way, as everyone would guess the suspect, weapon and room the crime was committed in. 

If you are struggling to narrow down who to invite, you could have the six characters represented by six couples. You could choose a person and their spouse or plus one to represent one character. It could be fun to color coordinate or be creative as to who they are attending the party with, just to add to the drama. The couple would participate as one player and would make suggestions and the final accusation together as a team instead of as an individual. The biggest thing is don't overthink it, just invite and have fun with it!

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Maybe instead of acting out the game of Clue, you’d rather play some drama games instead or perform a mystery play? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered with Places Everyone! - drama game fun for the whole semester and The Butler Did It! 30-minute or full-length mystery play. It’s simple to download these PDFs and get started today.
 
Thanks for joining us!

Danielle at homeschooldrama.com