Casting a murder mystery game
Casting a murder mystery game means deciding who plays which character.
It can be a dark art – it’s not always easy to tell who would like which character; everyone is different.
In this tip we give a couple of examples of how you can cast a murder mystery game.
#1 Host casts, using the casting table
Our murder mystery games include a casting table with key information to help you cast the game.
The table tells you where romantic or family relationships exist and who the murderer is (not everyone wants to play the murderer).
With the table and your knowledge of your guests, you can then cast your game.
However, if you don’t know who will be coming, or you only know some, or you don’t know them that well, then the casting table is of limited use…
In this case, we suggest a casting form.
#2 Players complete a casting form
A casting form is an online form that you send to your guests for them to tell you what sort of characters they are interested in playing. Google Forms or Microsoft Forms are popular online forms, which are both easy to use.
You can also use a casting form to provide key information to your guests, such as details of the venue.
What to include on your casting form
Here’s suggested wording for a casting form. This one is for The Karma Club.
This is the casting questionnaire for The Karma Club murder mystery.
Please note that I will try and cast you according to your preferences, but I may not be able to give everyone their preferred role.
Also note that the characters have hidden secrets, and few are what they appear on the surface.
I need your email address to send your character to you in advance of the party. I won’t share your email address with anyone else.
I used these fields for the form:
- Your email address
- Your name
- Your gender
- Do you mind playing a gender other than your own?
- Of the characters listed, which three appeal to you most? [List the characters in the order that they are in the game cast list. Include “I don’t mind who I play” first.]
- Of the characters listed above, are there any that you really don’t want to play? [This should be a free text field. Sometimes it’s more important to know who someone doesn’t want to play.]
- Is there anything else you’d like me to consider when casting you? [This is so your guests can tell you if they don’t want to be the murderer, or don’t want to be involved in a romantic plot, and so on. You may get some odd requests.]
- I would like to share online a screenshot/photo of the game being played. Are you happy for me to include you in the photo?
Flagging contentious topics
Some of our games contain contentious subject matter—such as characters having an affair or involving magic or the occult.
While you might want to identify those when advertising the game to new players, you can also use the casting form to flag those issues.
Issuing the casting form
Once you’ve created the form, you need to share it with your players.
Give your guests a deadline for completing the form so that you can cast the game with sufficient time to prepare everything. You may need to remind people to complete the form on time.
Using the results to cast the form
Once you have the results, it’s time to assign characters to players. The data is usually provided in a spreadsheet so you can work with it.
- First, read the “Is there anything else you’d like me to consider” field to find out of anyone has any particular concerns you need to manager. If so, cast them first.
- Then, look for characters that only one person wants to play and cast them.
- Then, look for people who said that they didn’t want to play a particular character and cast them in a role they do want.
- Then, look at popular characters and cast them.
- Finally, use the people who don’t mind playing any character to fill in the gaps.
With luck, you can give everyone what they want, but if you can’t contact those players and manage their expectations.
Send the results to your guests
Finally, you need to tell everyone who they are playing.
We recommend sending character sheets by email, along with the names of the characters and who is playing them. At the same time, you can include any extra information that you think might help (directions, costume tips, notes on catering and so on).
Other ways of casting
That isn’t the only way of casting a murder mystery game, and we’d be interested in hearing how you cast your murder mystery parties.