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Murder in Manhattan
$49.95
Add intrigue to your next party with this murder mystery game, set at a Manhattan cocktail party.
Format:
Mystery Party Kit
Setting:
New York cocktail party
Time:
90+ minutes
Ages:
Adult
Players:
Play with Printed Sheets or the App
Hosts have the choice of playing the game with printable documents or using the PWM Party Assistant app
View app gameplay guide
Gossip, treachery & murder at an upscale NYC party…
Backstory
You and your guests have been invited to the anniversary bash of Mr. Francis Fisk, a noted businessman. The attendees include a number of Fisk’s high-society friends, family members, and business associates. These high society sophisticates live in a world of intrigue, gossip, treachery and endless jockeying for social superiority.
Murder!
Things take a turn for the deadly when a rolling blackout provides someone with the opportunity to advance their social agenda in a more brutally direct fashion than most of the guests are familiar with. When the lights come back on, a grisly crime is discovered!
Solving the Mystery
Reputations are at stake and no one at the party wants to risk the scandal of press and police involvement. Now the guests must work together to sift through the evidence and identify the killer in their midst!
There are 25 primary suspects in this mystery, however only 10 are required to play the game. The host or hostess will play the role of Taylor Walker, the head caterer. Read the "How To Play" section for more information on how to play an expanded game with more than 25 guests.
* = Optional character
Male Roles
- *Alexei Siranov - Security: Doorman at Fisk’s building and security for the party, Alexei is in charge of making sure none of the lower classes get into the celebration.
- Chester Fisk - Playboy: The debauchery and indulgence of the life of the upper class run hand in hand with this well-known playboy, younger brother of Jonathon and Francis. He owns the Castle, a hotel known for ruining the reputations of many celebrities and socialites.
- *David Kreig - Author: David published a biting satire on Upper East Side personalities—recently at the tope of the New York Times bestseller list—which everyone suspects is based on actual socialites.
- Francis Fisk - Real Estate Tycoon: This party is being thrown by Francis in celebration of his company’s twenty-five years of success in real estate. He is very well known and always throws the most elegant parties.
- *Grayson Kreig - Rock Star: A one-hit wonder, Grayson was once part of the band Eagle’s Rose, which has long since broken up.
- *Isaac Corrington - Retired Senator: Although retired from government life, Isaac is the head of the politically active Corrington family. Easily the king of the Upper East Side socialites, Isaac has played the social and political scene for years.
- *Jesse Corrington - Journalist: Editor of a biting online gossip site, Jesse is known for only publishing verifiable rumors. He comes from one of the most powerful families on the Upper East Side.
- Jonathon Fisk - Outcast: Jonathon runs Fisk Enterprises in Australia and has been invited back to New York for his brother’s big celebration. Rumor says he left due to some scandal that was covered up.
- Richard den Waldern - Philanthropist: A young but prominent philanthropist, he is known for giving generously to children’s charities around the country. He was recently in Florida on vacation.
- *Sam Lily - Lawyer: Sam is an entertainment lawyer known for his famous clients and sharp sense of humor.
- Zachary Wellington - Architect: A board member of Fisk Enterprises from Chicago, he is attending the event with his daughter Candice.
Female Roles
- *Ashley LeBois - Editor: Up-and-coming queen of the younger generation, Ashley is the editor of Runway, a popular fashion magazine. She rules the younger generation with well-timed rumors and vicious social takedowns.
- Candice Wellington - New Girl: Candice is both Zachary’s daughter and his assistant. This is her first time in New York.
- *Davana Gudriov - Housekeeper: Ashley’s maid and housekeeper, Davana has been looking out for Ashley since she was a little girl.
- *Francine (Frank) Rose - Debutante: A cousin of the den Walderns from Florida, Frank recently arrived in New York and is making her debut among the upper class.
- *Gwen Kreig - Rising Star: New to the social scene, Gwen is a fashion designer with cutting-edge style and swift social-climbing ambitions.
- *Helen LeBois - Designer: Helen owns and designs her own line of haute couture fashion, catering only to the rich and fabulous.
- Irene den Waldern - Party Planner: Irene runs a very successful public relations firm that caters to the Upper East Side and numerous celebrities and socialites. She is throwing this party for Francis.
- Jo Chase - Filmmaker: New to the scene, Jo makes documentaries and is filming the party for a new documentary.
- *Mercy Neist - Scheming Socialite: A well-known socialite, Mercy mysteriously left New York a few years ago and has only just returned from traveling abroad. She is a troublemaker and a schemer who used to give Ashley a run for her money.
- Rose den Waldern - Queen: Queen bee of the older socialites, Rose rules the Upper East Side with an iron fist inside a silken glove.
Male or Female Roles
- *Callaway Lee - Bartender: Callaway was hired by Irene to be attentive and discreet as well as to keep the drinks flowing.
- *Jamie Lavigne - Caterer: Jamie was hired by Irene to be attentive and discreet and to make sure the party runs smoothly.
- *Sydney O’Connor - Caterer: Sydney was hired by Irene to be attentive and discreet and to make sure the party runs smoothly.
- Taylor Walker - Head Caterer: (Played by the Host/Hostess) Taylor was hired by Irene to be attentive and discreet, as well as to run the staff and make sure the party goes as planned.
- Jess McIntire - Caterer: (Played by the guest that played the victim in Act One) Jess was hired by Irene to be discreet and bring her any juicy gossip throughout the night.
Extra Players
- *Investigator (male or female): Additional players have the option of playing the role of "Investigators". In this role the players are not suspects and do not have character backgrounds but can question the suspects and try to solve the mystery along with the other players.
What's Included
Murder in Manhattan is a 171-page downloadable PDF file that you print at home. It includes the following features:
- An introduction that explains the basic principles of running a mystery-party and provides specific tips on props, menu items, sound effects, and special tips to help make your party exciting, memorable, and easy to run
- Step-by-step instructions on how to prepare for your party
- A detailed party guidebook that will walk you through the event in a simple, easy-to-understand format
- Instructions on how to run the party for a large group
- Nametags and character sheets for each player – the character sheets include tips on costuming and role-playing, as well as special goals and gossip unique to each character
- Fully customizable invitations, complete with RSVP cards and guest lists
- 13 pages of gorgeously illustrated full-color props and clues for use during the scavenger hunt
- Voting sheets
- Customizable awards for your guests
- And much more!
With your purchase of Murder in Manhattan, you will also receive the following:
- Step-by-step printing instructions
- Two MP3 audio effects for use with your party
- Instructions on how to use these audio clips to best effect
Follow these steps to host this mystery:
- Each guest will each assume the role of a particular character
Mystery Parties involve a combination of improvisational acting, storytelling, and creative problem solving. Each guest will play the part of that character throughout the course of the game. Each character has specific personality traits, goals, secrets, and information, all of which are included in the character sheet; a big part of the fun is getting into character and taking on a new, exciting role. - A mysterious Event will occur
At some point during the party, an Event will occur that will force the players to come together in order to solve a problem or unravel a mystery. Traditionally, the Event in question will be the murder of one of the characters (as played by a guest), but the parties crafted by Playing With Murder often use this basic framework to accommodate different types of Events, thereby ensuring that your guests will be surprised and entertained (even if they are veteran murder mystery party players). - Solve the mystery!
Your guests will need to use the information that their characters know (as well as additional clues that are provided during the game) to solve the mystery or overcome the problem posed by the Event. Typically this culminates in the guests voting on the identity of the murderer, but again, different parties will have different specific goals. All of our parties also come complete with additional subgames (treasure hunts, unique character goals and special puzzles) that are guaranteed to keep the action intense and your guests motivated and focused.
Expanded Game For Large Groups
If you have extra players, there are two ways that you can accommodate everyone:
- Investigator Role – Additional players have the option of playing the role of “Investigators”. In this role the players are not suspects and do not have character backgrounds but can question the suspects and try to solve the mystery along with the other players. Expanded Games include a PDF guide that explains how to use the Investigator role, as well as printable character sheets and name tags for anyone that is playing an Investigator.
- Multiple Groups – It is also possible to break your guests up into groups and play multiple instances of the game at the same time. The game will more or less happen the same way; the host makes announcements and each group moves their game forward simultaneously based on the host’s instructions. It’s good to have one assistant in each group to answer questions and facilitate gameplay within the group. This method provides a more intimate experience for your guests, who get better acquainted with a smaller group and participate in a more digestible story.Please contact us if you’d like more information about how to run your party using the Multiple Groups method.
Both the standard and expanded games are included with the purchase of any game kit.
Read more about Expanded Games here
First time hosting a murder mystery party?
Visit our How to Host a Mystery Party page to get step-by-step instructions on how to prepare for your murder mystery party.
Content Rating:
This party is rated adult. While there is no explicit material, the party does contain references to the following:
- Infidelity and extramarital affairs
- Gambling
- Drug and alcohol use
- Ponzi schemes
- Suicide
- Involuntary institutionalization
- Assault
- Arson
- Murder
Difficulty:
This party is moderately complex to set up. We recommend a venue with at least two rooms and a sufficient area to hide clues for the scavenger hunt.
This party is average difficulty to solve.
Tania –
21st birthday with 13 family members (ages 13 to 79). Was a great success. Sent invites out with the app but used paper on the night (removed all characters that weren’t coming from everyone’s sheets). These reviews were very helpful for ideas! Used ChatGPT to alter the pictures of everyone on their sheets & name tags to resemble them in cartoon style and the same images to make a Suspect Board.
As other reviewers have said – best to shush everyone before playing the Scream/Thud – even on high volume it wasn’t heard over everyone’s chatter.
Everyone got into their role. Some character sheets have a lot of tasks and info, while others like Candice and Jo have very little – perhaps good for younger participants. 4 people guessed the murderer. The certificates at the end were well received. Unfortunately, it wasn’t dark when actors had finished with act one (perhaps 1 1/4 hours) – so had an intermission. Still worked well.
Melissa Walthall –
So I got the murder in Manhattan and modified it a little bit to fit in with my Halloween themed party. What a great kit this was. Love the detail especially for someone who’s never thrown a murder mystery party before it was a great success!
Kyna Wilson –
The various phases made the night so fun. Mingle phase, lights out phase, scavenger hunt, fact reveals, arguments, then voting. As one would expect, it took guests time to sink into their roles and feel comfortable but once everyone did, it all played out so nicely! At the end we broke character and just sat and laughed about the highlights for another full hour or more! Our guest list was 16 total and 4 were teenagers.
sarah.koller16 –
I hosted my first Murder Mystery Party with Murder in Manhattan for my birthday and we had a blast! Very easy to run. Everyone came dressed true to character and took their roles seriously. We had one key player that didn’t show but we rolled with it. Would definitely recommend this game to others. I’m going to try it out with my coworkers as well. Please be sure to read the entire manual before to help with efficient party planning!
E Morg –
I picked this mystery because it said it was appropriate for teens. This was way too complicated and involved for the group of 16-17 y/o’s we had envisioned this for.
Kathryn –
It was our very first attempt of hosting a murder mystery dinner. And only one of our guests had ever attended a murder mystery event ever. We had high expectations and Murder in Manhattan didn’t disappoint! The guide covered everything and was very easy to follow. We look forward to hosting another one soon and will return to this site for our next selection!
Lx3 –
Everyone had such a great time. Party of 14 ages 7-70 and everyone showed up dressed to impress and in character! I wish there was a way for the host to assume more of an active role in the mystery, but I still had an amazing time watching the story unfold infront of me! Definitely want to do it again!
Hellohello –
This party was super fun. I have never run a murder mystery party before (though I’ve participated in them), and don’t find myself to be particularly gifted in this arena, but even I could run this party with ease. It was a ton of fun for my guests, and people has a great time getting into character. It was also a great way to break the ice for a group of people that didn’t all know each other. So fun!
Alina –
I hosted Murder in Manhattan for my birthday this year because I wanted to get my friends together for something different and had always wanted to throw a murder mystery party. Everything went so smoothly and I was surprised that everyone got really into it. I set the game up kind of like an escape room to add some more dimensions to it. It was challenging but not too difficult and everyone had a great time going through the clues to figure out the culprit!
Mark Z. –
15th Birthday Celebration
Awesome outcome. We purchased the Murder in Manhattan and made it a costume party as well. The party goers were excited and out going for the mystery and it made the dance afterwards even better. Thank you Playing with Murder!
JT –
Murder in Manhattan was a great way to celebrate my 25th birthday with friends! A murder mystery has been long talked about and everyone went all out for this first experience. Looking forward to another very soon!
MurderMysteryMom –
Murder in Manhattan was our daughter’s 21st birthday party. It took a little prep ahead of time but the kit made everything so easy! The kids came dressed for the part and it was so fun watching them in character all evening! They had a great time learning about all the other characters and trying to figure out who the killer is!
MurderMom –
Murder in Manhattan was a success! It was my daughters 21st birthday and we celebrated with about 20 of her friends at college. The kit made it so easy! The prep work ahead of time made the evening go so smoothly! The kids came dressed for their part. It was so much fun watching them in character all evening!
PinkPartyPanda –
We had a reunion of friends and played out Murder in Manhattan. It was a blast and easy to follow. The scavenger hunt had everyone running around but unfortunately the killer got away!!
Heather R –
This was the second party kit I purchased from Playing with Murder and it was another hit. The info package may seem overwhelming at first but it really isn’t too complicated. The characters have great back stories that my friends loved and got really into. I would love if the character info and other info that I needed to print was in smaller font and easier to print double sided – I used a lot of paper and usually try to reduce my paper consumption. Other than, that I love these kits and would certainly recommend!
Kristian Keller –
I hosted this party because my friends and I have always wanted to experience a murder mystery party. And let me tell you this did not disappoint. I ended up hosting the game with all of the characters in play which worked much better than I was expecting. All of the characters had compelling and interesting motivations and things to do. I would definitely recommend this for anyone looking for a higher level of murder mystery party experience. It took a lot more work on the part of the host and guests then any other product I have encountered, but all of that work paid off in making an unforgettable experience.
Rachel H. –
We did Murder in Manhattan as a party for my husband’s 39th birthday over the summer. It was perfect for playing out on our patio, since we were concerned about having people inside due to Covid. There were 9 of us and we had a fantastic time! Our guests really got into character! The party kit was very simple to use, and included character descriptions, prompts, clues and audio clips, Which really gave the party the extra fun touches. We plan on doing more of these mystery parties in the future!
Nin –
As part of our year end function we had a surprise murder in manhattan mystery event. The event encouraged all staff members to communicate with each other to try and solve the murder and to get to know each character. It was a great end of the year team building and communication exercise and we look forward to hosting the next one!
EG –
All in all, a great night was had for our Murder in Manhattan party. A lot of guests commented that they had been to other Murder Mystery parties before, but none had been this organized. There is a lot of work to go into planning this one out and you do need to take a few hours to read the story and the character backgrounds of all playing. Some guests will have studied their sheets, but others who want to drink and relax will come to you with questions on their character, so you need to know all backgrounds pretty deeply.
Prep is key! The materials had everything needed, but I did find it a bit difficult to locate specific character sheets, and key story data in the long 170 page PDF. What would be helpful would be to have the pdf titled with sections on the left hand side in your PDF viewer that you can quickly click to when you need to locate something. I also think that a great document to include would be a summarized story for the Party Host on the backgrounds and motive for the killer to easier understand the arching story. I had to flip through the killers character sheets and few other spots within the PDF to actually piece together why the killer killed so that I could make it feasible for the guests at the end of the night. Make sure that everyone is pretty quiet when the lights go out! A few people gasped right away and started screaming and they could not hear the audio file for the murder. Best to play it on a good speaker, not your phone or computer. People immediately wanted to talk and ham up their character reaction during this part. I also found that the dead body clue is a bit redundant so feel free to leave that one out of the scavenger hunt. Guests are searching for things to give them more information, but at this point they have already seen the real dead body during the murder, so a few guests were confused that the dead body clue token did not have more information.
A few things I would do next time is prepare a real locked cellphone with notes in it on the 4 clues, a real file folder with the files inside, and perhaps a plastic play knife with blood on it. Guests REALLY got into this part and while the paper tokens were helpful, it was hard to pretend they were a real item with information on them. You could even go as far as to pre record Jo’s camera footage and play it for all the guests! So many ways to be creative with this one, and everyone really enjoyed it.
Anne –
Murder in Manhattan was an absolute blast. Guests loved the opportunity to dress extra fancy and have drinks at their beck & call. Overall the game was easy to conduct and by the end of the night, multiple people were guessed as murderers which was fun!
Mrs. Lundy –
I used the party as a last day of school activity for my 7th graders. We were able to complete it in a 90-minute block. The kids had a blast!
Laura D –
Pre-Covid, forgot to post a review for our daughter’s sweet sixteen–we did this murder mystery and it was off the charts fun. She is in a theater arts program and that made up guest list–about 18 or so. I have done quite a few murder mysteries over the years. The one really worked well. We decorated to the hilt, getting creative wherever possible. The story is terrific though–and only 3 people guess correctly at the end. People were engaged and enjoying all of it. Very adaptable to any setting.
Tbrewt10 –
Birthday party for my son hosted at our home. We did Murder in Manhattan, everyone loved it. people were really in their character, we adlibbed a bit to make it more personalized. The special effects included in the packet were very helpful
CCB –
This mystery was the theme for my 60th birthday party five years ago. It was a great success. I am glad the theme has held up over the years!
Searching for a new party for this holiday I decided to share my review and photos.
Taylor Walker –
Great way to celebrate turning 50 – a fun and silly night for all. Easy to follow and we were even able to involve kids who did really well too.
Gemma –
Fab evening with the game Murder in Manhattan! I live in Paris so I had to translate the whole game (Google translate did the trick,) and customize/remake all of the printable material. The pack made this very easy to do and as a newbie I found the instructions simple to follow and organise. We had a wonderful evening and the guests loved it! The murderer got away scot-free, little bugger!
ecrawford –
My family was all together for Christmas last year. I handed out their character sheets as gifts for everyone, and they were all so shocked and excited! A couple of days later, everyone showed up with props and costumes. We had a blast!
megroz36 –
We had this murder mystery party just because. Our friends really got into their characters and went all out with their outfits and acting. We had an absolute blast. The information they “knew” about other characters made the game so much fun. My guests really enjoyed spilling secrets about other people while trying to keep their own on the down-low. They surprised me by really getting into hunting for evidence and making accusations. Our ages ranged from 23-45. Part of what made this party a success was that I matched my guests’ personalities to the characters. They didn’t have to do anything they weren’t comfortable with and were able to lean into their character a little more. The highlight of the evening was all of the funny conversations that could be heard between characters. It was a wonderful evening.
Charlotte –
I highly recommend purchasing Murder in Manhattan! I hosted a murder mystery party for my birthday this year, and it was an unforgettable experience. All of my friends dressed up as New York elite. If you purchase this, I recommend going all out with decorations and props. It makes the evening feel more “real.” I purchased a mugshot photo backdrop, so my friends and I took “mugshots” in front of it to create a suspect board. It’s fun to get into character, and I would definitely purchase another kit in the future.
Dutchman in Tennessee –
We had a family (14) 70th birthday party for my wife.
We used the Manhattan Murder Mystery dinner party and loved it
It was well worth the money, we purchased the full version and was glad we did.
The package of materials was a download, it was was well done and very thorough. There was a lot to print, so that will be an extra expense for paper and ink.
We did a lot with decorations to make our open floor plan look like a Manhattan suite.
Everyone had a blast, they dressed the part and played their characters well.
It was a lot of work to pull off, but the memories will last forever.