Hatter's Ball | A Murder Mystery Game

I love these games, I host big events every year where everyone has an amazing time. (People have said that the parties are the highlight of their year!) But something that I always need to edit is the pronouns in the game material. The format is currently "s/he", "him/her", "his/hers" instead of they/them/their and not only is it really hard to parse when there are several instances in one sentence, it's less inclusive. I always do a find and replace for these in the pdf and it adds extra work every time. I'm happy to do it because it makes my non-binary guests more comfortable, but a change here would make the games even better than they already are. Oh! And we always add pronouns to the name badges as well. It makes the game run a lot smoother!

This game was a bunch of fun with our group of 9 people. It was relatively easy to set up and by the end everyone was arguing over who they thought the killer was and defending themselves against accusations. We have already planned on doing another mystery game very soon.

I hosted the Masquerade Ball (with the same character cast) about 6 months prior to hosting The Hatters' Ball with a different side of the family. I really liked the shared characters between the two murder mysteries. It was extremely helpful that everyone wore clothes/hats/items in their color (or color scheme -- ie. green for mint). It helps to keep the characters straight especially for the younger players, but it's really helpful for adults too! We played with a total of 13 people, but 1 optional character was assigned to a 3 year old. I still created envelopes for the 3 year old with leftover name tags from optional characters who were not cast. So, she still got to open envelops and the stickers kept her busy for a little bit during each round. Our 9 year old female guest lost interest frequently, so I recommend younger players be cast as optional characters if you want to include them. We also had a 12 year old male and two 14 year old boys who were fully engaged and enjoyed the game play. There were 8 adults varying from mid-20's to 70's. Everyone had a great time! I ordered plastic castle wall decorations that were taped to the wall. We did Pre-Game activities while eating pizza. We ate pizza right as people arrived. I have done several murder mysteries, and this is the first one that I did not know the victim or the murderer beforehand. It is very challenging to setup the game on your own without knowing, but it's possible. I used a paper cutter to cut the cards for each round. I printed the clue cards on card stock, and I used a blank piece of card stock to cover the round cards. I would pull down the blank card stock just enough to see the upper border. Then, I lined it up on the paper cutter. I did this for all 4 sides of each card. After each card was cut, I did a similar reveal (slowly move the blank card stock down until I can only see the character's name) to see whose clue card it is. I would have liked there to be more props listed that the host could have optionally chose to include such as various bottles for poison that are labeled with funny names.

Everyone had fun (even those who were skeptical) when we played Hatter's Ball at our annual department team retreat. Thanks!

The party is super fun! Great storyline! And my murder mystery was super helpful!

have organized game and ready to play. cannot wait! Looks great!

Our group of teens had never played before. Many didn't know each other - they made friends, had fun and rolled with it. We enjoyed interacting with them. The characters really allow for meeting new people without feeling awkward. Easy costumes if you need them! Even our pups participated! Only one person guess the murderer correctly so it was engaging but not easy!!

Easy to follow, characters are great, instructions are simple. The kit didn't take too much effort to assemble. Can't wait for my next party.

Simple to follow instructions is key - and they nailed it. Easy breezy plot lines, but challenging enough of a mystery that you have to investigate it all to get it right. I have no complaints, only compliments.