Mystery at the Oster Awards

Had a surprise bonfire mystery party for my 9year old daughter and her friends. They all came dressed up and we had accessories too. They key to the game is being really organized before, getting the clues put together in envelopes and everything. There were times I had to simplify some of the clues slightly for a younger audience but overall they understood it well and it went very smoothly! They had a blast !!

I was worried that the kids wouldn’t be able to follow along, but they absolutely loved it. Once they got started it pretty much ran itself. They party packet was extremely organized from planning extra time for late guests to receipts for certain foods to match the party we loved it! So much better than what I was going to try and do on my own!!!

My daughter turned 12 and wanted a sleep over party. That was out of the question. I hunted down something unique and that will keep kids off their phones. This was amazing. We (daughter and I) decided less than a week before, so I purchased the digital download. Make sure you single page print it out, not double sided. The party was laid out and easy to plan and decorate, there are plenty of "Awards night themes" at the party stores. I really enjoyed the sample timeline that was available. We told the girls to dress up according to their character. We served sparkling apple cider in champagne flutes as a welcome and intro to the game. We had different snacks to separate the rounds. The girls enjoyed being in character, however they might not have gotten the gist of "mingling" to find out information. It was a loud loud party. The bonus games helped spread out the time and give them a chance to come out of character. Everyone enjoyed themselves and no one was on a phone! I will probably do this again in a few years.

Mystery at the oster awards was awesome for my daughter's 13th birthday party. 10 girls participated and they all had a blast. The instructions were simple and easy to follow so things ran very smoothly.

Just wanted to let you know that I have been doing your mystery parties here at LHS for years. Just did this one back in March and we had a wonderful time. Had to condense Rounds 1 and 2 together for times sake but overall it was very well received. Looking forward to doing more in the future.

To echo what a previous reviewer said, the host should absolutely read through the entire instructional packet and use the bullet list/party timeline for each round and activity. This will help with game flow (you won't have to search through the big instructional packet during the game) and if you follow your party timeline it will ensure you don't go too fast or too slow through any round or activity. Just like any other event, the more prepared the host is, the better the event will flow. Make sure to cut out all of the clue cards, evidence cards, police report, etc. in advance so all of that stuff is ready to go for the party. I even did a dry run as the host the day before to make sure it would all make sense to a bunch of 12 year olds.

Our daughter was looking to do something unique & different for her 12th birthday party. She loves mysteries and clue-type games so when I suggested a "mystery party" she was all-in. The "Oster Award" theme worked perfectly as her party was on the same day as the actual Oscar Awards! We had 12 girls at the party between the ages of 11-13 and they all loved pretending to be hollywood starlets and trying to figure out all the clues to the mystery. We held her party in a room at our local community center and decorated it in full hollywood glamour, including a red-carpet entrance and hollywood star walk with each of their names on a star (great party favors). The game was the perfect difficulty level for their age - if you're paying attention and taking good notes it's relatively straight-forward to figure out whodunit (process of elimination).

This was great fun for a group of 8 twelve year old girls. They really got into their characters for the entire evening. It did not take an excessive amount of work beforehand on my part, but I imagine it would require even less time if you bought the extra products instead of printing and cutting it all out yourself. The level of difficulty was just right for 12 year olds- only 3 of 8 guests solved the mystery but there was enough “evidence” that no one was just guessing whodunit. I would definitely recommend this game-you get hours of fun for a very reasonable price.

I purchased this for my daughters 10 year old's birthday party and it was a lot of fun. You could play this without purchasing anything besides the supplies to print out the sheets. Because it was her birthday I used higher end stationary and did a lot of decorating on theme, but even then (with dollar store decorations) this was a great value for the price. Some of the kids needed explanation about the structure of hollywood awards ceremonies (lead actress vs. supporting actress, etc.), or the difference between evidence and motive, but that was to be expected since we were below the recommended age. It was not hard to overcome and didn't hinder their ability to play. I was worried the kids would lose interest; over three hours we ate appetizers, pizza, desert and played the game. The time went by quickly and I found I didn't need any of the bonus activities to keep it going, though we did take fingerprints for fun. I would recommend that the host put together a bullet list of the highlights of each round and the order in which you'll do them. It was especially important in round two where there are several steps and the order is important. All of the information is in the instructions, but you don't want to be re-reading in great detail while you are in the throws of the game. Overall I would defiantly recommend. It was a fun experience for a good value and a unique birthday party activity.