Murder Mystery Party, A Taste for Wine & Murder, Murder Mystery Party Game to Host Your Own Murder Mystery Night

I know people get deeply into costumes, decorations, menus, and so on—and obviously that's awesome—but we just had some people over for game night and decided to give it a whirl, and we had a blast. It took about 2.5 hours, and although there was a little confusion, we figured it out fairly quickly. The basic flow is: everyone reads a scripted first-person interaction; then everyone has a session where they exchange accusations and new information, which instead of being scripted is given as third-person background information, and you ad-lib the actual dialogue; then you listen to an optional but cute audio clip that sums up the info that was just exposed. After three of these rounds, everyone writes down who they think the murderer was, and accusations are exchanged. The final track exposes the murderer, but that character also knows by then that they are guilty and can read the dramatic denouement themselves. We had the vineyard theme and eight people. The two optional characters were definitely less involved, which seems to vary depending on which theme you buy. The two optionals chimed in as desired and spent the time refilling people's drinks and trying to stay ahead of the instructions. Some of the optional instructions we found a bit unnecessary (like at one point we were instructed to drag a character down to the basement, which ???), so we played them out only when it seemed helpful to get/keep people involved. There are four audio tracks on a web page (not a CD). They are labeled on the page as "intro" and "tracks 1-3", but in the instructions as "tracks 1-4", which caused a little confusion—fortunately, we figured it out before anything was given away. The murderer only found out they were guilty about 3/4 of the way through, so they didn't have to lie convincingly for most of it. It would be great to do the full costume and dinner party, but 6-8 people can absolutely just play and have a ball. The two optional characters are less involved, but are definitely optional. As long as people are game to get into character and roll with the over-the-top drama and silliness, this is 100% worth the cost.

We brought this game on vacation for New Year's Eve (7 players) and it was an absolute blast! We sent out costume suggestions ahead of time and everybody nailed it. It took us about 3 hours to complete the game which we did over appetizers, dinner, and cocktails. Can't say enough good things about it. We will definitely do another murder mystery night again in the future. Don't hesitate, buy it!

Make sure your party has good characters! The overall story here was a bit boring and there are at least 2 characters that have little to nothing to do with the story. Otherwise, if you have good sports playing, it is a great time.

"A Taste for Wine and Murder" was my first experience with a Murder Mystery Game. If you have any interest in this type of party, I would suggest you try this version first. It was purchased as a Christmas gift and later used as a surprise, mystery-themed birthday party; planning was easy and even the guest of honor was able to get into the fun without prior knowledge. The box contains Character Booklets, invitations, name-tags, Secret Clues for each guest as well as a Party Planner Booklet, a CD. The Party Planner booklet contains the rules, as well as suggestions for decorations and menus. This is a great "intro" version to Murder Mystery Parties. The game is designed for six players (you need at least six for it to work properly) and there are two addition roles for guests who are not suspects. The Character Booklets have easy-to-follow, short scripts, and the CD helps narrate the story. Each suspect is given "public information", in which they share with the group, and "private information", which is only to be revealed when asked. The Character booklets even tell you when to ask another character for more information, and when to reveal "secret clues" to the other guests. The clues are funny and creative and vary from useful information to red herrings. This allows for multiple motives and opportunities among the characters, which will keep you guessing until the "murderer" is revealed. One particularly nice thing about this version is that the "murderer" does not know he or she is the murderer until round three, which gives everyone an opportunity to ask questions and form their own suspicions. The game is broken into three "rounds" which works great if you are planning a dinner and want to play between courses. You can make it as elaborate or as simple as you would like. Homemade costumes and decorations from the Dollar Store made our party awesome. Overall: I would recommend this game to anyone who enjoys this type of party, especially to anyone who has never hosted or participated in one before. It's a fun, easy game that will have you laughing, as well as yelling out murderous accusations to your friends and family. Choose a group who will enjoy having fun, being silly and using their powers of deduction. The only drawback is that there is only one game in the box, which means that once you play it, you'll know the solution.

Bought this game for my brother in law and his wife. Looks pretty fun from what I’ve seen. They also seemed happy with it.

Fun game

Oh my goodness we had so much fun playing this. My friends aren’t the brightest but we figured it out without any mistakes. The actual storyline was so great we all loved it so much, we played with 6 people and didn’t use the extra players and it was fine. I definitely recommend this game! It was so fun and I’ll be looking to buy again!

The game was well explained & came with all we needed to do our first Murder Mystery game. So much fun!

This game was clearly made is the 1990s, which led to some pretty hilarious story beats. The story is hilarious and corny. I made certain to pick friends that I knew would roll with it and it went perfectly! I made a million appetizers instead of a dinner and honestly we could have just sat around my table playing and having a few drinks. I had never done one of these before, so for a less expensive option, it was great! I won't be able to replay it, which is another reason I'm happy I spent less.

The product arrived as promised, in a hard beautifully designed box. I bought this to play with my family on Christmas Day so still waiting to see how the game will be like, but cannot wait to play it.

This is a fun way to spend an evening if you are new to murder mysteries (MMs). This is more of a 6 player game than 8. All 6 of us were new to MMs and didn’t wear costumes but still had fun with it (the wine probably helped). We had a BBQ dinner first then played the game straight through. The plot is well written but the response part of the script should have been 1st person pronoun instead of second to make more sense and give a better flow. The more people “get into character” of their assigned person, the more fun it is. Looking forward to hosting my second MM game. :)