Whodunnit Murder Mystery Game

Gather clues all around the library and solve a mysterious murder!

If you'd like to register for this program, please submit a  Registration Form at least one week prior.

Description

Participants travel from room to room in the library trying to solve a mystery, similar to the game Clue, by Parker Brothers. The winner will correctly guess the suspect, location, and weapon involved in the crime. 

Time frame

The game takes approximately one hour to complete.

Number of players

Three versions of the game are available.  Each set can accommodate 3 to 6 players, for a total of up to 18 participants.

The Setting

A mysterious murder (or two or three) has been discovered in our library!  The boundaries of time and literature have been breached.  Somehow, the characters from classic mysteries escaped their paper prisons and killed their creator(s).  Your job is to unravel “who done it,” where the dastardly deed occurred, and what weapon was used.

How to play

You will gather clues by moving through the following rooms:

1. Virginia Sorenson Writer’s Alcove
2. Art gallery
3. Conservatory (Welcome desk)
4. Coat Room
5. Sandberg Story Circle
6. Teen Corner
7. Hispanic Corner
8. Shaw Computer Training Lab
9. Special Collections Room

(Multiple groups begin and end in different rooms.)

In each room, open your author’s book folder and show everyone the card inside.  Each player then presents a theory, presenting a possible place, suspect and weapon.  Going in turn, the other players try to prove it wrong.  The first player (following the numbers on the notebooks) who has a card named must show it to the player proposing the theory (and no one else).  When every player has presented a theory, the group moves to the next room and repeats the process.  Please note: There is a brief book description on the inside of each book folder.  These descriptions do not contain game clues.

When a player thinks they have solved the crime, they make an accusation by writing their answers on the bottom three lines of their Detective’s Notes sheet.  They fold their paper in half and give it to a chaperone.  They will continue with their group to the rest of the rooms, showing their cards when necessary.  When all of the rooms have been visited and at least one accusation has been made, the group moves to the first floor reference desk and a librarian checks the accusations against the cards in the case file folder.  If no accusations have been made, the group continues to propose theories until someone solves the crime.