News and photos

Issue No 8: 15 August 2001

• We have automated our order processing so that now you will receive the downloading instructions after you enter your credit card details. So you won't have to wait 24 hours now to receive your kit. This means you will be able to send out your invitations sooner.
• We have rearranged our site yet again. The new categories are for 7 to 10 guests, 11 to 14 guests, 15 to 20 guests, 21 to 40 guests, 41 plus guests, all girl parties, office parties, childrens & teen parties and special events.
• We have added feedback on each kit on the page that lists the characters for the mystery. We have also added an excerpt of the mystery and you can now download a sample of half of each mystery. To access these detail pages, click on the title of the kit on each page which lists the mysteries.
• We are now able to take phone orders within the USA, Canada and Mexico via the following tollfree phone number: 1-800-898-0286 . We are also still able to take phone orders via our Australian phone number.

• Unfortunately, we have had to increase the price of our kits from $24US to $29US because we now have to pay most of the search engines in order to be listed and this has substantially increased our operating costs.
• We are in the midst of writing a new version of "Cocktails At The Graveside" which will have similar characters but be more interactive. You mix with everyone and ask them what they know and examine the evidence rather than reading from scripts. It will have a traditional murder mystery plot and be for 10 to 100 guests. There will also be a special Halloween version of it. Once we are finished, we will rename the existing mystery "Stairway To Heaven". Unfortunately, we have had to delay writing the baseball mystery called "Death On The Mound" for another month. Please let us know if you are interested in any of these new kits via email to info@merrimysteries.com and we will let you know when they are ready. Update: The new kit is ready now and it is called "Celebrity Celebrations".

• Our photo competition winner
• Feedback on our kits from an experienced mystery dinner party person
• Feedback on "Who Found The Treasure?"

Our photo competition winner

Sarah-Jane Marriott from New Zealand is our photo competition winner. She sent in a number of excellent photos from her "Murder In Outer Space" party (this mystery is no longer for sale). We are commencing a new competition with a closing date of 1 October 2001 (see photos.htm for details).

The photos shown below show the effort that Sarah-Jane and her husband went to in order to create a space-age atmosphere. She said her husband painted the pictures on the wall. He also made his computer costume, too, and was pleased with his screen-saver idea!

Sarah-Jane also sent in this feedback:

The party went really well, thanks! People made a real effort with the costumes. It was a great laugh.

It's a shame I didn't have more photos of the costumes of the other people, 'cos they were really fabulous. Dollar Man came with CDs round his neck, and two of the girls who didn't have a role assigned to them came as inter-galactic fairies! They were great!

Thanks again.
All the best

Sarah-Jane

Feedback on our kits from an experienced mystery dinner party person

Stephanie,

Hi there ! Sorry that it has been so long. It has been busy here at camp !

We ended up playing two of the mysteries that I bought, and both were ~heartily~ enjoyed by our students. We played "The Murder of the Great Chef" and "Poetic Justice". I myself participated in "The Murder of the Great Chef" and the youth really got into their characters. :-) The adult leader of "Poetic Justice" reported the same thing: that the kids really had a lot of fun with the characters that you had created and incorporated into the mystery.

As a player of many mysteries, I think one of the nice things about your mysteries is that, while each character has important and interesting things to add each round, they are not so bombarded with information (clues) that it is overwhelming to them. (I have sometimes found that happening with "How To Host A Murder" games.) Because you seem to find a "happy medium" with the amount of clue information each character is revealing in the rounds , the players could really enjoy being their characters and have fun with the role-playing, since everyone was not rushing to get a million facts onto the table. I think one of the really nice things about the mysteries is that they give the player enough guidance about their character, but also leave the person some room to embellish a little and "create" the character themselves during the party.

The mysteries were definitely very "solvable" when the players applied logic, and we had one or two players in each game that figured the mysteries out. That always makes a game more rewarding for the players, when they hear the explanation of the crime and go: "Oh, yeah ! That *does* make sense!". (I have played a couple of "How To Host A Murder" games where it was nearly impossible for the players to figure out the mystery through the use of deductive reasoning because the crime was just so bizarre. That frustrates some players in my experience.)

All in all, it was an excellent night ! Your games really helped enhance our party ! Thank you !

Sincerely,

Kirk Yenerall
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Feedback on "Who Found The Treasure?"

Hi- Our party in March went very well. Everyone enjoyed it. We decided to allow males to participate and it worked much better. It became more of a family event. Many people came and were content just to watch the performance. We have several pictures, but they didn't turn out well.

The weather was nice, so we did everything outside, except for the eating was set up as a buffet inside. We had everyone bring a dish to share and I also included a mystery dish. As people signed up for the party, there was a box with slips of paper with an ingredient on each. They could pick one and bring that item to the party. No one else knew what the final result would be. It was one of the recipes recommended through your site, a hot apple dessert from Chile. It was an easy dish to prepare on the spot.

People expressed interest in doing another mystery, so we will probably do another. We may be interested in the youth retreat program. Some people are interested in doing one of the children's mysteries for a child's party. I appreciate your updates and am excited about doing another mystery later this year. Thanks so much!

Sue Reisinger