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Ten people.
Now it is a room, not a table.
Ten is the point where hosting changes. Not harder, but different: the table stops being one conversation and becomes two or three, and the quiet guests can disappear into the noise if nobody is watching for it. The app handles the case. This page is about the room.
Yes, ten works. Every case runs to twelve, so ten leaves the six core characters plus four flexible roles. At ten the table naturally splits into side conversations, which is good for the game and means the host should plan seating and use the app's round structure to pull the room back together.
The room stops behaving like a table.
Between eight and ten something shifts. Ten people cannot hold one conversation across a dinner table, so they stop trying and form clusters. That is not a failure. Clusters are where private deals get made and where somebody's story quietly changes. What it does mean is that the host has a job the app cannot do for you, which is noticing who has not spoken in twenty minutes.
- Expect two or three conversations. Do not fight it. The evidence rounds on the shared screen pull everybody back to one focus every fifteen minutes or so.
- Watch for the guest who has gone quiet. At six this is impossible. At ten it happens. The fix is one line: ask them, in front of everybody, what they think of somebody else's story.
- Somebody will not read their brief properly. At ten, one person always skims. Their phone holds it the whole night, so tell the table at the start that they can reread it any time.
- Volume. Ten people plus a television is loud. Turn the case audio up before people arrive, not after.
Where you put people decides who talks.
This is the highest leverage twenty seconds of the night and almost nobody uses it. You know which of your friends already talk to each other constantly. Separate them.
- Split the pairs. Couples and best friends across the table from each other, not beside. They will talk to each other all night otherwise, and their two characters probably have nothing to do with each other.
- Put the shy guest between two generous talkers. Not between two quiet ones, and not at the end.
- Do not seat by character. It is tempting to sit the two conspirators together. It kills the reveal.
- Nobody with their back to the screen. Everything the case shows is shared evidence. A guest who has to turn around for every reveal will stop turning around.
Cases with room for ten agendas.
These carry the extra four without padding: an institution, a workplace or a large household, where ten people plausibly all have something at stake.
Every one of the 26 cases runs at 10. See the whole catalogue →
10 players, answered.
Can you do a murder mystery party with 10 people?
Yes. Every case in the catalogue runs from six to twelve players, so at ten you have six core characters and four flexible roles, all with their own secrets. The host plays the victim and is not counted in the ten.
Do we need a table big enough for ten?
No. Ten people do not need to be seated at once, and many hosts run it standing with food out. What ten people do need is to be able to see one shared screen, so put the television where everybody has a line of sight to it.
How do you stop people being left out at ten?
Seat the quiet guests between talkers, not next to each other, and use the shared evidence rounds as a reset. When the screen turns over a new piece of evidence, ask a guest who has not spoken recently what they make of it. That is the whole technique.
Is ten too many for a first murder mystery party?
It is a bigger job than six, but not a harder one, because the app runs the case either way. If it is your first time hosting, the difference is worth ten minutes of seating planning rather than any extra preparation on the case itself.
Book the night.
Not the actors.
Pick your case, send the invitations, and say nothing else. $29, instant delivery, and the access code is in your inbox before your guests have replied.