Home›Team building
A team night
where somebody
is lying.
Not a trust fall and not a quiz. Six to twelve people get incomplete information, competing reasons to withhold it, and two hours to reach a decision anyway. Whatever your team is actually like under those conditions, you will find out by about nine o'clock.
For teams of six to twelve, any case works as a team night for $29 total, hosted by a team member who plays the victim. Above twelve, run multiple tables in parallel on different cases and compare verdicts, because a single game for more than twelve does not exist here yet.
It is a decision
under bad information.
It is worth separating the honest claim from the brochure claim. The brochure claim is that a murder mystery builds communication and trust. The honest claim is narrower and more useful: it puts a group into a situation where everybody holds a piece of the picture, several people have a reason not to share theirs, and a decision has to be made before anybody is comfortable.
That is not a metaphor for how work goes. It is a fairly exact description of it. What people do in that situation is informative, and it is informative whether or not you turn it into a session afterwards. The difference between a nice evening and a useful one is entirely whether somebody asks the group four questions at the end.
- Nobody presents. The single most common reason people dread a work social. There is no performing, no standing up and no volunteering.
- Seniority stops mattering. The most junior person in the room may hold the piece of evidence that decides it, and everybody has to go and ask them for it.
- It is not physical. Nobody is excluded by mobility, fitness or a dislike of being outdoors in a group.
- It works sober. Which matters more at a work event than at any other kind.
Four questions, ten minutes.
If you want the evening to be more than an evening, do this after the reveal, before people leave. It costs ten minutes and it is the entire difference.
- Who was believed, and why?Almost never the person with the best evidence. Usually the person who spoke with the most certainty. Worth saying out loud in a team that makes decisions in meetings.
- What did we decide too early?Most tables settle on a suspect inside twenty minutes and then spend ninety minutes interpreting everything to fit. Ask when that happened and who started it.
- Who did not get asked?There is always somebody holding evidence nobody thought to question. Ask the group why they were skipped. The answer is usually uncomfortable and usually familiar.
- What would have changed our mind?If the honest answer is nothing, that is the most useful finding of the night.
What exists, and what does not.
Straight answer: twelve is the cap on a single case, and a fifty person facilitated event is not a product yet. Competitors do sell one. If that is what you need this quarter, they can serve you better than we can and it would be dishonest to pretend otherwise.
What does work today, and works well, is parallel tables. Split thirty people into three tables of ten, give each table a different case, and let them run at the same time in the same room. Each table has its own host and its own verdict, and comparing the three at the end is genuinely better than one enormous game would have been. Three cases is $87.
- Parallel tables today. One case and one host per table of up to twelve, $29 each, running simultaneously.
- Give each table a different case. Same length, different story, and nobody can overhear the answer.
- Compare verdicts at the end. Five minutes per table on who they blamed and why. This is the part people remember.
- Or tell us what you need. The facilitated version is being built and the shape of it is not fixed yet.
Larger than twelve? Tell us the shape of it.
The facilitated version for larger groups is being built now. Leave an address and the number of people, and you will hear from a person rather than a sequence, with honest timing rather than a launch date we invented.
No newsletter, no sequence. We handle your address as set out in the privacy policy.
Teams, answered.
Do you do murder mystery team building events?
For teams of six to twelve, yes, today: any case in the catalogue runs as a team night for $29, hosted by somebody in the team who plays the victim. For groups larger than twelve there is no facilitated product yet. You can run several tables at once on different cases, or register interest in the facilitated version being built.
How many people can play at once?
Twelve per case. Above twelve the honest options are running multiple tables in parallel, each on its own case and each with its own host, and comparing verdicts at the end, or waiting for the facilitated version. A fifty person single game does not exist here and we are not going to sell you one.
Does it actually build anything, or is it just a party?
Both, and it is worth being precise about which. It is a genuinely good social night. As a development exercise it puts a team into a situation with incomplete information, competing incentives and a decision that has to be made anyway, and people behave the way they behave. What you get out of that depends entirely on whether somebody debriefs it afterwards.
Does it work for a remote team?
For six to eight over a video call, yes. Above eight, remote play gets noticeably flatter because a call only carries one conversation and the game runs on side conversations. The virtual play page sets out the setup and the limits.
What does it cost for a team?
$29 for a case, whatever the size of the table up to twelve. Two tables of ten is two cases, so $58. There is no per person pricing and no minimum.
Find out who
your team believes.
$29 a case, up to twelve people per table, delivered instantly. No per head pricing, no minimum, no quote to wait for.