How It Works
How many friends and family members can play?
The sweet spot for completing our murder mystery aligns with groups of 2-4 people. You can certainly use more people, or less, but understand this may make the murder mystery more difficult. Using more than the suggested number people may be able to help you with grey areas, but could also make things move along slower. When there are too many people focusing on one thing, there is more of a chance for teammates who do not contribute work or are just a distraction to the rest of the team. Don’t let this discourage you though Sherlock At Homes has had groups with one person in addition to groups larger than 4 complete the mystery in a timely manner. Our team has developed a list of hints that can keep the mystery moving along if your team of investigators finds themselves stuck at any point in time.
Remember, groups larger than 4 can break into separate teams to compete against one another. Many of our customers decide to do this so they can compete against others in their group in a friendly competition.
How long does the mystery take?
It is hard to estimate how long one group will take unless they are laser focused on the mystery from beginning to end. Groups of 2 should finish in 2-4 hours. This time frame is subject to change if you use the hints page to accelerate your mystery, or if your group is not staying focused. You can always pick up on it tomorrow, or next week if you really want, so don’t feel that you need to be chopping away at it for 2-4 hours straight.
Everything needed to conduct your murder mystery:
The nice part about this at home murder mystery is that you don’t need much in order to solve the mystery once you’ve made an account and paid for our product. Our mystery requires:
- basic research on the internet (phone or computer)
- a cell phone with basic text messaging capabilities
- one accessible email
- printer (optional)
- TV, HDMI, Laptop (optional, but improves group’s vision of murder mystery)
**please please please ask questions or google how to use an HDMI for your experience**
More about your investigation
After signing up to become an investigator for our murder mystery there are a few pages of information to look over, organize, and get familiar with. The Introduction will drop you into the murder mystery with a story and more explanation to how you conduct the mystery. The introduction also has an example clue that will give you a better idea with the information you receive and where you go next.
In addition to the introduction you will also need to check out the suspect page where the background information of each suspect is displayed. This is what helps you narrow down the potential killers and ultimately solve whodunnit. The detective notes will also have key information pertaining to the murder. Here you will find 50+ clues, some of which are dummy clues.
It’s your job to investigate each location, and the closer look items that pertain to the location. Once solving each locations clues and their closer look items, you should be left with one final murderer.
Remember, most of the 50 clues will lead you in the wrong direction. This goes the same for the closer look items. Our team made it so you cannot just read through each clue or closer look item and solve the mystery. You must only read into the information that you discover within the mystery. Clues that you solve will tell you where to look next, or what needs investigated. If this doesn’t make sense now, it will by the end of the introduction, so don’t worry!
Hints & Answers to check work or speed things up
If it were too easy, the online murder mystery would not be fun. This goes the same for being too difficult. This is why we included a cheat sheet where you can check in at any point in time to keep things moving along. The Hints & Answers sheet essentially controls your difficulty level. If you would like the mystery to come with greater ease be sure to check out this page before moving on to the next clues. Otherwise, take on the challenge and don’t use the help until you think you’ve finished!
The Hints & Answers page will not be direct and just hand you an answer. You will be able to read the top hint or two before getting exactly what it is to come out. Depending on the complexity of the clue, you may receive more or less hints. Some have 5-10 hints, and others only have one or two.
-The expert investigators probably will not use the hints & answers page very much.
-Those looking for an intermediate level of difficulty will probably use this page a handful of times.
-The beginners, or groups looking for a simple at home murder mystery may check into the Hints & Answers page as frequently as needed.
The Final Verdict
When you get to the point where you are confident in your whodunnit you can follow the link labeled The Final Verdict. The content found on this page will outline the entire crime to see if your investigation led you to the murderer, or if they had a chance to escape.
