Customer Reviews

How to Host a Murder: The Watersdown Affair

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This was the first murder mystery game in which my 30-something friends and I had ever participated. Overall, the night was a hit. But much preparation is required on the part of the host for it to be a success. We actually did a few things which I believe made the evening a success: 1) I invited friends that were more extraverted and would "ham" up getting in costume and acting out their parts; 2) I talked to others who had played the game before and got a sense of how the rounds were to be played. I then gave a "role play" to my guests of how the "rounds" were to be acted out; 3) We had a gift certificate as a prize for the winner whose accusation best matched the solution; 4)I changed the schedule from the instructions and started the party earlier in order to serve dinner earlier and not have hungry guests; and finally 5) we did not play a "round" at dinner, but instead took a break and just had regular conversation to break up the evening. I do agree that it's not as clear as one would expect as to "who done it." However, this was because much of the facts which the game instructs each character to try to conceal will remain concealed unless those characters are pressed for information by the others. The game instructs you not to lie, just to try to conceal certain facts. I recommend telling your guests to phrase questions requiring only "yes" or "no" answers (a "cross-examination" method) in order to get those facts out. For example, rather than saying, "Why were you meeting with the gardener at 4pm?" instead you could make an inference and ask, "Isn't it true that you met with the gardener in order to conspire to murder the decedent?". I hope this review is helpful.

This was the first How To Host a Murder my husband and I had ever been to or hosted. Every thing you need comes in the box if you have a few willing friends. As hosts, we acted as the maid and butler, just in case at the last minute some one could not come. Our friends came in and stayed in charater through out the evening. Every one did a great job with costumes and attitude. I feel that hosting the dinner and being part of the game would have been difficult. While preparing and serving the dinner, my husband and I missed alot of the conversation and clues. I think that next time, and there will be other murders at this house, as host we will take a role but, make the dinner much simpler or possibly even have carry out or heavy hor d'eours. No one knew until the end of the game and the solution read who had actually "done it". Every one made an accusation, but no one chose the murderer. What a great way to spend and evening! My daughter is already getting excited about doing a teen mystery for her birthday party. My only problem is now that we know who the murderer is it will be hard to use the game again.

Please read my review for Last Train from Paris to get an idea to this game. Anyways, this episode is relatively simple actually (probably because I tackled the later episodes first,) there are less clues for each character to reveal, and not very complicated. So my recommendation is for those that have been introduced to this game, or are just starting to grasp the mechanics of this game. It is still fun to play with your friends, but relatively short compared to the other episodes.

My advice is that host(s) would plan a part for yourself, and serve dinner during break between round 2 and 3. It helps people to absorb the clues they've been given, and its a lot of fun to see the guests still discussing the game while they are eating. This way hosts won't have to miss any important information. Enjoy!

We have played several of these games. ...The reason people have trouble figuring the murder out is because the designers of the Watersdown Affair trick the players. We had to apologize for the evening to our guests. The How to Host a Murder games are not nearly as witty (in terms of language or literary and historical allusions), entertaining, or logical as the games produced by other companies. The designers use transparent red herrings to mask poorly thought out motives and clumsy methods. With the How to Host a Murder series, it is impossible to form a hypothesis and actually test it out with questions (which is the point and the fun of mystery games) because players are forced to answer "I don't know" to many, many questions. By keeping whodunit a secret from the murderer until the game is over, the designers had to leave open the possibility, in any player's handbook, that that player could be the murderer. Therefore, everyone's character must be ambiguous. This means that you can't embellish your character (another aspect of mystery games that make them fun) without risk of taking it in the wrong direction. If you know your parameters (you did it; you didn't do it -- some games by other companies even provide clues about how to act), you can form a coherent story about yourself and truly get in character. The How to Host a Murder approach prevents people from forming coherent stories about themselves, let alone others, and no one can really piece together what happened and why. If I wanted a game that involves chance guessing, I'd be playing Battleship.

This is my favorite mystery party of the series. All of the characters are so easy to get into, and they've got enough secrets to keep a party going for hours. No one in my group guessed the murderer, but we all had so much fun interrogating each other all night. I highly recommend this to anyone who won't be offended by the slightly bawdy aspects of some of the characters and clues.

The Watersdown Affair was a good way to spend a rainy evening. It was hilarious to see the various creative costume ideas as each guest arrived for dinner. The menu was great fun to prepare, selecting each dish according to what would have been eaten in the English Countryside at the time. The only complaint I have is that the murderer was revealed to one player (the murderer) before the end of the game. This was inconsistent with other "How to Host a Murder" episodes that I have played in the past. This ruined that person's ability to vie for the prize for solving the murder at the end of the evening.

This is the third How to Host a Murder game I have participated in, and by far not the most enjoyable. The facts were vaque, and the motives unclear. When it came to making accusations, every character was a fair guess. It was fun, and my guests had a good time, but as far as the plot went, there are better ones. I suggest The Maiming of the Shrew. Outright halirity...

This was the first of the "How to Host..." murder mysteries in which I participated. I love a good Agatha Christie mystery and I felt like I dove into one during the "Watersdown" Affair. I co-hosted this with another woman. She had the larger house, but lacked fine china. I brought my china along. By doing this and such other things we maintained a high elegance factor. That made it all the more fun. The costumes people chose were a riot. Don't forget thrift stores for costume finds. You may have gone to dinner parties, but there's nothing like doing this for a life experience that you won't forget.

Eight old friends gathered at our bed and breakfast, properly attired to attend the banquet hosted by Sir Roger Watersdown. What followed were several hours of intrigue, laughs and a jolly good time!
The "How To Host a Murder" series of games are great fun! We have hosted several and this is one of the best. The character development is thorough and the plot thickens with each revelation.
I would recommend this game for a full evening of laughs and fun.

I got the idea off of The Office. It was hilarious and I wanted to try it out. My friends and I were at a gameboard store and we saw this and found out it had the same concept as the one played in the television show. I bought one as soon as I could, episode 1, and anticipated its arrival. Planning was the most fun for me. I put all the characters name in a a 'go fish' pile and chose a random person for each one of my friends. It says that it's meant for four guys and four girls but we had seven girls and a gay guy friend and it was HILARIOUS. If people really get into it, you will be laughing for hours. The dinner ideas they have are rather expensive...veal?! We just had a potluck of cookies and chips and delicious goodies and it was perfect. If you are going to play, make sure EVERYONE plays in costume, it's not the same without it. This episode required a british accent, but good luck keeping in character without laughing. As far as the contents of the game goes, once you get started it's pretty much straight forward. You have secret information about one person and they secret information about another. You have to be creative in ways of accusing them and that can be the most fun part. The CD it comes with is slow and annoying so I recommend just reading the script that comes with it in place of the CD. As for guessing, it was actually pretty hard! One or more people I believe got it right. But we have many more episodes to play, and believe me, we are playing every episode...this is the best kind of party you can throw! Good luck!