Hosting a MortalCase game for 15 to 20 people is a room problem before it's a casting problem. Once that many guests arrive, the evening depends on how many conversations can happen at once, whether the evidence is somewhere everyone can reach, and how fast you can absorb the cancellations that turn up on the day. Here's how to set all 3 of those up before the doorbell goes, and what to say in the first 5 minutes.
A MortalCase game runs 2.5–3 hours and gives every person in the room the same job for the whole of it, which is rarer at a family gathering than it sounds. The work is all in what you do beforehand: which game you buy, who you cast as the 8 Primary Characters, and what you say in the first 5 minutes. Get those right and the shy 14-year-old and the uncle who talks over everybody both have a good night.
You'll still have a party on the evening you didn't plan for. A guest cancels at 6pm, 1 player talks over everyone, and the schedule slips past the point where anybody is watching the clock. Only a short list of things has to stay intact: the 8 required Primary Characters, the murder order, the evidence, the votes. Everything else can bend. Here's how to cover a missing role, restart a room that has gone quiet, and buy back time without cutting the case in half.
Most advice for anxious guests is reassurance, which is the least useful thing you can offer. This is the practical version for a MortalCase party: what to tell someone before they commit, how to cast them so the role works with them instead of against them, and how to build an arrival, a break, and an exit that need no explaining. It also covers what you can't promise, because saying that out loud is kinder than pretending otherwise.
Cast by personality and the story can land on the guest least likely to turn up. Reliability decides who carries the 8 required Primary Characters; comfort decides the rest. Here's the casting method that survives a cancellation 2 days before the party, keeps a quiet guest from being demoted to an optional role, and stops private character material from landing in a shared folder. It ends with the record you keep so the swap you make on Friday still works on Saturday.
The purchase of a MortalCase murder mystery game or prop grants you a limited, non-exclusive license to use the game for personal, non-commercial purposes. Any other use of the game or prop, including but not limited to public performance or distribution, is strictly prohibited.
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