A murder mystery dinner, starring your friends.
Answer nine questions about your guests. Get character booklets, clue cards, a menu, a grocery list and a host guide that runs the night. Print it tonight, or run it from your phone. $24.99 for the table. Under $5 a guest.
Answer nine questions about your guests. Print it tonight, or run it from your phone. $24.99 for the table. Under $5 a guest.
“We had a BLAST! Can’t wait for the next one. Christmas maybe?”
Brad, a suspect at our October 10 party.
You’re in on it.
Every guest gets a sealed envelope. Inside is who they are tonight, what they want, and the one thing they are hiding. One of them did it, and knows it. The rest of the table has three courses to work out which one. And you’re the one who handed them the envelopes.
What you do
1. Answer nine questions
The date, the theme, and who is coming. A line or two about each guest, if you like.
2. Meet your cast
See who plays whom, and why, before you pay. Once the kit is written, every kit gets one free rewrite: same guests, same answers, a new mystery.
3. Print it tonight
Plain paper, any printer, Letter or A4. The first page tells you what to print and how many. Or run it from your phone.
4. Open the door
One guide runs the night and tells you what to say. You get a character too. You’re a suspect, not a waiter.
This is what it looks like
when it works.
This was our party, October 10. A 1920s casino called the Velvet Ace, and a boss who never finished his rounds. One guest cancelled that week. Another took his part, and nothing had to be rewritten. Poker at one table, roulette at the other, short ribs over mashed potatoes. The last of us left at 4:30 in the morning.
“We had the best time!”
Elizabeth, a suspect at our October 10 party.
It started with a box from the ’80s. When Jill was little, her parents threw a murder mystery dinner party, and the kids never forgot it. Years later the box was missing half its pieces, so we wrote our own by hand: a 1969 tour bus party. Nightcapers wrote the Velvet Ace, the same way it will write yours.
Nobody has homework
A booklet is eight short pages. Nobody memorizes anything. Nobody has to make up a back story. They read who they are, put on something from their own closet, and turn up.
Shy guests get a part with lines to read and a reason to be at the table. That’s often the night they talk the most. You tell us who’s shy.
The week before is half of it
Every guest gets their character by email, a week out. That is when the group chat starts. Who are you. What are you wearing. Why does yours say not to trust me. You started that. Nine questions, a week ago.
Dinner is in it
Three courses, one for each round. A recipe card for each. A grocery list worked out from the recipes and scaled to your table. The cooking is done before the first envelope opens.
“Man that was so much fun! The food was fantastic.”
Steve, who played the doorman, a suspect at our October 10 party.
What prints
Twelve pieces, all of them on paper you already own.
- Invitations, to print or to email
- A character booklet for every guest
- Clue cards, three for every guest, one a round
- The evidence sheet
- The props list, with what to make each prop from
- Ballots
- The host guide
- The menu
- The grocery list
- Name tags
- Recipe cards
- The run sheet, the whole night on one page
Would rather not print all that? Print the envelopes and run the rest from your phone.
The clues add up. We checked.
The mystery comes first.
Every suspect has a motive, a secret, and somewhere they were. Every clue card has one job. We check that the murderer can be found, and that everyone else can be cleared, before any character is written.
Someone cancels.
Every kit marks which characters can be dropped and which one you play instead. The guide tells you who can be dropped and what to do.
First names,
and nothing else.
A character can carry your guest’s first name. Nothing is written about a real person’s health, family, money, sexuality, religion, immigration status, or past relationships. Every page is checked against your no-go list before the kit ships.
Be someone else for a night.
Adults don’t get many chances to play. A costume from the back of the closet, a name that isn’t yours, and a secret to keep for three courses. You’ll be surprised who shows up.
Our October 10 guests, dropped into a speakeasy by AI. The real room is up the page.
Halloween is a Saturday this year.
Three themes, ready to go. Order by Friday, October 23 to have characters out a week before.
Before you ask
How many people?
Six to twelve, and that counts you.
Do I need a special printer?
No. Any home inkjet or laser, on plain Letter or A4.
My friends do not all know each other.
Good. Everyone arrives as someone else, with questions to ask.
What if I have never done this?
The host guide opens with a page called Start here. After that it tells you what to say at every turn of the night.
More notes from the table are on the blog.
Seal the envelopes.
Nine questions, and you see your whole cast before you pay.
$24.99 for the whole table. Under $5 a guest.
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