What you need
- Somewhere to sit six to twenty people
- A phone each, any kind, nothing to install
- Two and a half hours, plus food if you want it
- Optional: a costume rail and a bad playlist
Behind the counter
Hosting
What a night involves, from picking a title to finding out who did it at the same moment as your guests.
How a night runs
A few weeks out
1Pick a title and a date
Set the night. You do not need a final headcount yet, and you will not need one later either.
Two weeks out
2Send the invitations
One link goes to everybody. Guests claim a character from what is unclaimed and get a booklet with a costume note. You can see who has claimed what without seeing anyone’s secrets.
The day before
3Lay out the box
Put the cards and evidence where they need to be. About twenty minutes, most of it filling envelopes.
On the night
4Press play
Everyone opens the app at the table. Rounds advance when you say so, and your own evidence lands when theirs does.
The last half hour
5Accusations
Everyone names somebody and says why. Then the reveal, which you are seeing for the first time along with everyone else.
What you do not need
- To read the solution in advance
- To narrate, referee, or run a timer
- To know the final headcount when you invite people
- To sit out so everybody else can play
The things hosts ask first
Two people cancel on the day
Nothing breaks. Mark them absent and the evidence they were carrying redistributes to people who turned up. The mystery still resolves to exactly one killer.
Somebody has never done this before
Most guests have not. Booklets say what you know, what you want, and what to keep quiet about. Nothing to memorise and no acting training required.
Nobody works out who did it
That happens and it is a legitimate ending. The reveal lands the same either way, and the argument on the way home is usually the best part.
You have played this box before
The culprit is picked again at the start of every session, and the evidence changes with it. A second run is a different mystery.
Your group would rather not do costumes
Then do not. The costume note is a suggestion. Run it as a game night instead and it asks much less of everyone.
Someone arrives an hour late
They claim a character that is still free and get caught up on the rounds they missed.
Ready to set a date?
Pick a title and send the invitations whenever you are ready.