Murder mystery party rules, explained simply

Never played a murder mystery party? The rules fit in a few lines. The rest is your character, your secrets and your talent for lying... or for catching liars.

The idea

A crime has been committed. Each player plays a character linked to the victim. Everyone has secrets, everyone has something to hide, but only one player is guilty, and they know it. Everyone else's goal: find out who, how and why.

Rule 1: keep your file to yourself

Each player gets a personal file: their story, their evening hour by hour, their secret, what they know about the others, their goals. You never show your file. You can tell part of it, twist it, or stay silent.

Rule 2: who may lie?

• Everyone may lie to protect their secrets.
• But only the killer may lie about the crime itself.
• The questioning cards let you force a player to answer one question truthfully. Only the killer may still lie at that moment.

Rule 3: you decide what to do with your clues

Through the evening, everyone receives case files: statements, photos, records, messages. You can show them, read them aloud, trade them, or keep them secret. A file shown at the wrong moment can get you wrongly accused.

The three acts

1. Act I: introducing the characters and discovering the crime.
2. Act II: the investigation. New files arrive, people question each other, stories are cross-checked.
3. Act III: the revelations. The last files land and secrets come out.

The host reads the texts from the host's book between acts and hands out the new files.

The final accusation

Each player secretly writes on the accusation sheet: the killer, the motive and one piece of evidence. Then everyone reads their accusation aloud. The killer accuses someone too: they lie one last time.

Who wins?

The host then opens the solution, kept in a separate file, and reads what really happened. Points reward the right killer, the right motive, the evidence quoted and the secret goals achieved. The killer scores if they managed to get someone else accused.

Good manners

• Listen to whoever is speaking.
• Stay in character as much as you can.
• No cheating: no peeking at someone else's file.

To see a full evening, read our How to play page, then choose your case: The Vernier Case or La Queimada du Pazo.