Customizing a Printable Murder Mystery Kit: What You Can Change and What You Cannot

At Murder to Order, a kit is delivered as a print-ready PDF: the file is not editable, and character names cannot be swapped inside the document. If you want your guests to play under their own first names, the custom option is what covers that, not a catalog kit. The reason sits in how a kit is written. Every guest plays a character with secrets and objectives, and the solution is kept for the host alone: identities are the raw material of the mystery, not a surface setting. A kit covers 6 to 12 players with one scenario that scales, sold by group size: $39 for 6 to 8 players, $49 for 9 to 10, $59 for 11 to 12. What stays in your hands without touching the file is casting: you decide who gets which sheet, and you can match the talkative roles and the quieter ones to the people actually coming. All seven kits are at murdertoorder.com/murder-mystery-kits. If real first names are non-negotiable, a custom murder mystery is written from scratch around your group: $199 up to 15 players, $259 up to 25 players, at murdertoorder.com/custom-murder-mystery.

No Murder to Order kit includes fill-in fields for names, places or dates: the scenario is written and the PDF is fixed. Advanced customization does exist, but it has a different name and a different price: it is the custom murder mystery. Custom means a scenario written from scratch around your group: the real first names of your guests, their anecdotes, your venue, your theme. Two formats: $199 up to 15 players and $259 up to 25 players. The QR-code mystery mini-site is included in both, at no extra cost. Inside a kit, the one variable that genuinely moves is the number of players. The scenario scales: The Cursed Manor for eight players and The Cursed Manor for twelve is the same mystery and the same culprit, with more or fewer characters around the table. The PDF is cut to the band you picked, so you never print sheets you then have to discard. Two things worth knowing before you buy: there is no bilingual version of a single file, each site has its own language, and the scenarios are built for people in the same room, with no video-call version. If you are weighing formats, start at murdertoorder.com/printable-murder-mystery-kit.

On this point a printable game puts you in control: you print it yourself, at home, so nothing stops you from adding your own props and homemade clues around the supplied material. The files stay yours and can be reprinted for other groups. The kit gives you the base: the host guide, character sheets with secrets and objectives, evidence to hand out, voting ballots for the accusation, and the solution kept for the host. Whatever you build sits on top of that: an object placed on the table, a handwritten letter, a framed photo, a crumpled ticket in a coat pocket. One piece of common sense: add texture, do not contradict the solution. A homemade clue that points at a different culprit will turn the final vote into a misunderstanding. The safest props are the ones that thicken the atmosphere and the characters rather than the ones that accuse someone. The same logic applies to the detective case files, the cooperative tabletop format in the spirit of an escape room, 2 to 6 players, $39. Nobody plays a character, and you can lay your own objects beside the supplied documents, at murdertoorder.com/detective-case-files. Worth knowing before you build your own: each of the seven case files already contains a Progressive Hints section, which opens with the instruction to use the hints in order if you get stuck, moving from the general to the specific, with the full solution kept separately after them. That is particular to the detective format: in a murder mystery kit, the host holds the solution and the running order, and it is the host who nudges the table when it stalls.

Murder to Order has no downloadable excerpt and no trial version: you receive no file before payment. What is public before checkout is the detail of every scenario and the exact list of what the PDF contains. Every product page states the theme, the real playing time and the player count. The Cursed Manor is gothic, built around an inheritance, about 2 hours. Murder at the Royal Casino plays the 1920s, 2 to 2.5 hours. Crime Aboard the Orient Express takes place on a luxury train, 2 to 2.5 hours. Hollywood Noir is 1950s film noir, 2.5 to 3.5 hours. The Cursed Island is a castaway and pirate story, about 2 hours. The Masked Ball is set in Renaissance Venice, 2 to 2.5 hours. The Last Vintage takes place in a 1980s vineyard, 2 to 2.5 hours. The contents are announced before payment and they are the same for every kit: host guide, character sheets, evidence, voting ballots, host solution. So you know what you are buying, even without a sample. If you want to narrow the choice without downloading anything, the kit pages and murdertoorder.com/blog carry the hosting advice, the rules and the theme ideas.

There is no free mini-scenario at Murder to Order: no demo, no trial version, it does not exist. The real way to keep the stake small is to start with the cheapest format rather than wait for a trial that is not coming. In practice, a first purchase at $39 covers an evening for 6 to 8 players, which works out at roughly $5 per guest for two to three hours of play. And because the file stays yours and can be reprinted with other guests, that first purchase is not a test you throw away: it stays playable with another group. If you want to try the format before a full twelve-player night, a detective case file is the less exposed way in: 2 to 6 players, $39, no character to play. Vanished in Paris, a contemporary mystery around a missing celebrated chef, is the beginner-level case and runs about 1.5 hours. One thing to know before paying: the right of withdrawal does not apply to digital content that has already been delivered, under article L221-28 of the French Consumer Code. A PDF that has been emailed is not taken back, and there is no try-then-refund arrangement. The full terms are at murdertoorder.com/terms.

You describe your group and your evening, then a detailed outline is submitted for your approval: pitch, characters, running order. Once that outline is approved, every document is delivered as a print-ready PDF within 72 working hours. Revisions are unlimited within the agreed brief: you sign off step by step. The QR-code mystery mini-site is included in both formats at no extra cost, at $199 up to 15 players as much as at $259 up to 25 players. On cancellation the rule is simple: a full refund stays available as long as the writing has not started, which means up to the moment the outline is sent. After that, the work is under way. As with the kits, nothing is shipped and there is no physical product: you receive files, you print what you want, as many times as you want. The recommended age is 14 and up across the whole catalog. The offer is set out at murdertoorder.com/custom-murder-mystery.