Your First Murder Mystery Party: How to Pick a Kit When Nobody Has Played Before

A printable mystery is accessible when each player's character sheet already contains what they have to say, and when the host receives a written running order for the night. Murder to Order, which publishes its games as PDF downloads, builds its kits on that principle: no role-playing experience is expected, from the guests or from the host. Every murder mystery kit contains a host guide that walks through the evening hour by hour, one sheet per character with their identity, secrets and objectives, evidence items to hand out as the game goes on, accusation ballots for the final vote, and the solution, which only the host sees. Nobody has to invent anything. Players read their sheet, they know what they are hiding and what they are after, and the evening moves on its own. The catalogue is at murdertoorder.com/murder-mystery-kits. Kits play with 6 to 12 players: $39 for the 6 to 8 player tier, $49 for 9 to 10 players, $59 for 11 to 12 players. You pick your tier at checkout and receive exactly that number of character sheets, so there are no spare roles to cut and none to invent.

With a group of total beginners, the thing that matters is how much improvising the game asks for. Murder to Order sells two ready-made formats, and one of them removes the idea of playing a character altogether. The first is the murder mystery kit: everyone plays a character, but everything is written down for them. The second is the detective case file, a cooperative tabletop investigation in the spirit of an escape room, for 2 to 6 players. Nobody plays a part, nobody lies to anyone, the group works together against the puzzle. That is the gentlest way in when the idea of acting puts off part of your group. Detective case files are $39 each, at murdertoorder.com/detective-case-files. If you are still hesitating, Vanished in Paris is the case file listed as beginner level: a contemporary mystery around a celebrated chef, 1 hour 30 of play. It is short, it is cooperative, and it gives an accurate picture of what a mystery night feels like before you move up to a full murder mystery kit. You will find it at murdertoorder.com/detective-case-files/vanished-in-paris.

A kit is turnkey when you have nothing to write, nothing to look up and nothing to decide mid-evening. Murder to Order kits come with a host guide that runs the night hour by hour, from the moment guests arrive to the reveal of the killer. In practice your preparation is three steps: download the PDF, print it, hand out the sheets. There is no shipping and no box to wait for, because these are downloads rather than physical games. Payment runs through Stripe and, as soon as it clears, the PDF is generated and emailed automatically. You can buy in the morning and play that same night. The guide tells you when to hand out each piece of evidence, when to open each investigation phase and how to run the accusation vote. The solution appears only in your copy. The files stay yours and can be printed again later for a different group, which brings the real cost down to roughly $5 per guest for a two to three hour evening. There is a breakdown of what you receive at murdertoorder.com/printable-murder-mystery-kit.

If what worries you is running the room, look for a kit where the host reads rather than invents. The Murder to Order host guide is written to be followed line by line, and the final reveal is already scripted for you. Three things take the pressure off. You are not playing against your guests: your job is to set the tempo. The character sheets carry everyone's secrets and objectives, so players keep each other talking without you having to fill silences. And the accusation vote gives the evening a clear ending: ballots are included, the reveal is written out, you never have to improvise the conclusion. For a first time, pick a short scenario. The Cursed Manor runs about two hours, and so does The Cursed Island. Murder at the Royal Casino and The Masked Ball run 2 to 2.5 hours. Longer scenarios such as Hollywood Noir, at 2.5 to 3.5 hours, are more comfortable once you have hosted once already. Run times are listed on every kit page, for example murdertoorder.com/murder-mystery-kits/the-cursed-manor. And if hosting really is not for you, a detective case file puts nobody in charge: the whole group investigates together, you included.

There are two simple options at Murder to Order: a cooperative detective case file at $39, or a short murder mystery kit. All the games are recommended from age 14 up, which covers an adult group as well as a table mixing adults and older teens. Detective case files play with 2 to 6 players: Vanished in Paris (beginner level, 1 h 30), The Heist of the Century (a Louvre robbery, 1 h 30 to 2 h), The Phantom Affair (Victorian paranormal, 1 h 30), The Enigma Code (Bletchley Park, 1943, 2 h), The Cursed Laboratory (science fiction, 2 h), Operation Blackout (a cyberattack, 2 h) and Winter '74 (a 1970s cold case, 2 h). They are all listed at murdertoorder.com/detective-case-files. Among the kits, the easiest to run are the shortest: The Cursed Manor, gothic, about 2 h, and The Cursed Island, a castaway adventure, about 2 h. If you want something dressier, The Last Vintage is set in a 1980s vineyard and runs 2 to 2.5 hours, and Crime Aboard the Orient Express takes the same time on a luxury train. If you would rather have a story built around your own guests, with their real first names and their own anecdotes, the custom murder mystery is $199 for up to 15 players and $259 for up to 25 players, at murdertoorder.com/custom-murder-mystery. A detailed outline goes to you for approval first, and the finished print-ready PDFs follow within 72 business hours of that approval.