Nothing to mime, everything to read
The activity is reading, comparing and talking. No scene is improvised, nothing is acted, and no guest is put on the spot. The characters are adults of every age and no violence is shown: there is a victim, a set of documents and an investigation.
A guest who says they are not a games person almost always means they do not want to perform. That is worth saying out loud when you invite them, because this format asks nothing of the kind. The four files are on the murder mystery kits page.
Reading comfort, which decides the evening
The files are composed for A4 at 100 percent with a legible body size. If someone needs larger, a print shop can enlarge the pages to A3: the proportions are identical, so nothing is cut off.
Two other things matter more than the choice of title. Print in colour, because the exhibits are photographed documents and colour makes them noticeably clearer. And put a lamp on the table. No deduction anywhere depends on a shade, but everything depends on being able to see.
A cooperative case if nobody wants a role
If some guests would rather not hold a character at all, change format rather than persuade them. A case file has no roles and no host: everyone is on the same side against the documents, one to seven investigators.
The Winter of '74 suits a calm table: a cold case at the Grand Hotel des Neves, 12 January 1974, a seasonal worker who vanished, the file reopened in April 2024. Twelve exhibits, two and a half to three and a half hours, nineteen pages. The catalogue is on the detective case files page.
Pacing, and taking breaks
A kit runs about three hours, but nothing forces you to run them end to end. The host opens the exhibits at set minutes and decides when to announce them, so a twenty-minute pause between two acts breaks nothing: the documents already opened stay on the table.
A cooperative case is looser still. Nothing is timed at all, so a group can stop after two hours and come back the next day. The access code stays valid one week from its first opening, which covers a weekend comfortably.
Seating, and the room
You need seats for the players plus the host, and a corner where two people can talk quietly. If the room forces everyone to stay seated, say at the start that guests may call someone over rather than talking across the table.
The run of a birthday evening, hour by hour, is on the murder mystery birthday party page. Also keep the exhibit folders off the dining table, on a sideboard within reach of the host. A stained exhibit before the third act is evidence lost for the evening, and at this kind of gathering there are usually glasses everywhere.
Frequently asked questions
Can the pages be printed larger?+
Yes. The files are composed for A4, and a print shop can enlarge them to A3 with nothing cut off, since the two formats have identical proportions. Printing in colour and putting a lamp on the table help just as much.
What if some guests do not want a character?+
Use a cooperative case file instead of a kit: no roles, no host, one to seven investigators reading the same documents together. The Winter of '74 suits a calm table, at two and a half to three and a half hours.
Can we take a break in the middle?+
Yes. The host decides when to announce each act, so a twenty-minute pause changes nothing and the opened documents stay on the table. A cooperative case file is not timed at all and can even be finished the next day.
