A gothic kit for an Old Town room
The Cursed Manor is the obvious match: Noirval Manor, November 1887, a dead man behind a locked door, three keys for a single cabinet and a family of heirs waiting for their hour. Fifty pages, twelve two-page character packs, twenty-four exhibits released folder by folder from A to F.
The atmosphere is gothic and the solution is entirely rational: there is no ghost anywhere in the file. It plays from six to twelve players plus a host who does not play, at $39.90 whatever the head count. The four kits are on the murder mystery kits page.
A cold case for a winter evening
When there are four of you and nobody wants to host, take a cooperative case file instead. The Winter of '74 fits a January night: the Grand Hotel des Neves, 12 January 1974, Sylvie Berthaud, twenty-two, a seasonal worker who vanished, the file reopened in April 2024.
Twelve exhibits, one cipher whose key is computed from three wage slips, two clocks that do not agree, two and a half to three and a half hours, nineteen pages to print. No roles, no host, one to seven investigators, everyone on the same side of the table.
A flat full of festival guests
August brings people who arrive at odd hours and leave the next morning, which is the one thing a kit handles badly: the twenty minutes of silent reading at the start are load-bearing, and a guest who misses them spends the first act catching up.
So if arrivals are staggered, run a case file, which anyone can join by picking up an exhibit. If you can get eight people in a room at a fixed hour, run the kit and say the start time twice when you invite them.
Printing, and the dark afternoons
A4, single-sided, at 100 percent: nothing to rescale, since the files are composed for A4. Colour renders the photographed documents better and black and white stays perfectly legible, because no deduction anywhere depends on a shade.
One genuine tip for winter evenings in a tenement: light the table properly. These are documents you read closely, sometimes handwriting, sometimes small figures in a register, and a single overhead bulb four metres up is not enough. A lamp on the table changes the evening.
Buying ahead of a busy month
Prices are in US dollars, $39.90 for a kit and $39 for a case file, $49 for The Phantom Affair, and nothing is shipped. An email brings a personal code after payment; you download the file from the portal.
The code waits indefinitely until you first use it, then stays valid one week from that first opening rather than from the purchase. Buy in July for an evening in August if you like: the clock only starts when you open it. The full catalogue of cases is on the detective case files page.
Frequently asked questions
Which file suits a gothic Edinburgh flat?+
The Cursed Manor: Noirval Manor in November 1887, a locked door, three keys for one cabinet and a family of heirs. Fifty pages, twenty-four exhibits, six to twelve players. The atmosphere is gothic and the solution is rational, with no ghost.
What if guests arrive at different hours?+
Choose a cooperative case file rather than a kit. A kit opens with twenty minutes of silent reading that everyone needs, while a case file lets a latecomer pick up an exhibit and join the reasoning immediately.
Can I buy weeks before the party?+
Yes. The personal code waits indefinitely until first used, and then stays valid one week from that first opening rather than from the purchase date. Buying a month ahead costs you nothing in access time.
