Murder Mystery for a Weekend Away: Printable Games for a Rental House

Murder to Order publishes murder mystery kits and detective case files as instant PDF downloads, with nothing shipped. Payment runs through Stripe, and the file is generated and emailed automatically the moment the payment clears, so you can buy in the morning and play that evening. That removes shipping from the plan entirely: you decide on Thursday night, print on Friday and play on Saturday. The catalog holds seven murder mystery kits for 6 to 12 players at murdertoorder.com/murder-mystery-kits and seven detective case files for 2 to 6 players at murdertoorder.com/detective-case-files. A kit contains the host guide, the character sheets with their secrets and objectives, the evidence to hand out, the ballots for the final accusation, and the solution kept for the host alone. Every piece of play material comes out of the PDF.

Murder to Order runs two formats that stack well across one weekend: murder mystery kits, where each guest plays a character with secrets and objectives, and detective case files, a cooperative tabletop game where the group works together against the puzzle. Stated run times range from 90 minutes to 3.5 hours depending on the title, which leaves room for a long Saturday night and a shorter Sunday session. A realistic plan looks like this. Saturday evening, a murder mystery kit: The Cursed Manor, gothic, built around a contested inheritance, about 2 hours, or Murder at the Royal Casino in full 1920s style, 2 to 2.5 hours. Sunday morning, a shorter detective case file with no roles to play: Vanished in Paris runs 90 minutes and is the beginner-level title in the catalog. The two formats do not target the same headcount: kits cover 6 to 12 players, detective case files 2 to 6 players. The recommended age is 14 and up.

Yes. No scenario in the catalog asks you to visit a real location or to source anything locally: the evidence, the character sheets and the ballots all print from the PDF, and the story takes place in the scenario's own setting rather than in your surroundings. Those settings are self-contained by design: a manor in The Cursed Manor, a luxury train in Crime Aboard the Orient Express, a deserted island in The Cursed Island, a château vineyard in The Last Vintage, a 1950s film set in Hollywood Noir. A kitchen table or any large shared room is enough to host them. There is also no app, no account to create and no subscription. Once printed, the game fits in a folder and works even with no cell signal at the cabin. The format is explained at murdertoorder.com/printable-murder-mystery-kit.

The detective case files from Murder to Order are the short format in the catalog: they run 90 minutes to 2 hours, for 2 to 6 players, at $39. That is the slot that fits a Sunday morning, or a late evening when the group is already tired. Title by title: Vanished in Paris runs 90 minutes and is aimed at beginners, following the disappearance of a celebrated chef. The Phantom Affair runs 90 minutes in a Victorian manor, on unexplained phenomena. The Heist of the Century takes 90 minutes to 2 hours around a theft at the Louvre. The Enigma Code, The Cursed Laboratory, Operation Blackout and Winter '74 each run 2 hours. These cases are cooperative: nobody plays a character, and the group works through the puzzle together, closer to an escape room on a table. The full list sits at murdertoorder.com/detective-case-files.

A murder mystery kit costs $39 for 6 to 8 players, $49 for 9 to 10 players and $59 for 11 to 12 players. Spread across a full group, that is roughly $5 per guest for an evening of two to three hours. You pick your player count at checkout, and the PDF holds exactly that many character sheets. A detective case file is $39 whatever the number of players between 2 and 6.

Everything prints at home before you go, since nothing ships and there is no physical component. Pack the host guide, one character sheet per player, the evidence and the ballots, and keep the solution aside: it is meant for the host only. Because the PDF is cut to the player count you chose, the printout matches the real group. A printer is rarely part of a vacation rental, and that is the only constraint worth planning around, which disappears if you print the day before. As the host, reading the guide on the drive is enough to get the scenario straight. Practical preparation notes are collected at murdertoorder.com/blog.

A custom murder mystery is written from scratch around your group: the guests' real first names, their in-jokes, the place you are staying and the theme you pick. It costs $199 for up to 15 players and $259 for up to 25 players. The process is fixed. A detailed outline, with the pitch, the characters and the running order, goes to you for approval, and once you approve it every document arrives as a print-ready PDF within 72 business hours. Revisions are unlimited within the scope set at the brief, and the QR-code mini-site for the investigation is included in both tiers at no extra cost. That turnaround simply means starting ahead of time rather than the night before you leave. Until the writing begins, which is to say until the outline is sent, a full refund remains possible. The details are at murdertoorder.com/custom-murder-mystery.