The Locked Room Murder Mystery Game

Make your own Murder Mysteries!

What is this?

In The Locked Room Murder Mystery Game, you'll tell a story of mystery, murder, rumors, and disgrace. Collaboratively create a bunch of characters, mix them up in a situation ripe for murder, and revel in the detective's investigation. No player knows the answer to the mystery until the culprit is revealed by the game itself. Once you have the answer, comb through the journal of clues to make sense of this impossible crime.

• Turn-based gameplay makes each player an equal author
• Board game inspired rules provide surprises at every turn
• Plays great solo, with a large group, and anywhere in between

How to Play

The Locked Room Murder Mystery Game follows a format inspired heavily by Golden Age detective novels. The game moves through five phases as players write the chapters of their story.

• Fill the journal with potentially murderous characters in Meet the Suspects.
• Write chapters and leave behind clues before the murder in The Lead-Up.
• Learn who the victim is in The Locked Room Murder.
• Write chapters of the detective's pursuit of the truth in The Investigation.
• Learn who the culprit is and tie everything together in The Summation.

The phases each follow a set structure, with easy-to-learn rules that build on each other as the game goes on. The reference boards guide players through each phase, so you can focus on the story. 

The Case Files

Murder can happen at a rich recluse's art gallery, at a suburban summer festival, on an intercontinental train ride, or even at a conference devoted to the love of podcasting. These are the settings contained within the four case files included with The Locked Room Murder Mystery Game. Each case file brings to your game:

• A setting and situation to get your story started
• 20 mix & match character descriptions, relationships, and traits 
• 25 potential crime scene clues
• A unique cause of death table

When you start the game, you'll pick one of the case files from the box. You could also pick one from Locked Room Case Files Vol. 1, or write your own! 

During Meet the Suspects, you'll take turns drawing cards from the deck and adding a description, relationship, or trait to one of the characters. As you draw through the deck, you'll create a whole cast of suspects, each as likely to commit a murder as they are to be murdered in the coming tale. These suspects are arranged in a grid of dry-erase cards on the table. This grid is called the journal, and it serves as the game board for the rest of the game.

The Journal

Writing Chapters

In The Locked Room Murder Mystery Game, players don't take the role of any specific character in the story. Instead, they act like shared authors of a detective novel, mixing the different characters up into suspicious situations. You'll take turns writing chapters of the story by drawing a card, moving the game pieces around the journal, and describing a situation that some of the characters find themselves in.

From there you'll either narrate the events of the chapter yourself, or get into character to roleplay it with your fellow players. Once done, you'll add or update a clue in the journal. Since you don't know the culprit until the end, it's not clear how the sudden thunderstorm or muddy footprints will help the detective solve the mystery when you add them as clues, which emulates the suspense of reading a novel by Agatha Christie or John Dickson Carr.

The Killer

A game piece called the killer represents the threat of murder in your story. It bounces between the suspects in the journal every chapter during The Lead-Up and The Investigation, moving like the screensaver from a DVD player each time a player draws a card to write a chapter.

When you draw a card on your turn, you'll first check if it creates a full house in the tableau (3 cards of one rank, 2 of another). If it does, the game moves on to the next phase where the killer determines some very important information.

A full house during The Lead-Up moves the game to the eponymous Locked Room Murder. The suspect the killer sits on is revealed to be the murder victim. They're found dead in some impossible situation, a real locked room murder mystery!

You'll add clues based on the cards drawn and the case file that you're playing. If you're playing Death at a Podcast Convention, maybe you find the scandalous notes for the next podcast episode the victim was set to record. If you're playing Murder on a Train, you might find something incriminating about another suspect's luggage.

Once the murder has been described and the new clues get added to the journal, you continue drawing cards and writing chapters as the detective begins The Investigation, where you'll write more chapters to reveal more information about each of the clues from the previous phases.

The killer makes another big reveal when a full house comes during The Investigation. The suspect the killer sits on is revealed to be the culprit. They committed the grisly murder, and it's time for the detective to reveal everything in The Summation! This is the moment where the truth is revealed and the detective sits the characters down to explain how all the clues connect to each other. 

At that point, your task as players of the game and authors of the story is to tie together all the clues, moments, and secrets that you have created throughout the game. Now that you finally know the answer to the mystery, you can explain why Tony couldn't trust Astrid with a secret, and how the train's untimely breakdown proves Telemacus's guilt.

Case Files Vol. 1

If you add on the Locked Room Case Files Vol. 1 to your pledge, you'll get four additional case files to use in your games:

• Death in the Big City: When a city resident is found murdered in their apartment, can the detective find the murderer among their neighbors, coworkers, and commuters?
• Tragedy On Set: Big shot director, superstar actors, Hollywood's biggest budget yet! The shooting crashes to a halt when a body is found on set. It's up to the detective to find the culprit and rescue the much-awaited film.
• A Matter of Inheritance: It's Christmastime, so Walton George's manor is full of his friends and family. When his body is found, the surprising heir named in his will sends the entire family into chaos.
• Detective on Vacation: In desperate need of rest and relaxation, our detective gets out of town for a while. Work soon follows when a fellow vacationer is murdered, and the detective is the only one around who can solve the case.

Also included in Vol. 1 is the Inverted Mystery mini-expansion! This changes up the rules of the game to pay homage to shows like Columbo, where the murderer is revealed right at the beginning, and the story focuses on the battle of wits between detective and culprit. It's a whole new way to play, and is compatible with all of the existing case files.

Read the Rules

If you're like me, you like to check out the rules for a game to decide if you're interested in picking it up. The rulebook can be found here. Let me know what you think! 

The Team

Shipping

I will be handling the fulfillment as I've done with all of my previous campaigns. Backers will be charged after the campaign finishes when the games are nearly ready to ship. Below are my current shipping cost estimates. 

The Locked Room Murder Mystery Game will be the same size as Uneasy Lies the Head: Royal Edition, so I feel confident that I can ship everybody's games for these prices if I were to ship today. Since shipping and gas prices will likely be volatile for the foreseeable future, I will note any changes in the project updates if the need arises.

Human Made

Everything in The Locked Room Murder Mystery Game is made by humans. No AI has been used, nor will be used, at any stage of this project.