A murder mystery dinner · Christmas Eve 1927

A Death at Hollins Hall

Snow has closed the lanes and the candles are lit on the tree. Bertie Locke came to buy Hollins Hall tonight; before dinner he drinks from his silver cup and falls dead. Everyone at the table would lose something by the sale.

6 to 12 guests
About 2 hours
Host plays too
US Letter or A4

Set up your print

Pick how many are coming. The page numbers and the run sheet stay the same at every size, so you can change your mind later.

The number of guests includes you, the host. Roles beyond that number are greyed out and not in play.

Guests

Paper

US Letter A4

Optional · before you print

Party details and cast

Fill in what you know. It appears on the printed invitations, the images you send, the place cards and the cast list. Leave anything blank and the page prints a line to write on instead. Saved in this browser only.

The evening

Shown on every invitation.

Date Time Address Reply to

Who plays whom

Type a guest's name next to a role. Roles beyond your number of guests are grayed out; their clue arrives on a table card. A phone number or email address stays in this browser: it is never printed or put on an image. The chat link works with one chat app only; for any other app, use Share or Copy text.

Names only are enough. The phone and email fields are optional shortcuts.

A few days before · by phone, email or on paper

Send to each guest

Every guest gets four images of 1080 × 1350 pixels: their invitation with the date, time and address, both pages of their booklet, and one image to open alone, which answers "Did you poison Bertie Locke?" in small print. Names come from Who plays whom above. Your own card sends the group invitation on its own; your pages stay with you. On this screen a guest's booklet pages and answer stay sealed, in the small previews and when shown larger.

On a phone or tabletWhere your browser offers Share, press the Share button with a guest's name on their card: a screen with that name and their invitation comes first, then your phone's share sheet. Your phone offers the apps that can take images; not every app keeps the short message, so check it before you send. The fourth image holds the guest's answer: send it without opening or previewing it. Send to all goes guest by guest, with the name screen each time.

On a computerPress Download for the four images, then Email or Copy text, and attach the images to your message. The fourth holds the guest's answer and some mail apps show it full size: attach it without looking. Send to all downloads the images of every guest in play; where your browser offers Share, it goes guest by guest through the name screen instead. Your browser may ask once to allow several downloads. Download all invitations saves the twelve: one for the group chat and one per guest role.

On paperPrint this role prints one guest's invitation, booklet and course cards. Fold the strip at the foot of booklet page 2 up over the page and tape it shut before you hand it over. Keep the course cards for the night.

Everything below prints

The print file

Every page of the kit in print order. The guests' booklets, all course cards, the table cards and exhibits, the answer strips and the solution stay sealed on this screen and print normally; only your own booklet, Noel Hollins's, shows here. Pages you do not need at your number of guests are faded here and left out when you print.

printsleft out at this number of guestssealed on this screen