Writing your own murder mystery is a real pleasure and a real amount of work. We write them for a living, so this is the method we use, and the honest numbers on how long it takes. If you get to the end and decide you would rather host than write, that is a fine decision too.
Start with the solution, not the victim
Every mystery is written backwards. Decide:
- Who did it. One murderer. A core character who will always be in the game.
- Why. A motive that is specific and a little shameful: blackmail, a forged signature, a debt, a will.
- How, and when. The method and a timeline with real clock times. You will need the times later to clear the innocent.
- What physical trace it left. The thing a sharp player can catch. Varnish on a handle. A torn cuff. A missing folder.
Write this as one paragraph. It becomes your reveal.
Build the clue chain
Six clues, two per round, each a short card the host reads aloud or puts on a screen.
| Round | Job of the clues |
|---|---|
| 1 | Establish the scene and the timeline. Who visited, when. Make two innocent people look suspicious. |
| 2 | Contradict somebody. A letter, a payment, a thing that should not be in someone's pocket. Expose a secret that is not the murder. |
| 3 | Narrow it. The physical trace, and a timestamp that clears the red herring. Anyone listening can now get it. |
The test: a player who reads all six clues and nothing else should be able to name the murderer. A player who has also interrogated the right people should be certain.
Give every character a secret that is not the murder
This is the part most home-written mysteries skip, and it is why they fall flat. Each innocent character needs something to hide that looks bad: an affair, a debt, a lie about where they were. It makes them act guilty, which is what makes the game a game.
A character card has:
- Name, role, pronouns. “Captain Hugh Pelham, the retired officer.”
- Public bio. One paragraph everyone may know. Written in the second person: “You bought a painting from him last year.”
- Public blurb. One line the other players see: “A retired officer who bought a painting from the victim.”
- Secret. The shameful thing. Not the murder, unless they did it.
- Costume hint. Two or three items from a wardrobe.
Write the murderer's card last, and write it so it reads exactly like the others. The only difference is the secret.
Write round objectives, not a script
Scripts kill parties. Nobody wants to read lines. Instead, each character gets, per round:
- Objectives. Two or three things to do this round. “Find out why Pelham visited at 10:15.” “Establish you were in your compartment.” Objectives point characters at each other, which is how you guarantee people talk.
- Knowledge. Two or three facts they may share or must hide. “You heard raised voices at 10:20.”
Across the three rounds, the objectives should drive every character to talk to every other character at least once, and the knowledge should hand out the pieces of the solution one at a time so that only the room, together, has all of them.
The murderer's notes
The murderer needs a private note each round telling them how to lie. Round one: who to blame and what never to mention. Round two: how to explain away the clue that points at them. Round three: the fallback admission that is bad but not murder.
Without these notes, a first-time murderer either gives up or sulks. With them, they have a plan and a fighting chance, which is what makes the vote split.
Round intros and the reveal
Three short paragraphs the host reads aloud at the start of each round, and one long one for the reveal that walks through the solution and names every clue that pointed to it. Then an epilogue line for every character, read after the reveal. Where did they end up? These are two sentences each and are the part people quote afterwards.
The numbers
For a mystery with 8 characters and three rounds:
| Part | Words |
|---|---|
| Character cards (8 × bio, secret, 3 rounds) | 4,000 to 5,000 |
| Clues (6) | 600 |
| Round intros and host guide | 600 |
| Reveal and epilogues | 800 |
| Total | 6,000 to 7,000 |
Writing time for a first draft: 15 to 25 hours. Then a test run with friends, which will reveal that round two has a hole in it. Then a rewrite. Our own one-hour mystery for four players is about 3,000 words and took a weekend plus a test.
Mistakes we have made so we can tell you
- A murderer who finds out at the reveal. Never. They must know from the start.
- A solution that depends on one character. If that player cancels, the mystery breaks. Solvable from the clues alone, always.
- Too many characters who know nothing. Every character needs one fact the room needs.
- Fixed player counts. Mark characters as core or optional and make sure the clue chain works with the core set alone.
- Rules explained aloud. Put the instructions on the cards. The host should only read the intros.
When not to write one
If you are hosting in two weeks and have a job, do not write one. A good mystery is a month of evenings. Buy or borrow one, host it, and write your own for the next one once you have seen how the rounds feel from the inside.
For the rules from the player's side, see how to play a murder mystery game. For hosting what you have written, how to host a murder mystery party.