Frequently asked questions

A dinner where your guests solve a murder at the same time. Everyone takes a role, reads a short text aloud between courses and answers the others’ questions. In between, you eat, talk and accuse.

No acting experience needed. Everything that has to be said is in your booklet — everything beyond that happens at the table.

Every case is written for your exact number of guests, typically between 5 and 12. You tell us how many women and men are playing, and the roles are built accordingly.

There are no filler parts: every character has their own motive, their own secrets and a connection to at least two others.

Expect three to four hours for three courses. Each round runs 25 to 30 minutes, plus eating, breaks and going through the solution.

Reading aloud is only a small part of that — with eleven people, about fifteen minutes spread across the whole evening. The rest is conversation.

As the host: print the booklets or hand out the QR codes, cook the menu and lay out the props for the staged moments. The game master booklet lists them.

As a guest: nothing. You get your booklet at the table and read the first page.

The PDFs are laid out for A5. Print double-sided on A4 and fold the sheets, or choose “2 pages per sheet” in the print dialog.

Slightly heavier paper from 120 g looks considerably better, especially for the name tents and the hint cards.

No, but it helps. Every booklet includes a costume suggestion that fits the role and can usually be assembled from your own wardrobe.

Often a single recognisable detail per person is enough — a brooch, a scarf, a pair of glasses.

Get in touch and we will adapt the case. Simply dropping a role does not work: every character carries clues the others need to convict the killer.

At a pinch the game master can take a second role and read those texts as well.

Both work fully. You always receive both and decide on the day.

Printed: every guest gets their booklet on paper. Nothing can go wrong technically, and the booklets make a nice keepsake.
App: everyone scans their QR code and plays on their phone. You save the printing, and the rounds unlock one after another.

Yes. Anyone who would rather not have a phone at the table gets the printed booklet, the others play digitally. Both see exactly the same content.

No. The app runs in the browser. Nothing to download, no account, no sign-up.

Yes, once the page has loaded once. Allow cookies when asked — the data then stays on the device and remains available without reception.

If you are playing in a holiday house with poor signal, have every guest open their page before dinner.

1. Hand out the QR codes. Print the player code page, cut it up and put each guest’s code at their seat.
2. Have everyone scan. Each guest scans with the phone camera. The personal booklet opens in the browser but stays locked.
3. Read out the activation code. Everyone enters it. Now the guests can see their role and their round 1 text.
4. Read out the round code after each course. Only then do the next text, the new secret and the hint cards appear.
5. Finally, the solution code. Only after everyone has made their accusation.

All codes are in the game master booklet on the “App codes” page. Only the game master gets this booklet — it also contains the staging instructions.

Because the game has not been activated. That is deliberate: nobody can read ahead and find out who has which role.

Read out the activation code once everyone has scanned.

Every round needs its own code, which you as game master provide. That is how you control the pace of the evening.

Only read out the code once everyone has genuinely finished the course — otherwise someone reads ahead while the others are still eating.

No. They scan their QR code again and enter the activation code once more. The data is stored on the device and survives a reload.

The activation code can be used several times, exactly for cases like this.

Absolutely not. Your secret is on that screen in plain text — and for the killer, the confession too. One glance over your shoulder ruins the evening for everyone.

Put the phone face down on the table when you are not using it.

Each course has a round. Everyone reads their text aloud in turn, then the hint cards are played, and after that you eat and discuss.

The round ends when the course is cleared. Then the game master unlocks the next one — on paper by turning the page, in the app with the round code.

That is the real evening. Stay in character and talk to each other: ask questions, contradict, reminisce.

You may invent freely — how you met the victim, what you do for a living, why you cannot stand someone. Anything goes as long as it does not contradict your read-aloud texts.

The read-aloud text is your official version. You read it aloud, everyone hears it.

The secret is yours alone. You do not volunteer it — but you may give parts away when someone presses you. And you may lie.

The hint card is a piece of evidence about another person. You read it aloud, address it to the person named and watch their reaction.

Never volunteer it. But when someone asks specifically, you may let parts of it slip — reluctantly, under pressure, or as if by accident.

Marked in red on your card is what you may never say before the solution. Everything else is negotiable.

A secret nobody hears all evening adds nothing to the game. Put it to work.

Yes, explicitly. Every secret card comes with a ready-made excuse for when you are cornered.

The only limit: do not contradict your own read-aloud texts. What you have read out loud stands.

No. There are a few cards per round, but each one carries real weight. Across the whole evening everyone receives at least one.

If you have no card in a round, you are still in demand — as a witness and as someone to question.

Yes, that is the normal case. They have their own role and moderate alongside: handing out booklets, unlocking rounds, reading the staged moments.

The game master booklet does not reveal the killer. It contains the schedule, the codes and the props — the solution sits behind the QR code at the end.

Small set pieces between rounds: the game master brings in a piece of evidence, a clock strikes at the wrong time, a phone call comes in.

What you need to prepare is in the game master booklet. Usually it is a sheet of paper, a cloth or an object from around the house.

A variant where the murder victim sits at the table and investigates their own case — without anyone suspecting. Only that one person knows; everyone else takes them for a guest like any other.

Only the QR code at the end reveals both: who the killer was and who the dead person was. Then she reads her own farewell aloud.

You choose this variant when ordering.

Yes — but only them. It is in their personal secret for round 1, which nobody else ever sees.

It has to be that way: they need to lie deliberately and cover their tracks. Everyone else is honestly in the dark, including the game master.

Yes, by reasoning rather than guessing. The case is built on a chain of three independent facts: one narrows the field, one eliminates, one decides.

None of them is enough on its own, and they sit with three different people. Nobody holds the solution alone — you only get there together.

Through a QR code in the introduction booklet, or in the app through the solution code. Either way only once everyone has made their accusation.

The solution names the killer, reconstructs the crime step by step and explains for every other character why they looked guilty and why they are innocent.

Not with the same guests — the killer is known by then. With a different group, any time: you can print the booklets as often as you like and reactivate the app.

Anyone who already knows the case can run it as game master the second time.

An introduction booklet for everyone, a game master booklet, one character booklet per person, a recipe book for all courses, a glossary of technical terms and the solution behind a QR code. Plus the personal QR codes for the app.

All as PDFs, ready to print.

The recipes yes, the ingredients no. Every course is tied thematically to the story, with an ingredient list, quantities for your number of guests and instructions.

You can also cook or order something completely different — the story works regardless.

Yes. Tell us when ordering and the recipes are written accordingly — vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free or without particular ingredients.

German, French, Italian and English. A case can also be delivered in several languages if your guests are mixed.

Entirely. Every case is written fresh for your occasion: your number of guests, your theme, your number of courses, your tone — tense, funny, eerie or a mixture.

On request, real details go in: the name of the birthday guest, an inside joke, the location. No two cases are alike.

Get in touch as early as you can, so there is time for questions and adjustments. The exact turnaround depends on scope — write to us and we will give you a date.

Very well. A murder mystery dinner gets people talking who would otherwise sit side by side in silence — especially at Christmas parties and team events.

On request the story is set in your industry, with the matching vocabulary.

Hold the phone further away and make sure there is good light — candlelight is often not enough for the camera. If the printout came out too small, print the page again without scaling.

As a fallback: give the guest their printed booklet. The content is identical.

Check that it is the right code for the right round — round codes only work in sequence. Then reload the page and enter it again.

That is normal in round 2. Have the guests lay their times side by side — who was where, and when? The contradictions almost always show up there.

As game master you may ask: “Who had access at all?” That gives no solution away, only a direction.

They can read their text aloud and otherwise hold back — that is enough for the case to work. Often that exact person joins in of their own accord from round 2.

Never force anyone to act. Reading aloud is enough.

Write to us with the name of the case and the passage. We will correct it and send you the PDFs again — even on the day, if it is urgent.