A family mystery party for 6 to 14 guests, ages 10 and up
The jewel is gone. The thief is at your table.
Every guest gets a character, a secret and lines to say, on their own phone.
Plays on phones · printable too
$59
One price for the whole table.
Get the mystery · $59Play it on phones and a tablet, or on printed paper.
Yours the moment you pay.
Add a second mystery Two evenings for $99. You save $19.
A question first? Write to support@murderbeforedessert.com.
Never played one?
1Before the party
Send each friend their character and a costume idea.
2Over dinner
Your phone hands you lines to say and questions to ask. Fresh clues land each round.
3Before dessert
Accuse your suspect in secret. Then the culprit stands up and reads the confession.
The suspects
Bring 6 to 14 friends. Everyone gets a character.
The Director
“Stars are free. Telescopes are not.”
What they are hidingYour announcement is planned for ten. The guests will have to wait.
The telescope keeper
“The old girl and I have never missed a clear night.”
What they are hidingYou know every bolt of the old girl. Tonight you are keeping one thing to yourself.
The magician
“Tonight, before your very eyes, I will make a star vanish!”
What they are hidingYou promised to make a star vanish. You have a trick up your sleeve nobody has seen.
The night guard
“Twelve years, and she never left my sight. Well. Almost never.”
What they are hidingYou have guarded her for years. Tonight there is a question you hope nobody asks.
The young astronomer
“Ask me anything about the sky. Please. I have so many facts.”
What they are hidingYou can explain the whole sky. There is one thing you would rather not explain.
The Junior Stargazer
“I would give anything to hold the Midnight Star for one minute.”
What they are hidingEverybody is proud of you tonight. There is one thing you have not owned up to.
Fourteen people with something to hide.
Prefer paper?
Booklets, evidence and a sealed ending, to print at home or at a print shop. Choose phones or paper after you buy.
Tap a page to read it.
Download these 6 sample pages (PDF)
About an hour and a half to get ready: for six guests, printing included. Black-and-white files and a print-shop file are included.
Single-sided sheets, including all packet covers:
| Guests | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sheets | 89 | 95 | 100 | 106 | 111 | 117 | 122 | 128 | 133 |
Have 4 envelopes: ROUND 1, ROUND 2, ROUND 3, THE CASE.
Questions
For families and mixed groups, ages 10 and up. Everyone gets lines to read and questions to ask. The case is a jewel theft: nobody is hurt, and there is a trail of riddles to solve together.
Everyone gets a character and lines to read aloud in every round, plus questions to put to the others. Confident players go off script whenever they like.
Yes. The host plays one of the six and reads Ranger Juniper's lines from the host page. The solution is sealed, so the host guesses along with everyone else.
About two hours of play, three with dinner. Your host page also has a 75-minute version for younger groups.
The evening goes ahead. Six characters carry the story and the other eight can be left out one by one. If one of the six is missing, the host reads that character's witness statement aloud.
Host it again for a new group, as often as you like. The thief is the same each time.
Any number from 6 to 14. Every guest plays a character of their own, with lines to read aloud in every round, and the price is the same for a table of 6 or of 14.
No. The whole evening plays on your guests' phones, and you run it from a tablet or your own phone. Prefer paper? The complete printable kit is included.
A phone for every guest and an internet connection at the table. Each guest opens their own link in the phone's browser. A tablet is handy for the host; a phone does the job too.
Your private host page opens at once, and we email you the link. Add your guests there and send each one their character. On the night you run the evening from that page. Keep the link; it is your key.
No. Nothing ships. It plays on your phones, and the printable kit is a download: print it at home, or send the single print file to a print shop.
No. Anyone can play any character. Half the fun is who ends up as whom.
Yes. Buy it, then forward the private host page link to the person who will host.
More evenings
Free sample
6 real pages from The Vanishing of the Midnight Star, as a PDF in your inbox.
