The Tenth Winter: Murder Mystery Party Game for 8-20 Players, Printable, the Host Plays Too

A printable murder mystery party game for 8 to 20 players, and the host plays too. A Cold Ledger Games party mystery. Instant download, so the characters can go out to your guests today. About three hours, or ninety minutes with the short format included for office parties and work events.

A distillery is throwing its tenth year-end party in the founder's lake house on a frozen lake. Ten winters ago the company threw its first party here, and after midnight the co-founder walked out onto the ice and went through it. The ruling was an accident, drink involved. Now a true crime podcast is halfway through its two-part episode on that night, and its researcher has been calling everyone who was there. Tonight the founder has promised the room an announcement at the toast. She never gets to finish it.

Your guests are the people at the party: the ones the old night still follows, the company's top table, and the staff who kept the evening running. One of them did it.

WHAT MAKES THIS ONE DIFFERENT

Four sealed versions ship in the game, each with a different killer. Before the party, someone who is not playing picks a number from one to four, and you print only the pages that number names, without seeing which killer they hold. That means the host plays a character too and works the evidence alongside everyone else. Unless your own sealed card tells you that you did it, you find out at the reveal with the rest of the room. When your group wants to play again, three versions are still sealed: same cast, same night, an evidence trail that convicts somebody else.

MADE FOR

Halloween parties, office holiday parties and team building, winter and New Year's Eve parties, birthdays, and any game night with a crowd. Nobody needs acting experience: every costume is one line, every prop is optional, and the host guide has every line you read aloud.

WHAT YOU GET (five files, instant download)

START HERE (3 pages): how the evening runs, who may read what, and the blind print step, so the host plays without knowing the killer unless their own sealed card says they did it.
HOST MATERIALS (84 pages): the complete host guide with every line you read aloud, a ninety-minute format for work events and fixed end times, rules for competing detective teams and for two tables, and the four sealed versions, with the picker page that keeps you blind unless your own sealed card tells you that you did it.
CHARACTER PACK, PRINT (41 pages): all twenty character guides, two pages each, with secrets, three objectives, a costume line, and a part in the on-the-record round.
CHARACTER PACK, PHONE (a zip of 22 files): the same twenty guides as separate files, so you can text each player exactly one, plus a casting sheet and the shared evidence every player reads ahead in the ninety-minute format. Players never need a printer.
EVIDENCE PACK (32 pages): the shared evidence for three waves, a roster, a house plan and two worksheets, plus name tags, voting cards, verdict cards for competing teams, awards, and two invitations.

HOW THE NIGHT RUNS

Arrival and mingling in character, then the toast, then every character reads a statement onto the record. Three waves of evidence follow, each a stack of real records turned face-up in its turn. Accusations, a secret vote, and then the host unfolds the solution card and reads the reveal aloud, with proof that was on the table the whole time.

GOT A HARD STOP?

In the ninety-minute format every player reads their character and the shared evidence two days ahead, and every document is on the table by minute 31. Nothing is cut from the mystery.

BIG GROUPS

Up to twenty in one room. With 16 or more, run two complete games side by side, two tables of 8 to 10, each with its own sealed version. Or split the room into two or three detective teams that each commit a verdict in writing.

WHO IT IS FOR

8 to 20 players, ages 16 and up. Characters 1 to 8 are required and the mystery is fully solvable at eight; the rest join in number order. Anyone can play anyone: every guide is written without a pronoun for its character.
Content note: a death ten winters old reopened, a new one at the toast, a workplace with its knives out, and drinking at a party; no gore, no sexual assault.

WHAT YOU NEED

Only the host prints: about fifty sheets, US Letter, one-sided, black and white is fine, plus two pages for any player who wants their guide on paper. No printer at home? A library or print shop can print the PDFs for you. Everyone else needs only a phone. Nothing else to buy.

FORMAT AND USE

US Letter PDFs and one zip, delivered instantly after purchase. Print as many times as you like for your own game nights. For personal use only: not for resale, redistribution or public performance. Running it for paying guests, such as a ticketed night at a bar or cafe, needs our permission first: message the shop.

Bought on Etsy? Your order number opens the newest files at wigleystudios.com/cold-ledger/etsy/. If anything is wrong with your files or unclear at the table, message the shop and we will make it right.

ALSO AVAILABLE

THE TENTH WINTER: DIGITAL EDITION, the same party game played on everyone's phones, with nothing to print, is also in this shop.

THE STORY STARTS IN THE FILE

ACCIDENT, DRINK INVOLVED is the podcast's research file on the night ten winters earlier: a printable cold case for one or two detectives, in this shop now: https://www.etsy.com/listing/4591543476/accident-drink-involved-printable-cold
You can play this game without it, but if you'll play both, play the file first: this party talks about that night.

ALSO FROM COLD LEDGER GAMES

THE HUNDREDTH EPISODE, a murder mystery party game for 8 to 20 at a true crime podcast's live taping, where the host plays too: https://www.etsy.com/listing/4556917791/murder-mystery-party-game-for-8-20
THE ORPHEUM FILE, the printable cold case that story starts in, for one or two players: https://www.etsy.com/listing/4547558474/printable-cold-case-file-murder-mystery