1920s Murder Mystery Party Game Printable, Speakeasy Party for 4-32 Players, Host Can Play, No Acting, Murder at the Copper Lily

A printable 1920s speakeasy murder mystery party game for 4 to 32 players. It is a digital download that you print at home. It runs 90 to 120 minutes, or 60 minutes with the Short Play that is built in, nobody has to act, and the host can play.

Friday, October 15, 1926. Pell's Flowers on Larkin Street is a florist by day. After dark, through the fern door at the back of the workroom, it is the Copper Lily. At 8:45 the owner, Lucius Pell, stops the band and announces that tonight is the club's last night under his name, and that before he signs it over at noon tomorrow he will settle every account in the room. "Some of you will thank me in the morning. One of you will not." At 9:31 he raises his copper cup on the bandstand and drinks his nightly toast. At 9:58 he is found dead at the desk in his office. Eight people in the room had a reason to dread that announcement. Exactly one of them did something about it.

WATCH THE FULL WALKTHROUGH: https://youtu.be/-6cAz63uaZc

WHAT YOU GET

5 PDF files. START HERE is a one page guide to the files and the order to use them in. The kit comes twice, once in US Letter and once in A4, 129 pages each. The sealed solution holds the reveal script, the proof and the scoring key, 7 pages in Letter followed by the same 7 pages in A4, and it opens on a DO NOT OPEN cover. The gift file holds a printable gift certificate and a page on how to give the game as a present. The kit and the solution come to 136 pages together in the Letter edition.

Inside the kit: a 17 page host guide with a minute by minute timeline in real clock times, a casting ladder for every group size and exact sheet counts for what to print. A one page Host Quick Sheet. Three Round Cards that you read aloud. 8 suspect booklets, six pages each, with every line printed. 24 clue cards in three sealed rounds, numbered on the back so you can deal them without reading them. 12 witness cards for bigger groups. The Bridge Card for the 60 minute Short Play. Casting slips, name tags, place cards, packet labels, name tents, accusation sheets, detective notebooks, an alibi board and Golden Rule cards. And the party printables: formal and casual invitations, a door password card, a drinks menu, a costume ideas page, a welcome sign, three round signs, an evidence table sign, a prize certificate and runner up ribbons.

HOW IT WORKS

Every guest is dealt a suspect booklet, and every word they will say is already printed inside it. The game runs in three rounds, each built the same way. You read a Round Card aloud. Each player reads their statement for that round straight off the page. Then you break the seal on that round's packet, the eight clue cards go face down to the names printed on their backs, and they are read aloud in number order. Then anybody may question anybody. After Round Three everyone writes a name on an accusation sheet in silence, and you open the sealed solution and read the reveal script, which names the card that clears each of the seven innocent suspects.

Setup is printing, cutting and sealing. Sort the clue cards by the numbers on their backs, seal them into three envelopes, and seal the solution in a fourth without reading it. The host guide puts the cutting, folding and sealing at about twenty five minutes once the printing is done.

THE QUESTIONS PEOPLE ASK BEFORE THEY BUY

Can the host play? Yes. Nothing in the host guide, on the Round Cards or on any clue card names the murderer. The solution, the reveal script and the proof come as their own sealed file, and the clue cards are dealt face down by the numbers printed on their backs, so you never read a card before it is read aloud, and nothing you do as host shows you the solution. When someone asks whether a theory is close, your line is printed for you: "The envelope knows. I am not saying." One honest caution, printed in the host guide as well: one of the eight booklets tells the person holding it that they are the murderer, so if you deal yourself a booklet blind, that person could be you. If you would rather not take the chance, deal the booklets to your guests and take a witness card, or run the evening as the host.

How long does it last? 90 to 120 minutes for the full three round game, with a timeline in the host guide. The Short Play turns Round Two into a single Bridge Card that you read aloud, which lands the evening at 60 minutes, and the mystery still solves.

Does it work with only four people? Yes, properly. There are always eight suspects. At four players each person holds two booklets and reads both, using printed pairings that keep any one player from holding both ends of something the table is meant to piece together out loud. Four, five, six and seven all play well, and eight is the sweet spot.

What about a big group? From 9 to 20 players, extra guests take witness roles from the 12 witness cards: staff, regulars and visitors who were at the Copper Lily that night. A witness reads three short printed lines, questions the suspects, fills in an accusation sheet, and can never be the murderer. From 21 to 32 players, two guests share each witness card. Nobody sits out.

Does anyone have to act? No. Not one word. Every line a player speaks is printed in their booklet and read aloud. No improvising, no memorizing, no costumes required, no standing up. If someone is asked a question their booklet does not answer, they say "My card does not say." Every role is written to be played by anyone, and every booklet says "Play as any gender."

What exactly do I get? The 5 PDF files listed above, 136 pages in the Letter edition and the same game in A4. The host guide prints exact sheet counts for every group size: the core is 49 sheets, and the totals run from 58 sheets at 4 players to 134 at 32.

WHO IT IS FOR

Hosts who want to play at their own party. Groups with a few shy guests, since nobody performs. Birthdays, game nights, dinner parties, club nights and office parties, from four friends at a kitchen table to 32 guests. Anyone throwing a 1920s or speakeasy night who wants the evening to have a plot. The costume ideas page gives easy looks from any closet, and costumes are entirely optional.

WHO IT IS NOT FOR

Anyone who wants something to arrive in the mail: you print it yourself. Anyone hoping for a live acting or improv game. And anyone who needs a ten minute game: plan on 90 to 120 minutes, or 60 with the Short Play.

BUYING THIS AS A GIFT

The gift file has a printable certificate, An Invitation to the Copper Lily, with For and From lines. Print it, put it in a card and send the files. Or print and seal the whole kit yourself, without reading the solution, the suspect booklets or the fronts of the clue cards, and pack the clue card sheets backs up. The person you give it to can then host and play with the answer still sealed.

PLEASE READ

This is a digital download. Nothing is mailed and nothing physical ships. You get 5 PDF files in US Letter and A4 to print at home on plain paper, or at any print shop. Black and white is fine throughout. You will also need scissors, six envelopes (three for the round packets, one for the solution, one for the casting slips and one for the Bridge Card if you run Short Play), tape or stickers to seal them, a stapler for the booklets and a pen for every player. Questions? Send a message through Etsy.

Also in the shop: Murder at Thornwood Manor, The Secret Santa Murders and Countdown to Murder, printable murder mystery party games in the same format.

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AI DISCLOSURE: This item was created with the help of AI tools. NicheToolkits uses AI to help design the files, write the listing and make the listing photos and videos.