New Year’s Eve Murder Mystery Game, Printable 1926 Pier Theatre Case for Couples

Seller's description

New Year's Eve, 1926. On Brightholme Pier the Marvellous Merrow steps into his cabinet for the last trick of the year. When the doors open the cabinet is empty, as it has been eleven hundred times before, but this time he doesn't come back up. Minutes after midnight the stage manager finds him dead in the cellar under the stage.

Scotland Yard has sent you down, and the borough police file is waiting for you on the train. It names a rival illusionist second on the bill, the wife who kept the books, an assistant named in a new will, a stage manager with the only key to the cellar, and a ventriloquist whose dummy never stops talking. Work through it envelope by envelope and decide who must answer for the Last Vanishing.

What's included
• 27 pieces of evidence in three sealed envelopes: police reports, a plan of the theatre, a map of the seafront and pier, four flash pictures, statements, the stage manager's prompt copy, a blueprint of the vanishing cabinet, the theatre's books, newspaper cuttings, letters and more
• Puzzles worked into the papers: four flash pictures to cut out and put in order, a second-sight stage code to crack, a grille to lay over a letter, and a press photograph printed back to front
• A Start Here guide
• A Scoring file: you write your verdict in your own words first, then score yourselves question by question
• Three levels of hints for every question, so nobody stays stuck for long
• The full solution, with a minute-by-minute timeline of the night
• A printable gift invitation

Players, time and difficulty
• 2 to 6 players, ages 18+
• Medium difficulty
• About 2 to 4 hours, and your pace may differ
• Content: one death off the page by poison, no gore; period drinking and smoking

How it works
Print the pages and open Envelope 1. Read the evidence together, compare the papers and keep your own notes, then open the next envelope when you're ready. After the last one, write down your verdict in your own words: who must answer for the Marvellous Merrow's death, how it was done, and why. Then open the Scoring file, score yourselves question by question, and read the full story of the night on the pier.

Printing
• Letter and A4 versions, each in Deluxe (full color) and Ink-saver (light on ink)
• 36 pages to print, plus the one-page gift invitation if it's a present
• Print at 100% scale, single-sided, at home or at a copy shop
• You'll need scissors for the flash pictures and the grille card

Written and illustrated with the help of AI tools, from our own story, prompts and edits, and checked by us.

Digital download, nothing is shipped. You receive PDF files to print yourself.

FAQ
• Can we play it on a screen? Start Here opens on a phone, but you'll cut out the flash pictures and the grille and lay them on the table, so printing works best.
• Do we need a host? No. Everyone plays together, and the hints, the scoring and the full story each sit in their own file until you need them.
• Can more than 6 play? Yes, but the papers go round more slowly. Print a second copy of the busiest pages if you like.
• Is it a role-play party game? No. You're the inspector working the case file, and nobody plays a character.
• Why 18+? There's a death by poison (off the page, no gore), and period drinking and smoking.
• Letter or A4? Letter for US printers, A4 for most of the rest of the world. Choose Ink-saver if your printer is low on ink.