This game is a great alternative to a full on murder mystery evening. Sort through a deck of cards and remove the Ace, the Jack, the King, the Queen and some random number cards for the remaining guests. So if you had 8 people playing, you'd have the 4 picture cards plus 4 random number cards. Shuffle the cards up and give one face down to each person. Whoever has the Ace is the murderer, whoever has the Jack is the detective, the King is for the player who will take over if the first detective dies, and the Queen becomes the detective if both the Jack and King die. Once everyone has their card, turn out the lights so it is completely dark. All players will then move quietly around the house on their own. Whoever is the murderer will lurk around and when they get someone on their own they will quietly whisper, "you're dead." The person who has been murdered must then lie down silently. If another player discovers one of the bodies then they shout, "murder in the dark!" and the murderer must stop murdering. The lights are switched on and the remaining live players assemble around the discovered dead body, where the detective will then interrogate the suspects and try and figure out who the murderer was. They may strut around smoking a pipe if they wish, depending on the homeowner's smoking policy. They will then get one chance to guess the murderer.
Created in a petri dish in an underground lab, I was originally designed by scientists to carry out high-profile assassinations for the CIA. Unfortunately, something went wrong and my only skill was writing list-based articles. So now I do that instead.
