How to play
Rules & game modes
Everything that's on the rules cards, plus the game modes and the optional extras. Nothing on this page gives away any case.
Overview
Christmas Eve, 1966. A blizzard has buried Whitlock House in Vermont. The phone line is down, the road is closed, and the whole family is home for Christmas, with the chair kept for Robin, given up for dead in Korea, filled at last. Grandma Eleanor won't live to open her presents.
4–8 players · 90–120 minutes · 16+. One player is the host, who plays a character too and doesn't need to know the solution.
Three cases, one deck. Cases A, B and C each have their own killer, method and motive. Play them in any order, but we suggest A or B before C, the hardest. Each case is its own Christmas Eve. Nothing you learned in another case is true here.
The cards
| Card | Used for | Cards |
|---|---|---|
| Rules and host card | Setup and the running order of the evening | 4 |
| Choose your case | Picking a case and taking out its cards | 1 |
| Character cards | Who each player is. Shown to everyone. | 8 |
| Round I statements | Read aloud by each player in Round I | 8 |
| The Evening | The timeline the host reads in Round I | 1 |
| Coming soon | Read after the solution | 1 |
| Each case: secrets | One per character, for its player's eyes only | 8 × 3 |
| Each case: public clues, evidence, twists | Revealed by the host, round by round | 8 × 3 |
| Each case: solution | Read last | 1 × 3 |
Setup
Before the night
- Pick a case: A, B or C. For a first game, play A or B.
- Pick a host. The host runs the evening from the host card and plays a character too.
- Pick a character for each guest. Any mix of the eight works. Send the invitations so everyone can dress up.
On the night (about 10 minutes)
- Take the shared cards out of the deck: the rules, the host card, the case picker, the 8 character cards, the 8 Round I statements, The Evening and Coming Soon.
- Take out your case's cards only: their backs say CASE A, CASE B or CASE C. Put the other two cases back in the box, unread.
- Give each player their character card, face up. Then, face down, their Round I statement (the back shows their name) and their secret card for the case (the back shows the case and their name). Show your character. Keep your secret.
- The host keeps the case's remaining cards face down, sorted by the round on their backs: Round I, Round II, Round III, then the solution.
Characters nobody plays
Read their character card aloud and leave it face up on the table. The host keeps their Round I statement to read aloud. Their secret card stays in the box, unread.
Characters nobody plays are still suspects. The killer may not be at this table.
The rounds
The evening has three rounds of about 20–30 minutes each. Every round works the same way.
- The host opens the round. In Round I, the host reads The Evening aloud. In Rounds II and III, the host reads the round's twist. Then the host lays the round's evidence face up on the table and reads its public clue.
- Everyone reads aloud, word for word: their Round I statement in Round I, then their secret card's reveal for Rounds II and III. The host reads the statements of characters nobody plays.
- Free play, about 20 minutes: mingle, question, bluff, form alliances, accuse.
Serving dinner? Bring out a course as each round begins: starters, main course, dessert. The dinner plan paces a 1960s supper to the game.
The rules of truth
Only the killer may lie. Everyone else may dodge a question, but never lie.
- Read your cards aloud exactly as written.
- You may keep your secrets until your secret card tells you to reveal them. Dodge, deflect and change the subject.
- Words the cards quote from earlier tonight may be false. Someone said them. That doesn't make them true.
Detective's tip: ask "What aren't you telling us?" instead of "Did you do it?"
Accusation & scoring
After Round III, everyone secretly writes down who killed Grandma Eleanor, how and why. Reveal together, then the host reads the solution aloud, and then the Coming Soon card.
| For | Points |
|---|---|
| The right who | 1 |
| The right how | 1 |
| The right why | 1 |
| The killer, if nobody names them | 3 |
Keep the solution card face down until everyone has written an accusation.
Game modes
Pick the mode that suits your table. Both use the same cards and the same rules of truth.
Everyone investigates
The way the cards are written. Every player, the host included, plays a character and tries to solve the case.
- Characters nobody plays are read aloud by the host and stay on the table as suspects.
- Their secret cards stay in the box: the public cards carry the story.
- Best with 6–8 players, when most of the household is at the table.
The host is the house
In a small game, some characters have nobody to play them. In game master mode, the host brings them to life instead.
- The host doesn't investigate and doesn't accuse. The host plays every character nobody else plays.
- Before the game, the host reads the secret cards of the unplayed characters, and only those. Never the players' cards.
- During play, the host answers questions in character, reads those characters' Round II and III reveals at the start of each round, and keeps their secrets until a reveal gives them away.
- The rules of truth still apply. If one of the host's characters turns out to be the killer, the host may bluff and lie for them, exactly as a player would.
- The host still runs the rounds and reads the solution at the end.
Tips for the game master
- Give each character one voice trick: a phrase, a posture, a prop.
- Don't save the day. If the table is stuck, don't steer it: the cards hold everything they need.
- Leave your characters' cards face up, so players remember who they can question.
Optional extras
For a longer evening, add these on top of the normal scoring.
+1 for your goal
Every secret card has a personal goal for the evening. After the solution, each player reads their goal aloud, and the table votes on whether they achieved it.
Awards, voted by everyone after the solution
- Best Detective: the sharpest question or deduction of the night.
- Best Liar: the killer's finest bluff, or the innocent who dodged most gracefully.
- Most Suspicious Innocent: the player everyone was sure about, wrongly.
- Best Dressed: for the costume that best brought 1966 to the table.
Afterwards
Sort the deck back together by the labels on the card backs, so it's ready for the next case. Two more Christmas Eves are waiting.
Share your photos with #AMerryLittleMurder, and please don't spoil the ending for anyone.