How to Play Murder in the Dark

Preparing for the Game with Cards

Remove the Jokers, Aces, and Kings from the deck. Then, replace one Ace and one King in the deck. Leave the other Aces, Kings, and Jokers out.

Shuffle the deck and deal all the cards to each player. Depending on how many people are playing the game, you all may not have the same amount of cards. This is fine.

Explain what each card means. In “Murder in the Dark”, holding a certain card means you will play a certain role in the game. The person who is dealt the Ace is the murderer. The person who is dealt the King is the police officer. The person who is dealt the Jack is the detective. If the person who has the Jack “dies”, the person who has the King becomes the detective. If the person(s) who have the Jack or the King both “die”, the person who has the Queen becomes the detective. However, remind everyone that they should keep whichever cards they have secret so no one knows who is the murderer, the police officer, or the detective.

Preparing for the Game with Pieces of Paper

Cut up slips of paper. Make enough slips for each person playing. Try to make them small enough so its difficult to read what is on them from far away.

Write each role on the slips of paper. You will need to write a slip for: “Murderer” “Detective” On the rest of the slips of paper, write “suspect”.

Put the slips in a bowl. Have each player take one. Remind everyone not to reveal who they are going to play in the game.

Playing the Game

Find a room with open space and no sharp objects. You don’t want to bump into anything that will injury you when you’re walking around in the dark!

Turn out the lights in the room. Instruct the players to walk carefully around the room and avoid sticking together or huddling in one area.

Allow the murderer to find their 'victims.' The murderer will go around the room, find someone, and tap them on the shoulder to let them know they are now a victim. The murderer can also whisper quietly "you're dead" to the victim. Alternatively, the murderer could clamp their hand over the person’s mouth to prevent the person from screaming, and then whisper "you're dead". The ‘victims’ can fall down dramatically or make dramatic dying noises. Try to be as dramatic and silly as possible.

Scream out “Murder in the dark!” once you come across someone who has been murdered. As soon as someone says this, the player closest to the lights should turn them on. If a player sees someone standing silently alone, they can ask them, "Are you dead?" The player should simply indicate yes or no, but they must tell the truth so it is clear whether or not you can yell out “Murder in the Dark!” One trick the murderer could try is hiding the person they just killed in a hiding place in the room or in another room. If the murderer successfully hides the people they “kill”, it will take longer for someone to discover the victims and allow them to “kill” people longer. However, this tactic could allow the murderer to get caught more easily as they are distracted with dealing with the “bodies”. Vote on whether the murderer is allowed to use this tactic as a house rule before you start the game.

Assemble all the alive players into the room where the ‘victim’ was found. Any players who are not present should be noted as dead. As an extra to the game, you could try to find all the dead players in their hiding places and bring them into the room.

Instruct the detective to try to figure out who is the murderer. This step in the game could be as simple as one guess or as complicated as a question and answer session where the detective tries to solve the murder. The role of the police officer is to enforce order while the detective tries to solve the murder. If you decide to do a pretend Q&A, have the detective sit in a chair in front of everyone and ask questions to all the alive players, such as: Where were you when someone yelled “Murder in the Dark”? Who do you think is the murderer and why? Once the detective has gathered enough information and decided who they suspect is the murderer, they say: “final accusation” and ask their suspect, “Are you the murderer?” If the detective guesses who the murderer is successfully, they win the game. But if they guess incorrectly, the murderer wins the game. If the detective is killed by the murderer during the killing spree in the dark, they can be replaced by whoever had the King card. If you are not using cards for the game and the detective is killed during the murder in the dark, the game is over and can start all over again.

Instruct the murderer to reveal themselves at the end of the game. They can do this by showing the Ace card.