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The Jury Files · Coming soonTwelve chairs. Your verdict.
You do not solve the murder this time. You sit on the jury. Hear the trial as it is given, weigh the evidence, argue it out in the jury room, and decide. Then find out what really happened.
A murder trial you sit on as a juror. The court opens, the charge is read, the witnesses give evidence and are cross-examined, the exhibits are put before you, and the judge sums up. Then the jury retires, argues and votes. Only after the verdict do you learn the truth.
From the oath to the truth.
Every jury case runs the same way, on screen, with narration, portraits and the exhibits themselves. Nobody has to play the judge, the barristers or the accused.
- The jury is sworn. The court opens and each juror takes a card: who you are, what you bring into the room, and what could change your mind.
- The charge and the openings. The indictment is read, and the Crown tells you what it will prove.
- The Crown's witnesses. Each gives evidence and is cross-examined. Exhibits are admitted as they are introduced: letters, reports, a plan of the house, a chemist's register.
- The defence. Its witnesses, and the accused's own account, sworn or from the dock, as the law of that court and year allowed.
- Closings and the summing up. Both sides close, and the judge directs you on the law in plain English.
- The jury room. You retire, argue, point to the exhibits, and vote, in rounds, until you agree or cannot. A hung jury is a legitimate outcome.
- The verdict, then the truth. What really happened plays after your verdict, and it is told for the verdict you actually gave.
The same trial, two ways.
You and eleven AI jurors
You take one juror card. The other eleven jurors are AI personas, each with a trade, a bias and an exhibit they keep coming back to. They argue with you and with each other, and a good argument, made with the right exhibit, can move them.
Your friends are the jury
Everyone takes a juror card and the argument happens out loud. The host is the foreperson: holds the remote, reads the judge's directions if the sound is off, calls the votes and keeps order. The host does not know the answer either.
It is played fair. The Crown's case looks strong and is built from true things. The quiet evidence, a date, a receipt, a timetable, an expert's own caveat under cross-examination, is what decides it. A jury that convicts on the loud case has been fairly fooled.
Six trials history would have argued about.
Original fiction, each in a real court and a real year, and each built on the kind of problem real juries faced: duelling experts, a witness who never arrives, two people in one dock.
The Arsenic Mirror
A wife, a packet of arsenic bought for rats, and two analysts who do not agree.
Open the case →
The Third Verdict
A student, a pistol, eleven forged cheques, and the verdict only Scotland allows.
Open the case →
The Fourth Jury
Three juries could not agree. You are the fourth.
Open the case →
The Empty Witness Box
The Crown's only eyewitness was shot the night before he was due to give evidence.
Open the case →
The Claimant
A Wagga Wagga butcher who says he is a baronet, and the one man who could have exposed him.
Open the case →Two in the Dock
A wife and a chauffeur, tried together. The jury may convict both, acquit both, or split them.
Open the case →Every party case, taken to trial.
Each of the 26 party cases has its own trial, and each one can be played on its own as a jury case, with no party first. The Crown has charged one of the suspects. The jury does not know whether it is the right person. The truth plays after the verdict.
Hosting the party as well? Play the party first, because the trial ends with the truth of the case. Or take your own party to trial, the same night or on a second night: see the three ways to play.
The Halloween Files The party cases →
The Christmas Files The party cases →
The War Files The party cases →
The Case Files: the eight real cases The party cases →
These eight party cases reopen real historical crimes. Their trials do not: each one is an invented alternative ending, labelled as such, and not the historical record.
Per case, when it opens.
Every one of the 32 jury cases is sold on its own, in Australian dollars. Nothing is on sale yet.
- One juror, eleven AI jurors
- The full trial and the truth after your verdict
- Six to twelve jurors in the room
- The host runs it as foreperson
Taking your own party to trial is priced differently, because it includes the party: see the three ways to play.
The Jury Files, answered.
Is anything on sale yet?
No. The Jury Files are coming soon, and every button on these pages adds you to the list for a single email when they open. No money is taken for a case that cannot be played.
What is the difference between solo and group?
Nothing in the trial itself. Solo, you are one juror and the other eleven are AI jurors who argue, point to exhibits and can be persuaded. Group, six to twelve people sit in the room, each with a juror card, and the host is the foreperson who holds the remote and calls the votes. Solo is A$29 a case and group is A$39 a case.
Do I need to know any law?
No. The judge's summing up explains the law in plain English before you retire: who has to prove what, how sure you must be, and what each verdict means in that court and that year.
Can a jury get it wrong?
Yes, and fairly. The Crown's case is built from true things that look stronger than they are, and the quieter evidence is what decides it. A jury can also fail to agree, which is a legitimate outcome. Whatever you decide, the truth plays after your verdict.
Will the trial of a party case spoil the party?
Yes. A party case's trial ends with the truth of that case, so if you mean to host the party, host it first. You can also play the trial straight after the party on the same night, or on a second night: that is explained on the three ways to play page.
Are the trials of the eight real cases real history?
No. The eight Case Files reopen real crimes, but their trials here are invented alternative endings, and each is labelled as one.
Be told when the jury is called.
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