Something has gone wrong
on the night.

Nine times in ten it is an O typed for a zero, or a lowercase l for a one. Read the code back character by character before anything else. Next most likely: you are on murdermysteryparty.com instead of play.murdermysteryparty.com, which is the only place with a code box. Third: the code is already open on another device or in another browser, so go back to the one you started on. If it is genuinely broken, contact us and we will email a replacement to the address you bought under.

Have your guest type the address and the room code by hand rather than correcting what they already typed, and turn autocorrect off if their keyboard capitalised the first character. If the QR code will not scan, that is usually candlelight: turn a lamp on for ten seconds. If they tried to join before you opened the room, they just need to reload.

That happens when a guest starts on one phone and switches to another, which creates a second player. Remove the duplicate from the guest list on your host screen, keeping the one they are actually holding. If roles are already dealt, deal again before the first act rather than reassigning mid-game. One device per guest, settled before roles go out.

Nothing is lost. The room lives on our server, not on the phone. Your guest reloads the page and rejoins with the same name, and their character and everything already delivered come straight back. Keep the act going while they do it: the evening does not need to stop for one phone.

Reload the page first, because the room survives a reload. If it does not come back, re-enter your access code, which is still valid. If the screen loads but is stuck mid-act, you can re-cue the act from the host controls. Do not start a new room: that disconnects every guest who has already joined and means dealing roles again.

Cast the browser tab rather than your whole screen, or use an HDMI cable, which is the answer on the night. Full screen is F11 on Windows and Control+Command+F on a Mac. If the picture is tiny, your browser is zoomed: Command+0 or Control+0 resets it. And if casting is eating your evening, stop: the game plays perfectly from a laptop on the table.

Your browser has almost certainly blocked autoplay. Click once anywhere on the page and audio will play from then on. If you are casting, the sound may be coming out of the laptop while the picture is on the TV, so turn the laptop up. Also check the tab itself is not muted. The evening works without audio, so do not let this stop you.

Reload the page. If it stays quiet, carry on: it is a companion, not a dependency. Every clue you need is delivered through the game itself and no evidence is held only in Case Intelligence. Let us know afterwards rather than pausing the night.

Every case is written for 6 to 12. With five or fewer, you can play a character as well as the victim, or two guests can share a dossier and work as a pair. With thirteen or more, extra guests join as observers who help cross-examine, which sounds like the lesser role and is not: they are the only people in the room free to ask anything they like.

Neither breaks the case. A missing character simply becomes an absent one the room can still discuss and accuse. A late guest can join mid-act, and their dossier is waiting for them when they do.

There are two, and you need both. The host pack holds the guide, the introductions, the cue sheet and the solution. The character booklets are the ones that go round the table. They are separate files on purpose, because the host pack names the killer: do not hand that one round.