Home›New Year's Eve
Solve it
before midnight.
New Year's Eve at home has one structural problem: three hours of evening between dinner finishing and midnight arriving, and nothing to put in them. A case that runs from nine and lands the accusation at half eleven fits that gap exactly, and gives you something to count down to other than the clock.
Start a murder mystery at about nine on New Year's Eve. The evidence rounds run roughly ninety minutes with supper in the middle, the accusation takes twenty to thirty minutes, and the reveal lands around half eleven. That leaves the countdown intact and gives the evening a shape.
Nine o'clock start,
half eleven reveal.
The only occasion page here with an actual schedule on it, because New Year's Eve is the only night where finishing at a specific time matters.
- 8:30 · Drinks and briefsSend the join link as people arrive. Everybody reads their private brief while you pour. Do not start the case yet.
- 9:00 · Open the caseThe scene sets and the body is found. First round of evidence on the television.
- 9:45 · SupperBreak here rather than later. The app holds the state, and the middle of the case is where people most want to compare theories over food.
- 10:15 · The case turnsThe rounds where somebody's story stops holding. This is the part of the night people remember in February.
- 11:15 · The accusationEverybody names a killer, a method and a motive. At ten or twelve guests give this a full half hour.
- 11:40 · The reveal, then the countdownTwenty minutes of arguing about the verdict, and then somebody notices the time.
Cases that suit the night.
There is no New Year case. These three suit the evening better than anything else in the catalogue: a masked ball, a lodge nobody can leave, and a party that goes wrong after hours.
New Year's Eve, answered.
What can you do on New Year's Eve at home instead of watching the countdown?
A murder mystery fills the exact stretch that is hardest to fill, which is the three hours between dinner and midnight. Start around nine, run the evidence through the evening, and time the accusation and the reveal to land just before twelve.
How do you time a murder mystery to finish at midnight?
Start at nine. The evidence rounds run roughly ninety minutes, dinner or supper sits in the middle, and the accusation takes twenty to thirty minutes. Beginning at nine puts the reveal somewhere between half eleven and ten to twelve, which leaves time for the countdown.
Is there a New Year themed case?
Not a New Year one specifically. The Christmas Files are the closest in feel, particularly A Cold Christmas, which is set in a snowed in lodge with one road out. For a non seasonal New Year, The Masque at Carfax Hall is a masked ball, which suits the night.
Can we play if people arrive at different times?
Up to a point. Guests can join late and pick up their brief, but somebody arriving after the second evidence round will have missed the story they are meant to react to. If people are arriving in waves, start later rather than starting twice.
Something to count down to
other than the clock.
$29, instant delivery, and you can buy it at eight o'clock on the night if that is the kind of New Year you are having.