Murder Mystery

Wild West Murder Mystery Party Game

★ MURDER AT THE SILVER BELL — an 1881 Nevada whodunit for 4-12 players ★

Get it on Etsy → Instant digital download · print at home

Calico Springs has one street, four hundred people and a hole in the ground that everything depends on. Elias Crow was the assayer — the man who wrote the number that said whether a claim was worth digging or worth walking away from — and his report on the Bonanza vein was due to be filed on Monday. At nine o'clock on Saturday night Judd Mercer came out of the Silver Bell, took hold of Crow in the alley and knocked him down. Six people heard it. Two saw it. Judd has never once denied it.

🎭 THE TWIST THIS ONE IS BUILT ON

At eleven the marshal found Crow in that same alley, dead. By midnight Judd was in the lock-up, and the circuit judge is four days away — so the town has settled the matter itself. They hang him at dawn. Tonight is the inquest and it is a formality. Nobody in this room is lying to you. Every one of them will tell the truth as they know it, and if your guests get it wrong, every one of them helped.

🖼 FULLY ILLUSTRATED — NEW EDITION

• 12 painted character portraits, one on every character sheet

• A "Meet Your Characters" page so your guests can see the whole town at a glance

• A painted cover of the alley as it was found

Nobody hands out a plain sheet of text any more. Your guests get a face to play.

👤 12 CHARACTERS, EACH WITH A REAL SECRET

The 6 at the centre carry the mystery — the marshal who has bought eleven claims on the Bonanza side in eight months, the ranch hand who has never denied knocking the dead man down, the saloon owner whose licence is in the name of a man four years dead, the clerk who has been writing the assayer's reports herself in his own hand, the undertaker who takes small things off the dead, and the company man who has known since August that the Bonanza is finished.

6 more of the town each get a full sheet of their own: a motive, an alibi, something they saw, and a reason to be nervous. Nobody at your table just watches.

📄 WHAT YOU GET — instant download, 23 pages

• Host Guide — how to run all three rounds

• At a Glance — the whole game on one page, safe to read even if you are playing

• The Tangle — who is covering for whom (host only)

• The Story — read aloud to open the night

• Meet Your Characters — the illustrated cast

• 12 Character Sheets — secret, alibi, what you know, and what to say in Round 3

• Clue Cards for all three rounds

• Accusation Sheets and printable invitations

• The Murderer’s Envelope — hand it to one guest, or leave it sealed and play along yourself

• The Solution — sealed at the back, read aloud at the end

🖨 HOW IT WORKS

1. Print. A4 and US Letter are both included — print at 100% on plain paper.

2. Hand out. One character sheet per guest. At 4 players you use the core 6; at 12 you hand out every sheet in the file.

3. Play. Three rounds, roughly 90-120 minutes. Clue cards go out at the top of each round.

4. Accuse. Everyone fills in an Accusation Sheet. Read the Solution page aloud — whoever names the murderer, the method AND the motive wins.

You can host AND play. No character sheet tells its owner they are the killer, so read your own and leave the last two pages — the Murderer’s Envelope and the Solution — in an envelope until the vote.

★ GREAT FOR ★

Dinner parties, game nights, girls’ nights in, birthday celebrations, Halloween gatherings, and evenings when a group of friends wants something to do together — small groups and large.

Teen & Adult · Instant digital download · Nothing is shipped · Print it again for the next party.