Run a murder mystery

A murder mystery on Joinue does the paperwork for you. Each guest gets a private character card on their phone, new clues reach them as you start each round, and you keep your script and the solution in one place on the event's Prep tab.

1. Pick a story

When you pick Murder Mystery under What are you hosting?, Start from one of our stories? opens. Tap a story to see its invite, then Use this story. Your event takes the story's name and invite look, and the cast is ready the moment you create it. Prefer to build it yourself? Pick Write my own. You can change the story later with Change under the format, or drop it with the X.

• The Final Reel (Hollywood, 1927, 6 to 10 players): a studio head is found strangled with film at his own wrap party. Dress code: 1920s Hollywood glamour.
• Exit Strategy (Sonoma, 2026, 5 to 8 players): a founder is poisoned at the toast that was going to air everyone's receipts. Dress code: quiet luxury or your best vest.
• Who Didn't Stab Caesar? (Rome, 44 BC, 8 to 12 players): everyone at this feast struck Caesar, except one of you. Dress code: togas, with a red felt handprint.

Already made the event? Open Cast on the Prep tab. While it's empty it offers three starts: Use one of our stories, I have a kit already (bought or downloaded one? Type just its character names and hand them out) and Write my own. A story card says Needs 6 players (or its own minimum) when fewer guests are going than it's written for. You can still pick it.

Picked from Prep, the story sheet also asks whether to Use the story's invite look and Add the setting and dress code to the description. After that the cast reads From and the story's name. Remove this story takes its characters back out (anything you wrote yourself stays) until you release the cards.

A story also adds your prep to the event's To-do list, assigned to you: when to invite people, when to give out the characters and release the cards, printing the story pack, gathering the props, reading your script, and planning your own costume. Tick them off as you go. They give nothing away, so guests who can see the list can't read a spoiler in it, and Remove this story takes them back out.

2. Shape the cast

Every character has a name, a Backstory, an Introduction (the one line everyone at the party knows), Secret objectives and a Costume. Tap a character to edit any of it. Turn on Required for a character that has to be played, and always mark your culprit Required.

Once you release the cards, everyone coming sees The cast: each character's name and Introduction. So there's no need to list the characters in the event's description.

Under Clues and secrets on a character, tap Add for something only that player reads. Pick when it reaches them: With the card (they read it before the party), a round (it unlocks on their phone when you start that round) or At the end. Turn on They can show this to everyone to make it a prop, like a receipt or a letter, that the player can show the whole room.

Not sure a guest will come? Set Shows to Only if a character is cast (or isn't cast), and a clue or reveal that depends on them only appears when it makes sense.

3. Give out the characters and release them

1. 1Give each guest a character from the guest list, or tap Hand out the rest to give every guest going or maybe without one a character at random. Required characters go first, people going are dealt before maybes, and hosts are left out. You can change any of them afterward.
2. 2Tap Release, then tap again to confirm. Every card goes out at once, and nobody sees a thing before that. If a guest still has no character or a Required one isn't given out, you're asked Release the cards anyway? first.
3. 3Watch who's opened theirs on the board, and nudge anyone who hasn't. See Secret roles and assignments.

Need to rework the cards? Take back hides every card again until you release them once more.

4. Plan the night

The night section on Prep holds your script. Choose Rounds tonight (1 to 5, three to start) and name each round and the ending if you like. A story arrives with all of this written. Then add to it:

• Add something everyone sees: a reveal the whole room gets, with the cards, at a round, or at the end. Turn on Wait until I tap Show for a big moment, and it appears only when you tap Show.
• Add a host note: your lines for each round, like the premise you read out before round 1. Only hosts see these.
• Clues for one player go on their character, under Clues and secrets.

To check what a guest will see, use See as a guest: pick a character and a round and you see their phone at that point.

5. Run it on the night

From six hours before the start, the night moves to the top of Prep. Tap Start round 1, then tap again to confirm. Each round's clues and reveals reach your guests' phones right away, and the line under the button says what's coming next. Keep going with Start round 2 and so on. On the last round the button reads End the night, Reveal the solution, or Go to and your ending's name.

Started a round too soon? Go back hides that round's clues and reveals again (anyone who already read them will remember).

The board says who's Behind, like a guest who hasn't looked at their card yet. Tap Show and their name (like Show Sam's card) to open it full screen and hand them your phone. From there, Show it for them puts one of their props in front of the room. Once round 1 starts, nudges stop and edits to a card no longer notify anyone, so tell the player at the party.

6. The ending

Your solution is something everyone sees, set At the end. With Wait until I tap Show on, guests read that the night is over and the solution is coming next. When you're ready, tap Show on it, then tap again to show everyone. Hide it again takes it back down.

When someone can't come

A guest who says Can't go keeps their character until you move it, and the cast shows that they can't go so you can give it to someone else. Tap another guest, pick the character under From the cast, and confirm. The first guest's card is cleared. Hand out the rest also covers a late guest, before round 1.

The night also warns you before it matters, for example when a character with clues next round isn't cast or a Required character has nobody.

Guests without an account

Guests don't need an account to play. Share the invite link anywhere (a group text, a group chat, an email) and they reply with just their name. Ask them to add an email or phone number when they answer, because that's how their card reaches them: when you release the cards, they get a text or email with their own link, which opens their card on any phone. Their card also opens on the invite link, on the phone they answered from.

Someone left no email or phone? On the cast board, tap their row to copy their link and send it yourself.

Hosting outside the US and Canada? Texts only reach US and Canadian numbers, so on an event set somewhere else the invite asks guests for an email, and their cards arrive by email.

Round clues, props and The case so far need a free account, and their card tells them so. Without one, show them their card from your phone, or print the story pack below.

Print the story pack

Under the cast, Story pack gives you everything on paper: the props in the order you need them (on our stories), one character card per page for envelopes, name tags to cut apart and hand out at the door, your script round by round, and the ending on its own page. It's built from your event, so your edits print too. In a browser tap Open; in the app tap Save PDF or Get the PDF. It's for hosts only, since it holds every secret.

The pack ends the night for you too, with four award certificates to fill in by hand: Master Detective, Best Dressed, Best Performance and Most Convincing Liar.

Writing your own

On a homemade mystery, a checklist called Your story so far tracks what's left: a character for everyone coming, a culprit marked Required, a secret for every character, something new each round, and the solution at the end. Tap any unticked line to fix it. How to write a mystery walks through it in six steps.