This is a read-aloud, question-and-answer storytelling game.

Each player selects a playbook.

On your turn, you read the next page of your playbook aloud.

Usually, the book will ask you a leading question. Answer it.

By the end of the book, you will have invented a victim, filled their home with suspects, committed a murder, and solved it.

“It’s super fun collaborative storytelling! It does a great job helping you tell a story with your friends, while providing just enough structure that you don’t feel overwhelmed with possibilities.”

Literally zero time at all! Just tear open the shrink wrap, hand out the books, open to the first page, and start playing.

Tabletop games usually require someone to read a complicated set of rules, and then explain those rules to the group. Simple games can take ten or fifteen minutes to set up and explain. Complex roleplaying games (RPGs) can take much, much longer.

We're sick of all that.

So we studied the way that video games teach you the controls while you play. Then we adapted those design principles for Murder Gently.

“My least favorite part of games is having to sit and learn rules, so the idea that this hand-holds you as you go along…chef’s kiss. I loved that I didn’t have to know shit. I could just play.”

"The way the game introduces rules is great. It feels like you can just sit there with friends and say, ‘Here's the book, let’s play.’ You don't have to explain anything.”

Infinite times! And you'll get a wildly different story every time.

We've seen Murder Gently mysteries with railroad tycoons, talking raccoons, mob families, whale poachers, plots to usurp the throne, pirate ships, Greco-Roman generals, and ancient curses. We've seen critiques of Ayn Rand's Objectivist philosophy, reflections on marital fidelity, and mysteries about intergalactic immaculate conceptions.

All of this is possible because of Murder Gently's question-and-answer system. Questions are constructed to ensure that every suspect has a motive and every mystery has a solution. They give you lots of inspiration to get you going, while offering you infinite freedom to invent.

“I loved it. I've played a lot of mystery games, and with a lot of them, you do them once, and then you can't do them again. You can't unsolve the mystery. But with this you can play a bajillion more times, and every time will be different. I think it’s brilliant.”

Nope! Some games are played with cards, some with dice, some with boards. This game is played with books.

The designer and theorist Vincent Baker once said that when you're designing a tabletop roleplaying game, you're not designing a game—you're designing a conversation.

As a storytelling game, Murder Gently works the same way. The play is in the stories that you tell each other. Across four years of testing and iteration, we've found that books help us tell those stories best.

We also liked the idea of presenting Murder Gently in book form so that the game’s artifacts would match the game’s purpose: the players are here to write a murder mystery novel together, so wouldn’t it be great if the players could hold that novel in their hands?

For more on how a book-led game works, see "How does this game work?" above.

“I loved the pacing, and the humor of the text, and how self-guided it is!“

Recommended player count: 2-5 players.

Duration: 2 hours with the option for more.

Maximum possible player count: 10 players.

One Murder Gently box set comes with materials for 5 players. If you'd like to add players, you'll need a duplicate set of books.

As you play, the game will teach you how to get the timing you want. Hardcore fans will find advanced tactics for managing duration and player counts in the afterword.

Experienced Gently murderers can run games with 5+ players. Those games take 3+ hours and lose some story depth. But they can still be raucous fun.

We like to say that playing with more than 5 players is like going to Disneyland drunk. You don’t have to pass a breathalyzer to get through the gate, but if you puke in the Mad Teacups, you can’t blame Walt.

Absolutely! This game is designed for players of all kinds, including players who don't think they can make stuff up on the fly.

To make sure the design worked, we tested it on programmers, educators, actors, nurses, writers, hospital administrators, students, artists, assistants, naturalists, activists. Someone who mopped up blood and discarded organs for a living. Gamers, non-gamers. Players young and old, new and returning.

Our takeaway: everyone has the capacity to Murder Gently. In fact, we specifically designed this game to welcome more people into the world of storytelling games.

Having said that, if making stuff up on the fly sounds scary to you, be aware that the game will require you to take a leap of faith. You'll have to trust us when we tell you that other non-gamers have done this, and you can to.

The game's afterword offers additional advice on how to keep growing as a spontaneous storyteller.

In your Murder Gently box, you will find 5 different "playbooks" and 1 "afterword."

In order to play, each player will need 1 playbook. These books are mostly the same, but have some important differences between them. Those differences ensure that every player brings something new to the mystery. The differences also help increase variety from playthough to playthrough.

The afterword is an optional read for those who've already played Murder Gently and want to dive deeper. It offers an 150-page look under the hood, exploring the game's design philosophy, tips for play, and tactics for making the game your own.

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