Create a Custom Murder Mystery Draft

The Custom Mystery generator writes an original murder mystery draft for your group through your browser. You describe the night you are planning — the mood, the occasion, how many people are coming, how long you have, and how hard you want it to be — and it returns a whodunit draft based on that brief: a premise, a cast of suspects with secrets, three rounds of clues, and a solution naming the culprit, motive, and method.

It is free with a ColdCase Party account, and the result is yours to host however you like — read aloud around a table, pasted into a group chat, or printed for the night.

Create Your Mystery DraftBrowse Playable Cases

What you choose

• Theme — classic whodunit, glamorous gala, haunted estate, small-town secrets, corporate intrigue, or holiday mystery.
• Occasion — game night, birthday, date night, a team social, a holiday gathering, or just for fun.
• Group size — anywhere from 2 to 8 players; the suspect cast is sized to match.
• Run time — 30, 45, 60, or 90 minutes, which sets how much material the three rounds carry.
• Difficulty — Accessible for a relaxed table, Clever for regular players, or Devious for a group that wants to work for it.
• Your actual guests (optional) — add up to eight names with a line of detail each and the cast is written around the people in the room.

What the finished draft contains

• The setup — a title, a one-line hook, the premise, who died, and where it happened.
• The suspects — every character gets the face they show the room and the secret they are hiding behind it.
• Three rounds of play — each with its own objective, a passage for the host to read aloud, and two to four clues.
• The solution — the culprit, their motive, their method, and the reveal to read at the end.
• Hosting notes — practical guidance for running the night, pacing the rounds, and handling a table that gets stuck.

Checked against your brief

A draft is not handed over the moment it is written. It is checked first: the cast has to be exactly the size you asked for with no repeated names, any player names you supplied have to appear verbatim, the three rounds have to arrive in order with two to four clues each, and the culprit named in the solution has to be one of the suspects in the cast. A draft that fails those checks is rewritten rather than shown to you broken.

A draft, not a playable ColdCase case

This is planning material for a mystery you host yourself. It does not add a case to your account, create a room, or turn into a playable multiplayer game. The real-time experience — shared evidence boards, timelines, and a room your group joins with a code — lives in the hand-written cases in the case library, where the opening chapter of Canvas of Death is free to try.

Drafts are not saved, so copy anything you want to keep before you leave the page. You can rerun the same brief for a completely different mystery, or change any of your choices and start again.

Who it is for

Hosts who want a mystery that fits their specific night: a birthday with friends in the suspect cast, an office social with a target run time of 45 minutes, a two-person date night, or a holiday gathering where half the table has never played a mystery before. Instead of buying a boxed kit sized for someone else's group, you get a draft written for yours.

Getting started

Sign in with a free ColdCase Party account, make your five choices, and generate. A draft usually takes under a couple of minutes to write and check. Generation is rate-limited so it stays available to everyone — enough for a few drafts in one sitting.

Frequently asked questions

What does the Custom Mystery generator actually create?

It writes a complete murder mystery draft: a title and premise, the victim and setting, a cast of 2–8 suspects with public personas and private secrets, three rounds of play with an objective and 2–4 clues each, a full solution (culprit, motive, method, and the reveal to read aloud), and hosting notes for whoever runs the night.

Is the draft a playable ColdCase Party case?

No. The generator produces planning material you host yourself — it does not add a case to your account or create a multiplayer room. The real-time, evidence-board experience lives in the hand-written cases in the case library.

How do I choose what kind of mystery I get?

You set five things: a theme (classic whodunit, glamorous gala, haunted estate, small-town secrets, corporate intrigue, or holiday mystery), the occasion, how many players you have (2–8), a target run time of 30, 45, 60, or 90 minutes, and a difficulty of Accessible, Clever, or Devious. The draft is written to those choices.

Can I use my friends' real names in the mystery?

Yes. You can optionally add up to eight player names with a line of detail each, and the cast is written around them — a draft that drops or renames someone you supplied is rejected and rewritten. Those details only shape the draft returned in that session; they are not saved to your account.

Do I need an account, and does it cost anything?

You need a free ColdCase Party account to generate a draft, and there is no charge for it. Generation is rate-limited to keep it available to everyone, so you can create a few drafts in a sitting rather than an unlimited run.

How long does a draft take to generate?

Usually under a couple of minutes. The mystery is written, then checked against your brief before you see it — the cast has to be the size you asked for with no repeated names, the three rounds have to arrive in order, and the culprit has to be one of the suspects. A draft that fails those checks is rewritten rather than handed over broken.

Can I regenerate or change the result?

Yes. You can run the same brief again for a different mystery, or change the theme, occasion, player count, run time, or difficulty and start a new draft. Drafts are not saved, so copy anything you want to keep before leaving the page.