Murder Mystery Night

MURDER MYSTERY NIGHT
A homebrew social-deduction TTRPG built around mystery, roleplay, investigation, and player consequence.
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Role: Creator / GM / Writer / System Designer
Format: Custom TTRPG
Players: 6–12 + GM team
Development: Homebrew / Original System
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Murder Mystery Night is an interactive roleplaying game combining social deduction, exploration, mystery-solving, and roleplay. Players navigate a digital maze, interact with one another, gather clues, and attempt to identify a hidden killer while the killer works to avoid detection or sabotage the group. The game is supported by a custom ruleset, lore, GM documentation, and persistent narrative systems.
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What I Created:
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Worldbuilding
Lore • History • Characters • Locations
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TTRPG Design
Rules • Mechanics • Roles • Progression
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Narrative Design
Mysteries • Consequences • Player Choices
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GM Writing
Adventure preparation • Evidence • Puzzles • Facilitation
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Interactive Writing
Character objectives • Clues • Secrets • Persistent narrative
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Murder Mystery Night is designed to be run by multiple GMs, so the system requires clear GM-facing documentation. I wrote guidelines that explain how to prepare a chapter, structure the mystery, manage the player experience, and coordinate information between the GM team.
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The goal was to give the GM enough structure to run the experience while still leaving room for them to create their own story, encounters, clues, and twists.
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GM's Responsibilities
Creating the Maze: Design a ‘maze’ that players will navigate during the game.
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Lore Creation: Write the story and background for this chapter, ensuring it connects to the ongoing narrative.
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Killer Setup: Work with the GMA (Game Master Assistant) to finalize the killer’s role, including motives, weapons, and any related forms.
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MMN uses multiple GM roles, each responsible for different parts of the experience. I documented these responsibilities so that narrative preparation, player management, and moderation could be coordinated rather than handled by a single person.
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Running the Actual Experience
GM Objective: Establish the premise and orient players before they enter the central mystery.
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The GM-facing material establishes not only what happens, but the order in which the GM introduces information to the players.

Running the Investigation
​“The goal here isn’t to argue about motives or whereabouts just yet...Instead, players should focus on searching the room for evidence. The room setup will be planned out by the GMs in advance..."

GM Direction for Investigation
 
Player Objective: Search the room for evidence.
 
GM Preparation: Prepare the room and determine what players can discover.
 
 
Information Design: Not every discovery leads to clues, some may be red herrings. 
 

Managing the Trial
“During the Trial, players will piece together the mystery based on the evidence they’ve gathered. The GM’s role is to facilitate the discussion, keep things moving, and make sure players have a fair chance to present their case."

Building mechanics around the intended player experience.

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Focus

Investigation resource / information advantage.

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Insanity

A psychological progression system.

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Gossip

Information gathering through nearby rooms.

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Consequences

Choices that affect future gameplay.

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Time Capsules

A persistent narrative mechanic.

After a session, a player can leave up to three sentences for the next person who plays their character.

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I designed Time Capsules to create continuity between players rather than treating each session as completely isolated. Players can leave fragments of memory that become part of the character's accumulated history.

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Setting
“This game is actually never ending. After each ‘story’ is completed, the next story will take its place as an alternative universe. It is like pressing a big red button named ‘reset’, except there are a few exceptions.”

“Every MMN will have the sessions of game as a cover up...”

History - Story Behind Experiments
“Two scientists have been studying experimental medicine in [REDACTED] institution.”

“Phoenix worked on the experiments with support from the [REDACTED] institution, however when the headmaster found out that Phoenix wasn't just using the cadavers provided by the institution, they decided to expel Phoenix ‘quietly’...”

“A year after Phoenix has moved back to their parents’ place, the house has caught on fire under mysterious circumstances.”

“Phoenix became known as the ‘mad scientist’ across the [REDACTED] hometown, but never caught international attention, and soon became a local folklore legend.”

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History - Story of the World Outside

“The world originally was affected by this disease mostly in lower class so gov didn't care, then it started to spread onto higher classes, gov cares so they suppress information and try this experiment...”

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“right now the outside world is not in panic, more conspiracy theories and the general unsettling feeling that the government is hiding something, people tend to trust each other less.”

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STAGE 1 -  Hidden Crisis

Gene 972 primarily affects lower-class populations.

STAGE 2 - Suppression

The disease begins affecting higher classes.

STAGE 3 - Public Suspicion

Conspiracy theories and distrust begin spreading.

STAGE 4 - Social Collapse

The disease becomes widespread and violence escalates.

Characters

“The anonymous source, thus further known as ‘The Watcher’, wishes to continue Phoenix’s research. To accompany them, The Watcher has appointed a handler. The handler will further be known as ‘XXX’. XXX is loyal to The Watcher and is there to make sure procedures are followed. Phoenix is not aware of this information.”

Phoenix

Believes XXX/Kare is simply an assistant.

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XXX/Kare

Actually reports to the Watcher.

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Watcher

Knows more about the experiment than Phoenix.

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Design Focus: Information asymmetry between characters allows the same relationship to appear differently depending on what the player knows.

Mysteries

LAYER 1
What players experience
        ↓
Murder mystery

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LAYER 2
Things that feel strange
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Glitches / unusual dialogue / strange rooms

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LAYER 3
Optional discoveries
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Secret rooms + puzzles + hidden lore

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LAYER 4
Accumulated knowledge
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Players connect information across games

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LAYER 5
The actual underlying story
        ↓
The experiment / Gene 972 / Watcher

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Preparation

“Design a ‘maze’ that players will navigate during the game.”

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Narrative Setup

“Write the story and background for this chapter, ensuring it connects to the ongoing narrative.”

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Killer Preparation

“Work with the GMA to finalize the killer’s role, including motives, weapons, and any related forms.”

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Facilitation

“The GM’s role is to facilitate the discussion, keep things moving, and make sure players have a fair chance to present their case.”

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