Murder in the dark is a favourite party game for kids of all ages. You don’t need to wait until night time to play either – just find a room that can be made completely dark!

What you need:

• Completely dark room
• Deck of cards

Number of players:
5+

Activity:

Sift through the cards and remove the Jokers, Aces and Kings from your deck.

Replace one Ace and one King in the deck.

Shuffle and deal all the cards evenly to each player.

The player who has been dealt the Ace is the murderer.

The player who who has been dealt the King is the police officer. Players should keep their cards a secret so that no one knows who the murderer and the policeman are.

Turn out the lights in the room.

Players should now walk carefully around amongst each other.

The murderer will tap other players on the shoulder, silently killing them one by one.

The murderer should try and “kill” as many players as they can before the lights go on again.

Tapped players can fall down or make dramatic dying noises if they want – the more drama, the more fun it is!

If players come across someone who has been murdered, they scream out, “Murder in the dark!”

The player closest to the lights should turn them on as soon as someone screams.

Now the policeman has to figure out who the murderer is from amongst the players still left alive. If they guess the murderer correctly, they win the game.

If the police officer is killed, the game is over.

The murderer should reveal themself at the end of the game by showing the Ace card.