{
  "id": "christmas-murder-mystery",
  "title": "The Third Carol: A Christmas Murder Mystery Game",
  "catalogNo": "AGC · 030",
  "genre": "Murder mystery game",
  "shelf": "mystery",
  "summary": "A Christmas murder mystery game for one to eight at one screen: six suspects whose every answer and every lie were written and sealed before play, four rounds of evidence, and one accusation you can check against that file afterwards.",
  "tagline": "A Christmas murder mystery game hosted by your AI: your guests are the detectives, the AI plays all six suspects, and the culprit was sealed before the first question.",
  "players": "1-8",
  "sessionMinutes": [
    60,
    90
  ],
  "rating": "12+",
  "isFree": true,
  "playedIn": [
    "ChatGPT",
    "Claude",
    "Gemini"
  ],
  "status": "playable",
  "url": "https://aigamecards.com/games/christmas-murder-mystery/",
  "loadUrl": "https://aigamecards.com/g/christmas-murder-mystery/card-b2e89f11a051.txt",
  "system": "https://aigamecards.com/g/christmas-murder-mystery/SYSTEM.md",
  "loadPrompt": "Let's play a game. Fetch https://aigamecards.com/g/christmas-murder-mystery/card-b2e89f11a051.txt and run it as the game — it's a complete, self-contained prompt. If that link won't open, fetch https://aigamecards.com/g/christmas-murder-mystery/SYSTEM.md, the same card. The card's sealed answer file is https://aigamecards.com/g/christmas-murder-mystery/reveal-bd9028f77f45.md: fetch it when the card says to, and keep it from me until the card says to show it. If the card or its sealed file won't open, don't start without them: tell me this game needs a chat that can open links. Be the game master and begin.",
  "faq": [
    {
      "q": "Can ChatGPT host a murder mystery party?",
      "a": "Not reliably. A ChatGPT murder mystery party has no fixed culprit, so its clues can contradict its own alibis and two suspects can end up equally guilty. This card fixes the culprit first. Every answer each of the six suspects can give, the lies they tell, the exhibit that breaks each lie and all sixteen exhibits were written before play. A script checked them against one timeline that leaves exactly one suspect who fits the evidence, and then they were sealed under SHA-256. The card tells your AI to read the evidence word for word and to play each suspect only from their own lines. The seal can't prove every answer was right, so the whole file is yours to read afterwards. To host an AI murder mystery party this way, the chat must be able to open a link."
    },
    {
      "q": "Do the guests play the suspects?",
      "a": "No. When you host a murder mystery party with your AI, your guests are the detectives and your AI plays all six suspects, so nobody needs a character booklet or a costume. Everyone hears the same evidence and nobody holds a secret. One person types while the table talks it over, and the questions go round the table by seat, four a round."
    },
    {
      "q": "How long does it take, and how many can play?",
      "a": "One to eight at one screen, for about an hour to an hour and a half: four rounds of evidence, sixteen questions to the suspects, then one accusation. It works as a solo murder mystery game too, with the same case, rules and score. You can save between rounds and carry on in a new chat."
    },
    {
      "q": "Is it a good Christmas party game for families?",
      "a": "Yes, if the youngest player is 12 or older. It is a killing on Christmas Eve, told plainly: one blow, no gore, no poison. The household's secrets are grown-up ones, about money and marriage, each told in a sentence or two. The Host asks for nothing but first names or nicknames, and the house and the village are invented."
    },
    {
      "q": "What does the seal prove, and does the chat have to open a link?",
      "a": "The seal proves that the culprit, the evidence and every suspect's lines were fixed before your first question; you can rebuild the hash at aigamecards.com/verify. It does not prove that every answer the AI gave was right. The Host fetches the sealed file at load, so the chat must be able to open a link, and pasting the file yourself would show you the answer. aigamecards.com/launch-matrix lists which apps currently can."
    }
  ]
}