Cold Ledger Games

An announcement at the toast. She never finishes it.

THE TENTH WINTER

A murder mystery party game for 8–20 players, about three hours or ninety minutes, printable or played on everyone's phones. A young distillery holds its tenth year-end party at the founder's lake house, ten winters after its co-founder went through the ice. The founder has promised an announcement at the toast, and she never finishes it.

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Printable: instant download, US Letter, black and white is fine · Digital edition: a room on your players' phones, nothing to print

Refundable within 14 days until you download, or start your first room; after that the sale is final unless something is faulty (refund policy).

"The first death was the lake. This one happened in front of everyone."

Inside the game

The printable's files and the digital edition's phones, each led by its video.

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Animated cover of The Tenth Winter. Frost grows in from the edges of the wine-red cover, around the lines She raised her glass. She drank. She never finished the sentence. Then the title ices over as the music lands. What is inside the printable party game: an invitation and a name tag for each guest; each guest's private guide, on paper or a phone; a house plan, logs and a group chat to investigate; a secret vote, then the reveal. Then 8 to 20 players, four possible killers, and the host plays too. The Tenth Winter cover, a murder mystery party game from Cold Ledger Games, frost creeping in from the edges of a wine-red card. She raised her glass. She drank. She never finished the sentence. 8 to 20 players, the host plays too, printable. Four killers, one file. Someone not playing picks one; the host prints only that one, and plays too. The host materials' picker page, four numbers each naming pages to print, beside a die. Unless your own sealed card tells you that you did it, you find out at the reveal. Three stay sealed. Four PDFs and a zip, instant download; only the host prints. The first page of each, titles showing, text blurred: Start Here, 3 pages; Host Materials, 84; Character Guides, 41; Evidence Pack, 32. The phone pack zip, 22 files: twenty guides, a casting sheet and the shared evidence. Before the party: send each guest their guide two days ahead; setup takes 30 to 40 minutes, the blind pick included. Start Here on sending guides, then three steps: send guides; print the evidence pack and one version, picked blind; sort the evidence into three face-down stacks. Then the host guide reads the night out loud. Made for a crowd: eight to twenty guests, ages 16 and up. Halloween, four possible killers; office holiday parties, a 90-minute format; team building, detective teams; winter parties, a year-end party on a frozen lake; New Year's Eve, about three hours; birthdays, the host plays too. No acting needed. How the night runs, about three hours: arrival, 30 minutes; the toast, 5; the round starts, 10, eight sealed cards go out; on the record, 15, every character reads a statement; three evidence waves, 25 to 30 each; accusations and a secret vote, 20; then the reveal. No acting needed. Got a hard stop? 90 minutes. Every player reads their character and the shared evidence two days ahead. The schedule from the toast at 0:00 through the round start, statements, recap, introductions, the trading floor, a press conference, accusations and the vote, the reveal at 1:17, and awards at 1:25. 8 to 20, three ways, drawn as tables: one room of up to twenty players and one killer; two tables, two games of 8 to 10, each with its own sealed version; or two or three detective teams, each committing a verdict in writing. Two tables print two different versions, so neither spoils the other. Twenty characters: eight required, add the others in order, anyone can play anyone. Two pages of name tags from the evidence pack, character 1 to 20, every name and role blurred. Every guide is written without a pronoun, so the cast fits any table. Your private guide, printed or texted: secrets, three objectives, one costume line. A guide's first page on paper and the same page on a phone, its section headings showing and every word under them blurred. Your statement is in your guide or on a sealed card. Real records, not clue cards: a house plan, logs and a group chat, flipped in three waves. A floor plan of the lake house on top, every label blurred, over three blurred documents from the evidence pack. Safe for the host to read: nothing in the evidence pack names the killer. Invite your guests: the game's own invitation, two designs in the evidence pack, with blanks for the date, the doors and the place. A Cold Ledger Games party mystery, The Tenth Winter: the distillery's tenth year-end party, at the founder's lake house. Dress: a winter party at a lake house. Set the table: name tags with the names blurred, voting cards, a team verdict card blurred, and the awards, all in the evidence pack: the sharpest detective, the best performance, the best wrong theory and the room's conscience. One award is for the best wrong theory. The fine print: instant download, four PDFs and one zip, nothing ships. Start Here 3 pages, Host Materials 84, Character Guides 41, Evidence Pack 32, the phone pack 22 files. About fifty sheets, US Letter, one-sided, black and white is fine. A phone or paper each. Personal use, not for resale. Content note: ages 16 and up. A death ten winters old reopened, a new one at the toast, a workplace with its knives out, drinking at a party. No gore, no sexual assault. The same note on page 3 of Start Here. Nobody has to fall over; play it big or quiet. No character is meant to be anyone at your table. Also available, from the same archive: this game on phones, and the cold case where its story starts. The covers of The Tenth Winter's digital edition and of Accident, Drink Involved, the case file the story starts in. If you'll play both, play the file first.
Animated cover of The Tenth Winter digital edition, beside a phone showing the host page. Frost grows in from the edges of the wine-red cover, then the title ices over as the music lands. What the digital edition runs on everyone's phones: each phone shows its own character, privately; eight sealed cards, each on its own phone; the evidence, wave by wave, on every phone at once; a secret vote the room counts. Then 8 to 20 players, nothing to print, and the host plays too. The Tenth Winter digital edition cover, frost at the edges of a wine-red card: a murder mystery party game, the party mystery on everyone's phones, beside a phone showing the host page. She raised her glass. She drank. She never finished the sentence. 8 to 20 players, the host plays too, nothing to print, in one room or on a call. The host plays too: players join free and the room does the rest. Players join with a link and buy nothing; the room picks the version and never says which; each phone keeps its own guide private; evidence at your tap; a secret vote counted by the room. Unless your own sealed card tells you that you did it, you find out at the reveal. How long it takes: about three hours, or 90 minutes with a fixed end time, chosen when you start a room. Two phones: the host page's choice of the three-hour evening or the 90-minute format, and a 90-minute night's clock. For 90, every player reads their character and the shared evidence two days ahead; the room sends both. One phone each: players open the link or type the code, and you cast them as they arrive. Two phones: the room's door with its QR code blurred, and the host's player list, each guest's character blurred. Characters 1 to 8 are required; 9 to 20 join in order. Eight sealed cards: at the round start each goes to its own phone at once, sealed until its player lifts the fold. Two phones: a sealed card, unopened, the name on it blurred, and another player's room screen: characters 1 to 8 are reading their sealed cards, poker faces. Only characters 1 to 8 get a card. The evidence, wave by wave: every document reaches every phone at once, as the host opens each wave. Two phones: the evidence list, the start pages and wave 1, The Party, with every title blurred, and one document, The House Plan, open with its drawing blurred. Blurred here, so nothing is spoiled. The secret vote: each phone casts one ballot, and the room counts them. Two phones: a player's ballot, one name ticked, and the host's tally, ten votes to four, every name blurred. Then the reveal reaches every screen at once. Remote teams, on a video call: players join with the link from anywhere, and each phone is its own character. A laptop showing a video call of twelve people beside a player's phone, the character and the guide blurred. The host runs the night from one phone. Two tables at once: sixteen or more? Start two rooms on one copy, two games, each dealt its own killer. Two phones: the host's rooms, Table one and Table two, and Table one's players, nine cast. Until your copy has played three versions, two open rooms never share a killer. After you buy, hosting in a minute: check out on this page, and the link to your host page appears at once and by email; start a room, days ahead if you like, for the three-hour evening or the 90-minute format; send the link, cast your players, and your phone runs the night. No app, no printer, players buy nothing. Good to know: the same game on phones, the printable party game rebuilt for the browser. 8 to 20 players, ages 16 and up, characters 1 to 8 required; about three hours or 90 minutes; four killers, three sealed for another night; any current browser, online; your emailed link reopens the host page; players buy nothing. Content note: ages 16 and up. A death ten winters old reopened, a new one at the toast, a workplace with its knives out, drinking at a party. No gore, no sexual assault. Nobody has to fall over; play it as big or as quiet as you like; no character is meant to be anyone at your table; no acting needed. Also available, from the same archive. Prefer paper? The covers of The Tenth Winter's printable edition, this party game printed at home, and of Accident, Drink Involved, the case file the story starts in. If you'll play both, play the file first.

Four killers. One game. The host plays too.

Most party mysteries hand the host the answer and ask them to keep a straight face all night. This one doesn't. Four complete sealed versions ship inside the game, and the setup picks one without ever showing you which: a picker page in the printable, the room itself in the digital edition. Unless your own sealed card tells you that you did it, you find out at the reveal with everyone else.

Someone else picks the number

Before the party, a person who isn't playing picks a number from one to four. You print only the seventeen pages that number names. The four spans look alike, with no labels and equal length, and the picker page gives nothing away.

So you get to play too

Take a character, work the evidence, argue with everyone else. Nothing the host does all evening needs the answer: unless your own sealed card tells you when the round starts that you did it, you find out when the folded solution card is opened and read aloud, with the room.

Three versions are still sealed

When the group wants another night, three unopened versions are waiting in the same file: the same twenty people and the same toast, and an evidence trail that convicts somebody else.

Three hours or ninety minutes. One room or two tables.

Written for real rooms, from a party at home to a company's year-end night: two runtimes and two ways to compete, all in the host materials.

The full evening

About three hours, arrival to verdict, with time for every objective, every argument and every wrong theory. The host guide reads the whole night out for you.

Ninety minutes, for a work event

For a fixed end time. Every player introduces a document, and five run the table's jobs, and all the evidence is out by the thirty-one-minute mark. A puzzle race in costume.

Detective teams

One cast, one killer, two or three teams. Everyone keeps playing their character, the teams work from the same evidence, and every team commits its verdict in writing before the reveal. The killer is on somebody's team.

Two tables

Two full games at once, one for each half of the room, eight to ten at a table, each with its own sealed version, picked blind. Both verdicts go down in writing, then get compared: that's the closer.

Two ways to play, one night

The same twenty characters, the same toast, the same four sealed versions. Pick the table you play at.

Printable

Download the host materials with the four sealed versions behind a picker page, all twenty character guides for print and for phones, and the evidence pack. The host prints one version and the evidence; players read their guide on a phone or on paper.

  • Instant download, US Letter, black and white is fine
  • Yours to keep and print again
  • Also sold on Etsy

Digital edition

The game on everyone's phones, nothing to print. You start a room from your host page, players join with a link and a name, and each phone shows its own guide privately. On the night your phone runs the evening: the toast, the sealed cards to the eight required players' phones, the statements, the evidence waves, a secret vote the room counts, and the reveal on every screen at once.

  • Players buy nothing and install nothing
  • In one room, or on a video call for a remote team
  • The versions you haven't played stay available for another night

What's in the printable

Delivered the moment you buy: a download page opens right after checkout, and the same link lands in your email.

01

START HERE

Host only. How the evening runs, where the picker page is, and exactly who may read what.

02

HOST MATERIALS

The host guide, with every line you read aloud written out: the toast, the round-start script, hints for a stalled table, a short recap, the ninety-minute format and the team modes. Then the picker page and the four sealed versions.

03

CHARACTER PACK, PRINT

All twenty guides, two pages each, written so anyone can play anyone: secrets, three objectives and one costume line. Characters 9 to 20 end with a statement to read aloud; 1 to 8 get theirs on a sealed card.

04

CHARACTER PACK, PHONE

The same twenty guides as separate files, so you can send each player exactly one, with a casting sheet and the shared evidence every player reads ahead in the 90-minute format.

05

EVIDENCE PACK

The shared evidence for three waves, the roster of where everyone was, the house plan, two worksheets, name tags, voting cards, verdict cards, awards, and two invitation designs, with a bar or without.

How the night actually runs

About three hours, arrival to verdict. The host guide reads the whole evening out loud for you: nobody needs acting experience, and every costume is one line. The beats below are the printed evening; in the digital edition they're the phases your phone steps through.

30 minutes

Arrival

Name tags on, drinks poured, everyone in character. Every guide carries three objectives, and the social ones point at other guests by name, so the room gets going on its own while you enjoy it.

5 minutes

The toast

Everyone brings a glass to the front bar, whatever's in it. You read the toast, the room raises its glasses with the founder, and then ten seconds of quiet. Nobody acts anything out, and nobody has to fall over.

10 minutes

The round starts

A short script sets the scene, the first pages go on the table, and characters 1 to 8 get their sealed cards to read in private. Poker faces are now in effect.

15 minutes

On the record

In character order, every player reads their statement aloud. No interruptions. From then on the statements are testimony, and anyone may quote them for the rest of the night.

3 × 25–30 minutes

Three evidence waves

THE PARTY, then THE HOUSE, then THE SEARCH: the party's own records, what the smart house and everyone's phones caught, and what the search turned up. You flip a face-down stack at the top of each wave and keep time while the room argues.

20 minutes

Accusations and the vote

Thirty seconds each, in character: name one suspect and one piece of evidence. No passes. Then everyone votes by card, secretly, and you tally it aloud.

The reveal

The solution card

You unfold it and read it top to bottom, exactly as printed. It reveals who did it, takes the room through the moment that mattered, and lays out the proof, which was on the table all along. Awards after, win or lose, from the best detective work to the most convincing wrong theory.

What the host has to do

One setup session before the party, thirty to forty minutes, and then the guide runs the evening for you.

Send guides two days ahead

One file per player, or their printed pages. Digital edition: start a room, send the join link, and cast players as they arrive. Either way they read it privately and arrive as somebody.

Pick the version without peeking

Someone else names a number; you print that span and nothing else. It only asks you not to peek. Digital edition: the room picks when you start it, and never tells you which, unless your own sealed card tells you at the round start that you did it.

Sort and hide

Sort the evidence face-down into three station stacks by the mark in each corner, pocket the sealed character cards, and put the folded solution under the centerpiece. Digital edition: nothing to sort.

Keep time and play

Flip a stack per wave, call a press conference when the room needs one, read a hint if it stalls, and otherwise be a character in the room like everybody else.

Good to know

8–20 players About 3 hours, or 90 minutes Detective teams or two tables Printable: US Letter, B&W is fine Digital edition: everyone's phones Anyone can play anyone Any drinks, or none $34.99

Characters 1–8 are required and the mystery is fully solvable at eight; 9–20 join in number order, and the roster accounts for every guest at the lake house, played or not. Every guide is written without pronouns, so anyone can play anyone. Pour whatever your room drinks: the toast is any glass, and nobody is ever asked to drink alcohol.

Ages 16 and up. Play it as big, glamorous melodrama or completely straight; it holds up either way. Content note: a death ten winters old reopened, a new one at the toast, a workplace with its knives out, and drinking at a party; no gore, no sexual assault.

Common questions

How many players does The Tenth Winter need?

Eight to twenty. Characters 1 to 8 are required and the mystery is fully solvable with eight; characters 9 to 20 join in number order, and the roster accounts for every guest at the lake house, played or not.

How long does the game take?

About three hours, arrival to verdict. For a fixed end time, the host materials include a 90-minute format: every player introduces a document, and five run the table's jobs, and all the evidence is out on the table by the thirty-one-minute mark.

Can the host play too?

Yes. Four complete sealed versions ship in the game. With the printable, someone who isn't playing picks a number from one to four and you print only the pages that number names, so you don't see which killer you printed. In the digital edition the room picks the version itself and never shows you. Either way you play a character all evening, as blind as your guests: unless your own sealed card tells you when the round starts that you did it, you find out at the reveal with the rest of the room.

Can we play in teams?

Yes, two ways. Detective teams: the room divides into two or three teams working from the same evidence, everyone keeps playing their character, and every team commits its verdict in writing before the reveal, with the killer on somebody's team. Two tables: two full games at once, one for each half of the room, eight to ten at a table, each with its own sealed version, picked blind, and the verdicts compared at the end.

Does it work for an office party or team building?

It was written for one. Anyone can play anyone, because every guide is written without pronouns; every line the host reads aloud is written out, and each costume is one line. For a hard stop, use the 90-minute format; for a big group, the team modes. Running it for paying guests, such as a ticketed event, needs our written permission first (section 2.5 of our terms).

Do we have to drink alcohol?

No. Pour whatever your room drinks: the toast is any glass, and nobody is ever asked to drink alcohol. The evidence pack has two invitation designs, one for a party with a bar and one for a party without.

What do I need to print?

With the printable, only the host needs a printer: the seventeen pages of the version the picker names, plus the shared evidence pack, on US Letter, one-sided, and black and white is fine. Players read their own guide on a phone or on paper. With the digital edition, nothing: everything is on the phones.

What is the digital edition?

The same game played on phones, with nothing to print. You start a room from your host page; players join with a link and a name and buy nothing, and once you cast them each phone shows its own guide privately. On the night your phone runs the evening: the toast, the sealed cards to the eight required players' phones, the statements, the three evidence waves, a secret vote the room counts, and the reveal on every screen at once.

Do we need to play Accident, Drink Involved first?

No. Each is a complete game with its own answer, and The Tenth Winter can be played without the case file. If you mean to play both, though, play Accident, Drink Involved first: the story begins there, and the old case comes up again at the tenth party.

What ages is it for?

Ages 16 and up. A death ten winters old is reopened and a new one comes at the toast; there is a workplace with its knives out, and drinking at a party. No gore, no sexual assault.

Can we play it again?

Yes. After your first night three versions are still sealed in the same game: the same twenty characters and the same toast, with an evidence trail that convicts somebody else.

How do I get the files?

Instantly. The printable: a download page opens right after checkout and the same link arrives by email, with the twenty character guides also as separate files so you can send each player their own. The digital edition: a page with your host link opens right after checkout, and the same link arrives by email so you can start a room whenever you like.

Can I get a refund?

Yes, within 14 days of buying, as long as you haven't downloaded the files or, for the digital edition, started a room. After that the sale is final, unless something is faulty: if a file won't open, pages are missing or a room won't load, reply to your purchase email and we'll fix it or refund you. Details are in the refund policy.

Where the story starts

ACCIDENT, DRINK INVOLVED

Ten winters earlier, the company's first year-end party, the same lake house. A cold-case mystery for one or two: seventeen documents, four answers to commit to, one evening, printable or played on your phone. Each game has its own answer; if you mean to play both, play this one first.

Open the case file — $6.99 Our other party game — $34.99 The Orpheum File — $6.99 The Season 1 bundle — $37.99

The tenth party.

Twenty guests. One toast. Four ways this ends.

Also on Etsy

Refundable within 14 days until you download, or start your first room; after that the sale is final unless something is faulty (refund policy).