How to Play

The objective

Someone has been murdered, and every player is a detective on the case — except one, who is secretly the killer. The detectives race to uncover the full truth: who did it, in what room, with what weapon, and why. Detectives compete with each other — only the first to solve it wins, and you can't win if you're dead. The killer wins by killing every detective.

What you need

• 4–10 players, each on their own phone or laptop.
• One room — Deceptor is built for playing in person, arguing out loud. It also works over a voice or video call.
• A browser. No download and no account: the host creates a game and shares a short room code, and everyone else enters it to join.

Setup — done for you

When the game starts, the app secretly picks the solution: one suspect (the killer, chosen from the players), one weapon, one room, and one motive. The deck scales with your group — four of each weapon, room, and motive are in play with 4–5 players, five of each with 6–9, and six of each with 10.

A short briefing opens the game: everyone reads the story and privately learns their role. Then day one begins.

Initial findings

Every detective starts with a few cards they know are not part of the answer. These are your Initial Findings — only you can see them. Use them to rule things out and narrow down the truth.

The killer gets no findings. Their tracker shows the real answer instead — they spend the game pretending to work a case they've already closed.

Your turn: make a guess

Each detective takes one turn per day. On your turn, name a suspect, a weapon, a room, and a motive.

• All four correct? You win the game outright, on the spot. Every turn is a chance to win.
• Something's wrong? The other detectives are asked in order, and the first one holding a card that matches part of your guess shows it to you privately. That card is now ruled out — for you alone.
• Nobody can answer? You learn that too, and it's a clue in itself: the cards you named are either in the solution or out of reach.

While building a guess, cards you've already ruled out are tagged — Initial for your own findings, Revealed for cards shown to you — so you always know what a guess can still teach you.

The tracker

Your tracker lists every weapon, room, and motive in play with checkboxes. Your own findings and anything revealed to you are pre-checked automatically. Tap any other row to mark it manually, and keep your own notes as theories form. A good tracker is the difference between a hunch and a solve.

Nightfall: discussion and voting

After a full rotation of turns, the day ends. Detectives discuss and vote at the same time — argue aloud, pick a suspect, and confirm your vote. Once everyone confirms (or the timer runs out), the votes are counted:

• The vote lands on a detective: one of their findings is revealed to the whole table — a public clue everyone benefits from.
• The vote lands on the killer: they have no findings to reveal, so they are exposed — and the Hunt begins.
• The vote ties: it goes to a Tussle.

Here's the dangerous part: while everyone votes, the killer is secretly marking their next victim. When voting ends, that player is found dead — and no one sees who did it. The exception: if the vote exposed the killer that same round, the marked player isn't killed silently. They fight for their life in a duel instead.

Every death drops one of the victim's findings for all to see. The dead still testify.

Tie vote: the Tussle

Nobody wins a tied vote — it gets settled by hand. Everyone who tied, whether that's two players or five, is named to the whole table and squares up for a five-second tap-off. Tap as fast as you can. The slowest tapper is knocked out:

• A knocked-out detective reveals one of their findings to everyone and loses their next turn — one turn, then they're back in.
• If several players tie for slowest, every one of them goes down.
• Miss the window entirely and you count as zero taps — so tap something.
• The killer scraps like anyone else, but a tie can never expose them — only an outright vote does that.

The Hunt

Once the killer is exposed, the pretense is over. Voting stops, and each nightfall the killer picks a survivor and attacks them in a five-second tap duel — out-tap the killer or die. The Hunt also begins automatically when only one detective is left standing.

Detectives keep taking turns and making guesses through it all. Exposed is not the same as caught: you still have to solve the case before the killer finishes the job.

Winning

• Detectives: only one of you can win — the first to name the killer, weapon, room, and motive correctly on their turn.
• The killer: wins the moment every detective is dead.

Ready to put it into practice? Read the strategy guide, meet the suspects in the Manor, or start a game right now.