Murder on the Ghost Train Review | Don Breathin, owner of the popular theme park “The Frightening Fair” has been found dead – on board his very own ghost train no less! Foul play is suspected and the staff of the Ghost Train have all been called together as suspects. The question is: which one of these strange creatures did the dastardly deed?
Date Played: Friday 13th! (of September, that is)
Number of Players: 10
Time Taken: 3 hours
Difficulty: N/A
Now this is a tricky one to review on The Escape Roomer, since Murder on the Ghost Train is not an escape room. For that matter, it’s not even a traditional “puzzle game”. It’s somewhere between live theatre you host yourself, and a mystery to solve. It’s… A murder mystery! An in-person, live experience where everyone takes on the role of a character and works together (or against one another) to solve a murder. It’s something a little different from the usual content I write about. But what I have found over the years is that the venn diagram of people who enjoy playing escape rooms and people who enjoy taking part in murder mysteries is essentially a circle.
For folks who are experienced in live murder mysteries, then I will say that Murder on the Ghost Train, as with many of Red Herring Games’ experiences, is a “scripted” murder mystery. This differs from “freeform” games, or “interview theatre” games, for example:
Scripted Games – everyone has a character booklet in their hand and reads out a script. These usually happen in acts, ending with questions to ask different members. These are best for beginners, or dinner party settings.
Freeform Games – everyone has information about their own characters, and goals to complete, but they can do them in any order and in any way they like. These are best for experienced players, fans of roleplaying, and more open-party settings. I’ve played a few jubensha games now, and they actually run like this!
Interview Theatre – okay that’s just a phrase I made up, but I couldn’t find the technical term for the style of murder mystery where actors play out scenes, and the players can interview the actors in any way they like. I actually played a couple of these via Zoom during lockdown, like this one.
Now I think about it, this is a non-exhaustive list – because I’ve played games similar to these three styles, and other games that totally broke the mold. And let’s not even get started on “play at home mysteries” like The Detective Society, Body of Evidence, or other games like this… So let’s get back to Murder on the Ghost Train.
Image provided by Red Herring Games.
How to Setup Murder on the Ghost Train
Murder on the Ghost Train is available as a print-yourself game, or a boxed experience. At checkout, you choose your players in a multiple of 2 – from a 6-player game, up to a 20-player game, with any customisations beyond that available at an extra charge. Red Herring Games recommend this game be played over a dinner party, since different rounds of food give natural breaks in the gameplay flow, but we played in more of a party setting and it still worked well for us.
Then, on a suitably spooky pre-Halloween Friday. Friday 13th, to be specific, I invited 10 friends over for a night on the ghost train. In our group we had a mix of puzzley people, people who had played murder mysteries before, and folks who were coming in new to the whole thing. The perfect group to try out such a game with.
I opted for the 10 player, printable version of the game. For most folks, this’ll be fine ‘out of the box’, with suggestions for players provided, however I needed a customisation that, as a consequence, brought the number of players down to 9. The team were very fast on this, and very helpful in every possible way, which was a big plus for the customer service. I appreciate a company that goes above and beyond for their players.
Moving the play size down to 9 wasn’t a problem, since I decided to play The Detective – forgoing the pre-recorded videos to instead narrate those potions from my super secret detective script. On the day, we had a person fall sick. This put the final number of “players” at 8, and so I jumped in to pick up their role last minute, as well as the detective. That’s probably the main issue with murder mystery games in general – they’re often written so everyone has an important role. Losing a few players last minute might put a spanner in the works. In our game, I decided to play both the detective and the missing character and, in the end, it was quite funny. I put two different accents on, jumping from character to character seamlessly. So no real disaster that couldn’t be solved with humour!
As for the contents of the game, they’re very straightforward. Invitations, character booklets, and a host’s guide. Nice and simple! All were printed on black and white with plain font and a simple front cover featuring pumpkins. If you’re going for the printable version you can assemble them into a booklet by following guides like this one, but I’d caution that the black-heavy front cover will definitely use alot of ink in your printer! So keep that with a pinch of salt if you’re printing your own. The only asset I changed was the invitation. Whilst there were some provided, I decided to make my own slightly more immersive and spooky ones with a free Canva template, which looked like:
(address redacted… for obvious reasons!)
Then a brief introduction and some character background:
Scream if you want to go faster! 👻
So, with the game set up and the guests on their way – I set up my living room- I mean, the ghost train. I need no excuse to get Halloween decorations out early, and Friday 13th seemed like an excellent reason. I decided I wouldn’t be running the mystery over food courses, so instead I went for a kind of “put all snacks on the table” buffet.
As people arrived, they got their booklets and were instructed to only read the first page. Once we were all ready, we began with a bold introduction from the detective (that’s me), before launching into the various acts of the game. In each, it went like this:
- A short note from the detective (which I understand would be included in the video if you prefer to use it)
- A scripted act where everyone reads from the booklet
- A series of two questions for each other character, each
One of the interesting things about the game was that the murderer did not know they were the murderer. This makes it a very, very good entry level murder mystery because nobody is likely to accidentally give the game away when they open their booklet and gasp loudly.
Inbetween each round, we took a 10 – 15 minute break for snacks and drinks in which everyone was encouraged to stay in character and wander freely to chat to each other, before coming back together for the next act.
Depending on how many players there’ll be different levels of complexity. I’m reliably informed too that the murderer may not be the same person between different versions of the game, so it scales pretty well too.
In terms of the overall mystery, around half of the players guessed the murderer correctly. More interestingly, this the correct-guessers weren’t necessarily those most experienced in puzzle games. There was a good mix, and some very creative theories that came out at the end. I myself wasn’t someone who correctly guessed by the end – I had my own separate theory I was picking at. But not getting it correct didn’t detract from the experience whatsoever. We all had a blast!
A side note on sensitivity at Halloween
So, just a quick side note to address an elephant in the room. There are some moments in this game that some players may find insensitive, so I’d encourage everyone to be mindful of this. Halloween and murder mysteries are both occasions where people dress up in wild and wacky costumes, but sometimes in the fun don’t realise they may be hurtful. So, this is a good opportunity for a gentle reminder of the “We’re a culture, not a costume” campaign from a few years back. If in any doubt, keep the golden rule in mind – if you’re dressing up as a person, culture, or someone’s lived experience that you don’t share for fun, it might not be okay. If your costume is something you have the priviledge to wear safety but where others might be persecuted, then don’t wear it.
Why am I mentioning it in this review? We required a customisation, and that was to remove one character that would have been particularly insensitive to the players in our group. The character in question was “Ben Tover”, the hunchback from the game. Ben is available in all games 8 players and above, and without getting into too much detail there were a few too many jokes directed at physical disability to be appropriate for our game. There’s another character, Dr. Jack Ellenhyde who makes references to split personality disorder. Last but not least, going by the character list on the game’s homepage, we’d also love to share a caution for larger groups that there’s a character called Dido De Los Muertos, the voodoo bride. Based only on her description it seems like that character might too be an appropriation of not just one, but two different countries’ sacred traditions.
As a final note on the topic, there was one more moment of insensitivity in the script – a slightly out of place joke about Chinese people in the game. A few of our group felt a little awkward about and so as a whole I thought I’d mention it as a note of feedback. This joke was made more uncomfortable because the scripted moment was being read between the two players in the group who actually were from China. If I’d read ahead, I would definitely have cut these lines from the game, but hindsight is a wonderful thing.
I could probably talk about this topic for longer, but this particular review isn’t the place for an essay on cultural sensitivity… So I’ll just end by saying that the Red Herring team are incredibly responsive to messages and eager to help you make your party the best it can be – so if in any doubt about anything, I’d encourage reaching out to them to check, and I’m sure you’ll have a great experience.
Now, we’ll move onto more positive things! Namely, the parts we loved!
The game is afoot!
So, all that aside – what did we think of Murder on the Ghost Train overall? And do we recommend this game to the escape room enthusiast?
I enjoyed it, and yes! One of the highlights of the game was just how beginner friendly it was. Before running the game I had no idea what to expect, so I hesitated on explaining too much to my guests either. This meant that most players went in with no prior knowledge or expectation… And yet everyone had a role to play, everyone had things to do, and most importantly – everyone had fun! It’s the mark of any good game (be it a murder mystery or an escape room) when people leave and insist we put another one in the calendar. Not only have we already scheduled another game in the calendar, but one of the players even drew some sketches of all of us in character afterwards, which really made my day. It just goes to show that this game was a treat.
Screenshot from the Detective video (not used in our play, but very fun to watch!)
For reasons not related to The Escape Roomer, I’ve been playing a lot of murder mysteries and jubensha lately, and whilst different games and styles have their pros and cons, I think Red Herring Games has a really excellent place in the British murder mystery landscape. Red Herring Games have been around a long time, they know the industry well, and their stories have been honed and polished over the years, meeting the needs of their audience and niche well. If I had to make an industry analysis, I’d say that Red Herring Games (and this game in particular) is probably for a slightly older audience, both in style and substance, but given this is the largest audience for murder mysteries in the US and UK, this works well for them. Red Herring quite literally wrote the manual on how to make a good scripted murder mystery game, and their large catalogue of consistently popular games just goes to show how popular they are.
If anyone is looking for a murder mystery to dip their toes into, and if they like Halloween as much as I do, then this is definitely one to consider checking out. Hopefully I’ll have an opportunity to play more in the future!
Murder on the Ghost Train can be purchased as a boxed game, or a digital download from Red Herring Games’ website here.
Please note, we were not charged for our experience but this has not affected the review.
