Youth Leadership Lessons: Murder

Game Description
In this crowdbreaker, youth will try to guess the identity of a murderer, before they are murdered.

Game Materials
Deck of playing cards, chairs arranged in a circle for 6 to 52 players. Reduce the cards to the number of players available to insure someone gets the "murder" card.

Optimal Group Size
6 or more youth

Game Venue
Open area large enough for the groups to form a circle. This game can also be played as part of a youth camp. Simply decide the boundaries of when challenges/ murders can or cannot occur. One common variation allows challenges and kills only during mealtimes.

Game Preparation
None

Game Play

1. Sit the group in a circle and pass out one card to each person, (they can not show their card to anyone else).
2. In the cards passed out there needs to be a joker. The joker is the murderer, and the murderer's job is to kill everyone in the game. The murderer does this by winking at the others before he/she gets caught!
3. Group members can jointly issue a challenge to identify the identity of the murder. There must be two challengers. Without discussion or communication between them of any kind, on the count of three they must each point to the person they believe to be the murderer.
4. They should be careful. If they point to different people both challengers are dead and out of the game. This is true, even if one of them is correct about the identity of the murderer. If they both point to the same person, but that person is not the murderer, they are also killed.
5. When a member sees someone wink at them, they have been killed, and they need to count (silently) to 5 and say, "I'm dead" and flip their card over. Alternatively they can liven it up with a dramatic death scene.
6. If you have already been killed or died because you guessed incorrectly you can no longer guess the killer.

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