A Dead Man's Chest – a Freeform Games murder mystery 
For 12 to 16 guests and a host – costs £20.00 (about 30.8 US dollars)
A Dead Man's Chest is a dinner party murder mystery game for 12 to 16 guests and a host – download the free introductory pdf file.
Click here to see previous hosts' stories about their A Dead Man's Chest parties.
Click here to see the gallery of A Dead Man's Chest pictures.
Join us in a thrilling evening of piracy, intrigue, heroism and skulduggery. You will be in the middle of the action and it will be up to you to wheel and deal with the other guests. Can you achieve your goals, keep your secrets hidden and survive A Dead Man's Chest? It's up to you.
"We played A Dead Man's Chest in honor of my 21st birthday and had SUCH a great time! ...The next day, the game was the ONLY thing being talked about in the theatre department -- everyone was telling everyone how much fun it was, all the funny jokes, everything -- it was quite a hit!"
Bonnie Prather, United States
A Dead Man's Chest
Two pirate crews descend upon the sleepy Caribbean island of Santo Oloroso -- to avenge the death of their former master Captain Flint, or to find and grab his treasure?
Old enmities will surface, deals will be made and broken, and some folk will swing from the yard-arm while others receive the dreaded Black Spot, before these affairs are settled, for good or ill.
Will fortune favour the brave? Will faint heart ever win fair lady? How many Pieces of Eight make a Doubloon? Find out all this and more at A Dead Man's Chest.
A Dead Man's Chest lasts for about four hours and is suited to an evening. It is often played over a meal – a finger buffet if possible to allow guests to circulate and talk in private.
"Wow! What a great evening.
I wanted to do something a bit different for my birthday and I had tried boxed versions of
Murder Mystery games before but they were nothing like this. A Dead Man's Chest was great and
I was so pleased with the effort my friends made in dressing up! They were all really
impressed and we will be doing another one for my birthday this year!"
Maria , United Kingdom
The free introductory pdf file contains an introduction to the game, a cast list of all the characters, an invitation to send to your guests, the Caribbean Courier – plus details of how to buy the game.
Now available in German!
You can buy a German translation of this game -- click here for more details.
These are the characters in A Dead Man's Chest:
- 'Black' Jack McCracken – The dashing and gallant captain of the Scurvy Knave
- 'Saucy' Nancy Martin – The bold and fiery captain of the Fury
- 'Sawbones' McGraw – The detached, sarcastic ship's doctor of the Scurvy Knave
- Alice Tremain – The shrewd, imaginative First Mate of the Fury
- Bill Pistol – The marooned former pirate, currently as mad as a brush
- Blaise Richelieu – The temperamental, passionate ship's cook of the Fury
- Captain Hal Overy – The upright, stubborn Royal Navy captain
- Cassinga – The enigmatic, powerful shaman of the Indian tribe
- Don Inigo de Velez y Contrera – The aristocratic and condescending Spanish nobleman
- Elizabeth Stanforth – The free-spirited elder daughter of the Governor of Jamaica
- Hayapitl – The hard-working, responsible chief of the Indian tribe
- Quintus Swelter – The sinister but talented ship's cook of the Scurvy Knave
- Salamanca – The resourceful, cynical valet of Don Inigo de Velez y Contrera
- Sir Percival Stanforth – The trustworthy, steadfast Governor of Jamaica
- Tokeleth – The independently-minded daughter of the Indian chief Hayapitl
- Tom – The keen young ship's boy of the Scurvy Knave
How Freeform Games Murder Mysteries Work
A Dead Man's Chest is unlike many murder mystery games. Although the game starts with a murder, most of the characters have more important things to do than to investigate it. And the killing may not be over – it is unlikely that everyone will survive the remainder of the evening!
A Dead Man's Chest is played just like a murder mystery game. You may be trying to solve the murder, but primarily you are (initially at least) concentrating on your own goals and objectives. Unlike most boxed murder mystery games, A Dead Man's Chest lets you decide how to achieve your goals and thwart your enemies.
On the evening of the game the guests are met by the organizer. They then receive their detailed backgrounds - including dark secrets, objectives and money. The players can form alliances, blackmail each other, steal items and even mutiny. Along the way they may solve some of A Dead Man's Chest's mysteries. Why was the Governor's daughter kidnapped by pirates? Who is the masked do-gooder 'El Cuervo'? Where is the fabled treasure buried? And of course, how did Captain Flint die? Finally, the game concludes and everyone finds out how they did, and what secrets everyone else was concealing.
Extra characters
Sometimes you have too many guests and you need more characters. So we've written a free extra character for each of our games that you can add in, and some of our customers have created their own characters for their parties and are kindly willing to share them.
Please note that we haven't tested these and they may not tie in exactly with our games.
IMPORTANT – if you've bought the game, you can download the files for these characters from the download page where you got your main game files. Contact us if you need the link and password to get back to that page.
ALSO IMPORTANT – you shouldn't add too many of these characters in to your game as they haven't been designed to work together (unlike the main game characters). If you add in several, they may make your game chaotic and incoherent. You should probably instead choose a larger game. If you still want to add several extra characters (four or more), we recommend having an extra host to help.
- 'Ginger' Roberts – freelance reporter in search of the Big Story. (M/F)
(by Freeform Games) - Balavari – young Taino tribesman. (M)
(by Jenni Malloch) - Belladonna – Jack McCracken's fancy-woman. (F)
(by Jocelyn Thompson and Bonnie Prather) - Bosun Barnes – crewmate of Captain Overy. (M)
(by Dathan Burden) - Bosun Barnes (alternate) – crewmate of Captain Overy. (M)
(by Dan Johns) - Grace Cooper – pirate of the Fury. (F)
(by Dan Johns) - Jay Sommer – stowaway aboard the Scurvy Knave. (M/F)
(by Lisa Perez) - Louis de Monnaie – deckhand aboard the Scurvy Knave. (M)
(by Tara Laben) - Madame Zuzu – Santo Oloroso's resident voodoo lady. (F)
(by Al Kennedy and Carrie Graham) - Reverend Ian Plumpton – missionary travelling aboard the Scurvy Knave. (M)
(by Dathan Burden) - Rose – Ship's Girl of the Fury. (M/F)
(by Dathan Burden) - Shay Collins (alternate version of Belladonna) – pirate of the Fury. (M/F)
(by Jocelyn Thompson and Bonnie Prather, revised by Lisa Perez)
Purchasing A Dead Man's Chest
A Dead Man's Chest costs £20.00 (GB pounds). That works out at about US$30.8 at today's exchange rate, although the rate charged by your credit card may vary slightly.
To purchase A Dead Man's Chest, follow these three steps.
Step 1: Download the free introductory pdf file. You will need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to read this. If you do not already have Acrobat Reader, click here.
Step 2: Read our terms and conditions of purchase. Then come back here and click on the button to buy the game!
Step 3: Our orders are processed by WorldPay – we don't actually see your credit card details. After you have entered your credit card details you will be emailed the location of the main pdf files, plus the password required to unlock them. You can then download those files and enjoy the game!
Or, buy now!
Cards we accept
We accept the following credit and debit cards:
Cast Iron Guarantee
We offer a Cast Iron Guarantee on all our murder mystery games. If you're not completely satisfied with A Dead Man's Chest then please let us know within 30 days and we will refund you.