A Dead Man’s Chest

Cover to A Dead Man's Chest.
(19 customer reviews)

£34.99

A Dead Man’s Chest is a downloadable pirate murder mystery game for 12 to 16 guests and a host. Two rival pirate ships descend on a Caribbean island – who will find Captain Flint’s buried treasure? And who murdered him in the first place? Written by Mo Holkar. Recommended for ages 12+.

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A Dead Man's Chest is a murder mystery game for 12 to 16 guests and a host. It is set on a Caribbean island in the pirate era. Download the free introductory pdf file.

A Dead Man's Chest is a thrilling evening of piracy, intrigue, heroism, and skulduggery! Your guests will be in the middle of the action, and it will be up to them to wheel and deal to get what they want. Will they achieve their goals, keep their secrets hidden, and survive A Dead Man's Chest?

"A Dead Man's Chest was very clever, excellently written and we all LOVED the open-ended nature of what people could do. SO much plotting and back stabbing."
Jack Lawrence, United Kingdom

See stories and pictures from A Dead Man's Chest

Read the Caribbean Courier

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.

"Just wanted to tell you that A Dead Man's Chest was an awesome mystery – my friends really loved it. Thanks for a great product!"
Michael Eddings

 

Includes rules for the use of poison.
Includes rules for the use of poison.

Includes rules for combat.
Includes rules for combat.

The free introductory pdf file contains an introduction to the game, a cast list of all the characters, and a copy of the Caribbean Courier.

Cast of characters

The Scurvy Knave

  • Captain ‘Black’ Jack McCracken – the dashing and gallant Captain of the Scurvy Knave
  • Sawbones McGraw – the sarcastic but reliable ship’s doctor
  • Quintus Swelter – the vain and sinister ship’s cook
  • Tom – the helpful young ship’s boy

Colonial forces

  • Sir Percival Stanforth – the steadfast and rather stuffy Governor of Jamaica
  • Elizabeth Stanforth – the Governor’s highly desirable (if demanding) elder daughter
  • Captain Hal Overy – the stubborn and blunt Royal Navy Captain

The Fury

  • Captain ‘Saucy’ Nancy Martin – the bold and fiery Captain of the Fury
  • Alice Tremain – the Fury’s shrewd and intellectual 1st Mate
  • Blaise Richelieu – the temperamental and passionate ship’s cook

Diaho natives

  • Hayapitl – the diplomatic Diaho chief
  • Cassinga – the intimidating DIaho shaman
  • Tokeleth – the chief’s headstrong daughter

Others

    • Don Inigo de Velez y Contrera – the aristocratic and condescending Spanish nobleman
    • Salamanca – the Don’s cynical and easily amused valet
    • Bill Pistol – the marooned former pirate, now as mad as a brush

A Dead Man's Chest is for 12 to 16 guests:

  • 12 guests (6 male, 4 female, 2 any)
  • 13 guests (6 male, 4 female, 3 any)
  • 14 guests (6 male, 4 female, 4 any)
  • 15 guests (6 male, 4 female, 5 any)
  • 16 guests (6 male, 4 female, 6 any)

You also need a host – someone to organize the party and ensure everything runs smoothly.

How Freeform Games murder mystery games work

A Dead Man's Chest is unlike other murder mystery games. Although the game starts with a murder, each character has several goals they must try to accomplish. While they may want to solve the murder, A Dead Man's Chest contains plenty of other plots and secrets to keep everyone busy. A Dead Man's Chest isn't scripted, and lets the players decide how to achieve their goals and thwart their enemies.

"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

On the evening of the game the guests are met by the organizer, the ship's quartermaster/mistress.

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.

Recommended for ages 12+

We recommend A Dead Man's Chest for those aged 12+, as it is family-friendly and contains no adult themes.

Extra characters

Sometimes you have too many guests and need more characters. So most games have free extra characters (written by us or previous hosts) included in the download when you purchase the game.

  • Balavari – young Diaho 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. (Any)
    (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)
  • Rev Cecil Howard and Georgiana Fitzsimmons – Missionary minister and she-pirate. Must be used together. (Any)
    (by Andreah Mathews)
  • Reverend Ian Plumpton – missionary travelling aboard the Scurvy Knave. (M)
    (by Dathan Burden)
  • Rose – Ship's Girl of the Fury. (Any)
    (by Dathan Burden)
  • Shay Collins (family-friendly version of Belladonna) – pirate of the Fury. (Any)
    (by Jocelyn Thompson and Bonnie Prather, revised by Lisa Perez)

Please note that we haven't always tested these – and they may not tie in exactly with our games.

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.

"Thank you for a great site, fantastic games, good service and very quick reply. Keep up the good work." Ole Martin Brodwall, Norway

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. See our full terms and conditions, and our refund policy.

Trouble downloading? If you have trouble downloading the game files, please first check your spam folder. If you still can't find the download email, contact us with the name of the game and the email address you used to purchase it, and we'll resend it.

19 reviews for A Dead Man’s Chest

  1. Luke Spinardi (verified owner) –

  2. Spencer R. –

    We did this for my 40th birthday and it was great fun! So many hilarious interactions between players trying to accomplish conflicting goals. I would definitely recommend.

  3. Nancy B –

    Wow – what a great party! We just finished A Dead Man's Chest with a mixed-age group of moms and kids for my daughter's 12th birthday party. A lot of surprises, even for me as the host! This kit is really well written, there are so many different directions things can go. One area where we could have used more direction was the capturing of pirates. Captain Overy simply attacked them (helped by amazing luck at rock-paper-scissors!!!), but the governor had neither a weapon nor a special ability, and couldn't figure out how to accomplish her goal. We were also unsure what should happen after the arrests… What were the authorities supposed to do with the captured pirates for the rest of the party? I just winged it, and we ended up with not one but two daring rescues where rival ships banded together to save their captured comrades! In the end, Captain O subdued some and persuaded others and managed to capture the Fury, but the majority of the pirates escaped with the treasure on the Scurvy Knave. Overall a fantastic party!
         Two pieces of advice for future hosts: 1) Casting is key! Reliable and confident people in the main roles make everything more fun. 2) The discussion boards! So very many good ideas there to make the party even better. Thanks again for a fantastic product and a great time 🙂

  4. A Customer –

    A Dead Man’s Chest was great fun and enjoyed by all, especially the 3- and 4-year-olds who dressed up as pirates and were given pirate-themed colouring activities and little jobs to do.

  5. Julie Winnard –

    A Dead Man’s Chest was an excellent game, and everyone really got into being ruthless pirates or their noble adversaries. The flexible system is great as you can change the set-up according to your numbers, and there is something for everyone, from advanced scenery-chewers to first-timers and younger players!

  6. Mary-Cait –

    It’s the morning after one of the most fun evenings we have had as a family! We are all together for only one week, and as soon as A Dead Man’s Chest ended last night, there were calls to play another one before the week is over!! Thank you so much for all your help, we really had a fabulous time. Everyone threw themselves into their parts and all mysteries were solved by the end of the night. We will definitely do this again!

  7. A Customer –

    The format of A Dead Man’s Chest was different from what we have done before, but the kids had a wonderful time. They played the game for about 3 hours and were all equally engaged. They have asked that we host another game later this year.

  8. Emily Hendrickson –

    Just wanted to send a warm thank you! I had purchased A Dead Man’s Chest for a New Year’s Eve party at my church, and everyone loved getting into character. We had an absolute blast! You were kind enough to answer several of my questions ahead of time, which helped a lot, and I appreciated having the ability to read the game through in advance to make sure it was suitable for my group. I’ve hosted other murder mystery events in the past, but having played a “freeform” game, I won’t go back. It was so much fun for each person to roleplay a character and have goals/conflicts of their own in addition to solving the murder. It made for a lot more interaction! We loved it!

  9. A Customer –

    We really enjoyed A Dead Man’s Chest, and I have recommended it to a few people – they thought it sounded very fun. Thank you!

  10. Karen Williams –

    When my 17 year old told me he wanted a surprise party for his birthday (with 3 days notice) I didn’t know what I was going to do. I got online & found A Dead Man’s Chest & knew it was what I needed.

    I threw a “surprise” get together with family, to throw him off, & called/emailed/facebooked all his friends with the real party info. Once I got RSVPs, I realized I had more people than characters, & panicked until I found the additional characters & downloaded all of them.

    I couldn’t get my credit card to go through & it locked me out of the system the night before the party, so I enlisted my oldest son as an accomplice. He helped me download & print, etc. I don’t recommend throwing it together at the last minute, but it was necessary to keep it a secret from a nosey 17 year old, and it worked out fine.

    I didn’t assign characters (although I recommended a few). I just let the guests choose an envelope at random from the male or female stack. After handing out all the parts, I had a couple of parents chicken out & ask for a part from the extras, in case they wanted to leave & pick up their son later (which of course they didn’t) so I got stuck playing 2 parts (Quintus & Salamanca), as well as hosting. It worked out OK, though I was busy.

    I only had one person ask for any information from either of my characters. I didn’t get any treasure or pearls, but I did get a pardon for Quintus, which was good because he was not the cook chosen by the combined pirates. (One too many insults of Blaise’s cooking.) Early in the game Alice Tremain accomplished her goal of uniting the characters.

    Information flowed freely. If one of them knew something, they all did. The rest of the group felt left out before the night was over. So I had to be creative & stir up the others in mutiny against her. She even had Capt. Overy on her side (he of course supporting his new wife).

    Captain Overy & Elizabeth got married in the 1st half of the game. There was an announcement inviting everyone to the wedding (by one of the captains, I think), to which Rev. Plumpton replied that if a wedding was going to happen she was going to perform it. Sir Percival said “No you’re not young lady!”, & dragged her off. Later they snuck off & had a private ceremony performed by Cassinga.

    Cassinga was determined to sacrifice all the foreigners to the volcano, even after it was placated, & eventually was thrown in herself, although I allowed everyone the 10 minutes to be rescued, & all were.

    I don’t think anyone died, although there may have been one or two. Our healers (Sawbones, Madame Zuzu, Cassinga) were on top of things.

    When I made the final call for votes & 10 min. to wrap things up, Alice Tremain said, “Why do we need to vote? We’ve already got that decided?” Of course, you should never trust the word of a pirate. All the captains voted for themselves. Saucy Nancy & Don Inigo got the ships with the help of the natives, so very few people left the Island. Don Inigo had been saying he wanted to stay on the Island. Surprise!

    When I called for the last 10 min. to wrap things up, no-one knew who killed Captain Flint, or who El Cuervo was. By the time the votes were counted, almost everyone knew. We had a great time!

    A friend offered her house for the game & we had it in her backyard which was beautifully landscaped, with street lights, privacy fence & a firepit.

    It would have been better, from a lighting standpoint, to have handed out parts in advance. The characters may have been more fully developed too. However, considering that some people got sick & cancelled at the last minute, & some of the parents that RSVP’d refused to participate, it worked out well this way. Also it would have been better to have had safety pins or plastic name badge holders. The tape didn’t hold well, & with the low lighting everyone was hollering out names to accomplish their goals.

    Several comments were made about wondering what the neighbors were thinking about shouting out “Captain Overy”. Unfortunately, I forgot about pictures until a few people had already left, but I got one good group shot, with those that were still there. We may have more opportunities soon, though, because several people said they’d like to host a murder mystery party soon. I gave them all your website.

  11. Maria –

    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!

  12. Katharyn Roffey –

    The game [A Dead Man’s Chest] was fantastic, I did it for my son’s 13th birthday party and everyone had a fab time. It was a lot of work beforehand, reading all the instructions and getting all the pack together, but between my husband son and me, we got it sorted. The worst problem was that two people cancelled, one the day before which was fine, but one person just didn’t turn up — but as my husband and I didn’t have a part, we managed to sort it out.

  13. Juju Vail –

    We’ve played a couple of your games and enjoyed them a lot. They are certainly much, much better than any boxed murder mystery I’ve used!
         We played A Dead Man’s Chest at my 10 year old son’s birthday party and it was a great success! The kids really liked studying, preparing, dressing up and plotting for their characters ahead of time. Some surprising things happened in the game that I don’t think adults would have done. Hayapitl got married to Hal Overy. I conducted the ceremony.
         We had two adults assisting and we would each take the kids off to a private room and suggest things their characters could do, so that they were never stuck.
         I was worried before the party that 5 hours with 16 ten year-old (mostly) boys would descend into anarchy and chaos but was amazed and surprised that the kids were so busy completing their tasks that they didn’t have time to make mischief. Although the pictures were taken outside, the game was played entirely inside. The time just flew by! None of the kids had ever been to a party like it and loved it. It was much cheaper than the usual pool, skating, etc parties that kids ususally do.

    Image #1 from Juju Vail

  14. Amy Bené –

    We played A Dead Man’s Chest with the full 16 characters. My little sister played Crazy "Billie Pistol" really well! (she flew into Austin from Salt Lake just for the party) She was crawling all over the lawn muttering to herself, interrupting conversations with babble about cheese and generally weirding out people — it was HI-LARIOUS! We also had one of our friends build two godzilla air cannons (basically potato guns on steroids) that shot out styrofoam balls. They were very loud and we were sure we were gonna have the cops called on us the last time we shot them, as someone forgot they’d already been charged and double charged them. KA-BOOOM!!!
         The first pic is of my sis and a friend playing Dr. Sawbones — note the stethoscope made out of cut bamboo links and rope (he’d go up to the woman and get them to ask how it worked so they’d put it to their chest — one time, on me actually, Hal said "that’s not working" and Dr. Sawbones looked up with a grin and in his best pirate voice said, "Arrrghh, it be workin’ FINE!") and the cannon in the background. Besides the cannon, we had a store-bought game that you’d hold onto and was like musical chairs, if you let go too soon it would shock you and you lost or if you were the last one after the music stopped it shocked you and you lost. The second is James and me and I want you to take special note of James’ codpiece — we made it out of an ornamental eggplant you get at Gardenridge and painting it gold and adorning it. It was a hit at the party.
         We were both going to be moderators but at the last moment someone bowed out so I became the ship’s first mate on the Woman crew. People would come up and ask, "Do you know…" and I couldn’t remember if "I" knew or I knew…."I’ve included the invitation and the map. We actually made all the Items and Treasures which added to the party as well. The Black Spot was a black rose (I gave it to Sawbones at the beginning of the party and he never was attacked so poor bugger ended up with it)
         Sorry I’m going on and on about the party, but I guess you can figure out it was an incredible success. One last thing, in case you’re interested. How it ended for us: Saucy got off and got most of the votes (actually almost everyone) Up till about three minutes before the game ended, it was going to be Black Jack and Saucy Nancy (Nancy having most everyone with her and them not caring WHO took the other ship and so I was facilitating Black Jack and me running off with the other one — somehow we ended up as on again off again lovers in our plot) but Hal Overy made alliances with BOTH Sawbones AND (go figure she’d be so important) Cassinga, the shaman, so he couldn’t die! Silly, pompus Black Jack didn’t want to just not loose, he had to win and challenged Overy to a battle and won but lost when Overy didn’t die AND counter-attacked and killed him at the last minute. Everyone who was in alliance with me then played our loyalty card to Saucy and got off on her ship. Black Jack was the only one to die.
         Once again thank you for a wonderfully thought-out, ginourmously entertaining evening!

    Image #1 from Amy Bené

  15. Bonnie Prather –

    We played A Dead Man’s Chest in honor of my 21st birthday and had SUCH a great time! I’m a veteran of the dinner murder mystery games, but was always annoyed by the limit of 8 to the invitation list, as well as the lack of spontaneity (and some poor editing jobs occasionally!). Your game fixed both of those issues — not only was I able to invite eleven theatre friends (Our Captain Nancy got the flu at the last moment — unlike the dinner games, I was able to simply declare that Alice Tremain mutinied and took over the ship, then gave her both character sheets — worked out great!) and it put all our improvization skills to the test! Surprisingly enough, I had a really, really fun time hosting! I thought that, as I didn’t have a “character” to play or secrets to keep concealed, I would be bored — not at all! I wandered around, dispensing advice, keeping people to their goals, overseeing fights, etc.

    It sounds lame, but I had a huge amount of fun!If I could give one recommendation, we did our murder mystery in the front living room of my parents’ house, as well as the hallway and master bedroom/bathroom. This worked fanatasically, as all the major activity (fights, Hayapitl’s "chair", the buffet table, discussions, etc.) could happen in this large room, but private plottings and reveals could happen in secret. (There was occasionally a line for the bathroom, that had nothing to do with the room’s real purpose!)

    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! Expect to sell a few more games in the near future to SPU Theatre — we had a great time!

    I’m including a picture of our full group — top row from L to R is Bill Pistol, Don Inigo, Elizabeth, Captain Hal, Alice, Jack, and Percival — bottom row is Tokeleth, the Bonney Host, Tom, Sawbones, and at the very bottom Hayapitl.

    Image #1 from Bonnie Prather

  16. Keith –

    A Dead Man’s Chest was a great success. It’s well thought out and so kept us all active the whole time. It’s very good for getting everyone talking and having fun. None of us had played a mystery before, so we took some time to get started, but once we got going it went well.

  17. Dan Johns –

    (Dan ran A Dead Man’s Chest as a training aid at an English as a Second Language school.)
    The students were pretty apprehensive at first and it took some convincing to get them to join the party but once there they all had a great time. The last one I ran, though, turned into a bloodbath from the get-go but I didn’t have much control over that. The highlight was when one of the players, who was running around attacking people, failed to get his intended target to take a drink he had poisoned and, forgetting he had poisoned it, drank it himself.

  18. Jessica –

    Wow! This was my very first Murder Mystery party and A Dead Man’s Chest was probably the best murder mystery I could have ever done! I did the mystery for my 14th birthday, and even though I had to cut out some parts, everything went pretty smoothly. "Crazy Bill Pistol" cancelled 2 hours before the party, but I got a friend’s sibling to cover for them. I got some of the party on video, and people kept chasing me away when I had the video camera, especially when they were having a private conversation. Whenever there was a storm in the game I would go to my piano (which makes some awesome sound effects) and turned it way loud so that the storm could be heard throughout the house.Everyone came dressed up. My Black Jack and Alice Tremain went all out to design their costumes, and we took pictures at the end of the party.
         Overall, this game was so much fun and the party was the best party I had ever done. I will definitely be getting more murder mysteries from Freeform Games very soon!

  19. Chesley Way –

    I have been doing murder mystery parties at my place for at least 6 or 7 years now and in that span of time about 9 games or so, and I have to say hands down that your approach these types of games is the best. The flexibility is great with how everyone can essentially do what they will with their characters since there is no pre-defined script to follow. Just now I have purchased the A Dead Man’s Chest game and I am looking forward to matching up my friends with the given characters. Again great games and thus greatly appreciated.

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