Curse of the Pharaoh

Cover to Curse of the Pharaoh, a murder mystery game.
(36 customer reviews)

£34.99

Curse of the Pharaoh is a downloadable murder mystery game for 6-19 guests and one or two hosts, set in Victorian Egypt. Grapple with evil from beyond the grave! Written by Mo Holkar. Recommended for ages 18+.

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Curse of the Pharaoh is a murder mystery game for 6 to 19 guests and one or two hosts. It is set at an archaeological dig in Egypt in the 1890s. Download the free introductory pdf file.

Curse of the Pharaoh is a thrilling evening of mystery and murder in 1894 Egypt, which will determine the fate of the British Empire! 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 Curse of the Pharaoh?

"We did Curse of the Pharaoh for my birthday and had a blast! I was so impressed with the game, the flow and of course everyone's costumes. Super fun!"
Laura Bohen, United States

See stories and pictures from Curse of the Pharaoh

Read the Cairo Gazette

The Valley of the Kings, Luxor, Egypt. 23 April 1894. The excavation season will soon be over, as the baking sun makes digging unbearable, but the Oxford University archaeologists lead by Sir William Saville have made a startling discovery. Tonight, the team and their guests prepare to enjoy a slap-up dinner to celebrate the uncovering of the tomb of a previously unknown XVIth Dynasty pharaoh. But while the archaeologists make merry, dark clouds gather, internal tensions among the group burst to the surface and one of the local diggers is brutally murdered.

Curse of the Pharaoh 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.

Note that Curse of the Pharaoh is a bit more complex than some of our other games. If you've not hosted one of our games before, you might want to allocate a bit longer to prepare for it and to read through how it's going to work.

"Curse of the Pharaoh is a brilliant game – better than any other murder mystery I have played."
Becky Pruitt, United States

 

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 Cairo Gazette.

Cast of characters

  • Sir William Saville: renowned archaeologist and leader of the dig
  • Ariadne Price-Evans: veteran translator of Egyptian inscriptions
  • Hugh Carlaw: enthusiastic young student
  • Helen Mackinnon: the belle of Oxford
  • Shahfeez Merouf: mysterious Arab, the Curator of the Luxor Museum
  • Alvy Spanheim: Cultural Attaché at the German Consulate
  • Eva de Chalons: dilettante and art connoisseur
  • Lindsay Wilde: also wild by nature, a brooding misfit on the archaeological scene
  • Pol Tregarne: Detective Sergeant in the Colonial Police
  • Alex McQueen: Detective Constable in the Colonial Police
  • Armand Lenoir: leader of a French excavation nearby
  • Marie-Claire Guiscard: hard-working assistant to Lenoir
  • Tariq al-Mansoor: wealthy collector of Egyptian antiquities
  • Fatima al-Mansoor: wealthy collector of Egyptian antiquities
  • Professor Reginald Mathers: respected archaeologist from Cambridge
  • Lady Jane Fortescue: noble widow and archaeological dilettante
  • Chris Kovacs: young Hungarian student
  • Reverend Godfrey Fox: Cambridge-based church minister
  • Angela Fox: Mathers’ administrative assistant

Curse of the Pharaoh is for 6 to 19 guests:

  • 6 guests (2 male, 2 female, 2 any)
  • 7 guests (2 male, 2 female, 3 any)
  • 8 guests (2 male, 3 female, 3 any)
  • 9 guests (3 male, 3 female, 3 any)
  • 10 guests (3 male, 3 female, 4 any)
  • 11 guests (4 male, 4 female, 3 any)
  • 12 guests (4 male, 4 female, 4 any)
  • 13 guests (5 male, 5 female, 3 any)
  • 14 guests (5 male, 5 female, 4 any)
  • 15 guests (5 male, 5 female, 5 any)
  • 16 guests (6 male, 6 female, 4 any)
  • 17 guests (6 male, 6 female, 5 any)
  • 18 guests (7 male, 7 female, 4 any)
  • 19 guests (7 male, 7 female, 5 any)

You also need one or two hosts, to organize the party and ensure everything runs smoothly. (We recommend two hosts with more than 12 guests, particularly if this is your first Freeform Games murder mystery party.)

How Freeform Games murder mystery games work

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

"Curse of the Pharaoh has a brilliant story – I have played other mystery games from other sites in the past – your story was unique and everyone loved the complexity and the props."
A Customer, United States

On the evening of the game the guests are met by the organizer, the archaeological team's local servant.

They then receive their detailed backgrounds – including dark secrets, objectives, and money. When everyone has arrived the servant announces that, with the corpse tidied away into the camel shed for safekeeping, dinner will now be served. The fun then begins as everyone questions, bribes and blackmails each other. As the evening progresses they may even try to murder one another!

Finally, the game concludes and everyone finds out how they did, and what secrets everyone else was concealing.

Recommended for ages 18+

We recommend Curse of the Pharaoh for those aged 18+, as it contains occult themes, an extra-marital affair, and an illegitimate child in the characters' background.

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.

  • 'Ginger' Roberts – freelance reporter in search of the Big Story. (Any)
    (by Freeform Games)
  • Paige Money – archaeological reporter for The Times. (Any)
    (by Philip Murray)

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

"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 Curse of the Pharaoh 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.

36 reviews for Curse of the Pharaoh

  1. Mateusz Okuniewski (verified owner) –

    Splendid! Well-balanced, interesting, with interesting, yet easy to manage characters, and some fantastic plot-twists.

    Once again – Freeform Games delivered!

  2. Jacob (verified owner) –

    Really good! Everyone had a fun time, and as the coordinator I had a blast helping people out who were a little unsure of what to do.

    I will say that the character sheets are so detailed they’re almost overwhelming. A few of my players came up to me throughout the night feeling pretty hosed with information.

    Even if you give your players their characters a few days in advance (like I did), you should really encourage everyone to read through their sheets at least twice.

    Image #1 from Jacob

  3. Sandra –

    easy to implement and very well done. Loads of options and variations.

  4. Nena –

    This is complex and exciting game. Accusations were being thrown, violence (pretend), and secrets were abundant. We played with only 8 characters and had a great time.

  5. Caren –

    We had THE best time with Curse of the Pharaoh [on an actual Nile riverboat cruising past the Valley of the Kings] – several guests look forward to playing more of your games!!

    Image #1 from Caren

  6. Simran Bindra –

    Hello from Tanzania! It occurred to me that we should let you know that over the past five or so years, we’ve either hosted or attended a number of your games. To date we’ve enjoyed: 1. Curse of the Pharaoh 2. Bludgeoned on Broadway 3. Way out West 4. Murder at Sea and we’re attending A Speakeasy Murder this coming weekend. You’ve got a niche cult following among some of the expat and broader community here in Dar es Salaam – we’re big fans! Some friends of ours also hosted A Speakeasy Murder a few months ago in Ethiopia, if you want to add that to your list of countries. Keep up the great work!

  7. Alice Mottola –

    I ran Curse of the Pharaoh last weekend. It was amazing!! All the guests loved it, and I’m incredibly excited to do another one. I was curious to see if maybe the game would be a little too complex, but it wasn’t at all. The detailed, sophisticated character descriptions and clear, interesting objectives got people invested in their characters to a degree I haven’t seen with other games I’ve done in the past (and this is my seventh murder mystery party, but my first from Freeform). As the host, I also had a blast running the game. I loved going around helping people murder and pickpocket. I’m not switching back to another murder mystery company until I’ve done all your games! 🙂

    Image #1 from Alice Mottola

  8. Deb Longoria –

    We ended up having over twenty guests invited and only two bowed out at the last moment because of family illness. At first I was terrified, no one mingled – they tried to stay in their private groups. As the Servant I began prodding them into asking questions of other guests and directing them toward a ‘treasure’ table we’d set up. By the end of the evening everyone was having a blast and wanting to know when we would host the next one.’

    Image #1 from Deb Longoria

  9. Christine Cleland –

    We LOVED Curse of the Pharaoh. I have done a few different types in the past and this is the most interactive one I have played. I am going to be using this brand from now on 🙂 The only problem is that now all of my friends want to do use the same brand and I am worried you might run out!

  10. Angela Frankosky –

    What a fantastic night!! I purchased Curse of the Pharaoh for my 36th birthday party and had soooo much fun. I am looking forward to playing it again with another set of friends and family. I played up the plot and dig for 3 weeks prior and have been receiving requests to play in the murder mystery even before our first run.For all of the item cards I went to ebay and purchased the actual items to make things much more interesting and fun, much more difficult to hide an item when it is bigger than a card. We had artifacts being stolen, traded, and sold all night. We also included the character Ginger Roberts who became quite an integral part of our mystery and the blue pen was the hottest item to possess.This was our first murder mystery and yet we were easily able to get into character and enjoy the night!

  11. A Customer –

    Curse of the Pharaoh went brilliantly! It was a great game and went really well, people got involved where they had previously unsure of taking part in a murder mystery! I was also able to adapt the timings slightly as everyone was having so much fun in the beginning section, and it didn’t affect how the rest of the game played out.

  12. Katie –

    Just wanted to say thank you for a fantastic game in Curse of the Pharaoh. I had a party with different invitees who didn’t all know each other – work friends, school friends, partners etc, so I was a bit nervous about whether everyone would mingle. It went so well – everyone got really into the game (despite pretty much everyone admitting they weren’t keen on attending a murder mystery party) and they had such a good time that I’ve been asked to host another one soon! So thank you!

  13. Mark Rickert –

    It sounded like Curse of the Pharaoh would be a lot of fun – and it was. EVERYBODY LOVED IT, and everybody wants to play more Freeform games.

  14. Nick Eccles –

    Well, actually I’m about two years late in reporting on this murder mystery but it was excellent (the best one so far our guests reported!) We used the garden mostly for Curse of the Pharaoh and it was a great success – we bought around seven sand-bags and emptied it all onto sheets in the garden – placed half a gazebo/tent over the sand and added the props table and hid scorpions etc in the sand! It was fantastic! This was our fifth murder mystery and we all thoroughly enjoyed it!

  15. Laura Bohen –

    We did Curse of the Pharaoh for my birthday and had a blast! I was so impressed with the game, the flow and of course everyone’s costumes. Super fun!

    Image #1 from Laura Bohen
    Image #2 from Laura Bohen
    Image #3 from Laura Bohen

  16. Greggory Miller –

    Curse of the Pharaoh has been one of the best Murder Mysteries I have ever done! I Hosted this one and everyone loved it. It gave enough freedom for everyone in the room to be able to do whatever they wanted and yet stick to their own goals. There wasn’t much scripted or things that I had to do except answer questions and keep an eye on the main characters and what they were doing, but it was a blast and keeping the guests entertained was all the work of the game! 😀 Thanks Freeform Games!

  17. A Customer –

    Curse of the Pharaoh was a great game. Was fun to watch the guests dress up, and take to character. Though they were slow on the uptake (lots of reading for 16yos), they quickly came around and had a blast. After the game, they sat for over an hour, talking about their characters’ successes and failures.

  18. Ronald Boocock –

    We had a lot of fun with Curse of the Pharaoh yesterday – everyone tried their best with their Britishaccents!

    Image #1 from Ronald Boocock

  19. Marvin Zammit –

    First time we played a Freeform Games game, and Curse of the Pharaoh was totally enjoyable. We had played another Murder Mystery game, but it was nowhere as good as this.Well done – the setting and characters were brilliant. The plots were intricate to the right point, and the fact that the players have their individual objectives rather than just focusing on the main murder is a great touch.

  20. Glenn Selwood –

    I’ve never had an activity at any party that got everyone talking to each other quite as quickly as Curse of the Pharaoh did!

  21. Mark Jarrell –

    We’ve played a few of the “Murder Mystery Party” 8-player games. This was was definitely more free-form. This one got us out talking to different people and made lots of different things take place at once instead of a single group-think conversation like the “Murder Mystery Party” brand games. We liked the dynamics of Curse of the Pharaoh better.

  22. Audrey Todd –

    Our first murder mystery party – a 14th B/Day party for my daughter. We found this very complex and had some difficulties working out what the money was for etc! The multiple endings defeated us – we had to simplify this. So not the best choice by me for a group of 14 year olds with no experience. However, despite all this they all had an excellent time, really got into character and made a lot of effort with their costumes. The evening was a great success and they all want to do it again! In short – we will be back for more and will make a better choice next time. My daughter was delighted that her party went so well. Thanks.

  23. Liz H –

    We had the Curse of the Pharaoh a few weeks ago and had such fun! Thank you for a very inventive and clever game.

  24. Lynn Robb –

    My daughter celebrated her 18th birthday this past Saturday by inviting 13 of her friends to join her in enacting the Curse of the Pharoah. It was a great success! Each participant dressed their part and kept in (frequently very amusing) character. We were initially a bit intimidated by the apparent complexity, as it was going to be played by a group of 16, 17 and 18 year olds. But from the introductions onward everyone remained engaged for three and a half hours. Thank you for creating such an intricate, engaging, exciting game. The flexibility adds challenge, but it is well worth the effort navigating its twists and turns. I recommend your games as a great activity for teenagers.

  25. Jessica Cox –

    I hosted Curse of the Pharaoh last week with a group of people from work. This is the fourth game I’ve purchased from you, and I’ve enjoyed every one! (I’ve also played Death on the Gambia, Way Out West, and Casino Fatale.) I’ve used it with random groups of friends, as a bonding activity for work, and as an R.A. in a freshman dorm. It’s amazing how quickly people get into it, and how my quiet friends open up and jump right in (and the fun you can have as the host)! I just got back from a shift at work, and people are already talking about doing another one! Thanks so much. "A quick note about Casino Fatale as well — although my character had no interest in the poetry, I purchased the poem that was being auctioned off, and one of my residents wrote the poem immediately — it was the unexpected hit of the party!

  26. Mike Perschon –

    I ordered Curse of the Pharaoh for a Night of Mystery we hold with the youth group I work with at a Mennonite church. They’re a largely creative and artsy group, with a love for enchantment in their fiction — they love Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Garth Nix’s works, etc. Freeform Games’ approach of having abilities, items and personal goals for each character made the night so much better than the last time we did this… just having a whodunnit doesn’t cut it!"While I wouldn’t recommend this one for every church group (a little too much magic for most evangelicals I’d wager) the FFG approach is hands down the best way to do a night of mystery with a large group. I think halfway through the night some people had forgotten they were supposed to be solving a murder!

  27. Alcina Prezens –

    We played Curse of the Pharaoh for my husband’s 29th B-day last night. It was awesome!! It was actually a surprise party for him, and when he came in, our living room / dining room was transformed into a Middle Eastern tent (I hung Indian sarees on the walls and from the ceiling, had Egyptian art on the walls and was playing Middle Eastern music). We were all in costume when we yelled "Surprise!" He was so excited! I gave him the role of the detective and about half an hour to change and read his character sheet. Everyone had an amazing time! I served olives, samosas and a Mediterranean mix of appetizers as the guests familiarized themselves with the rules and had a rice, chicken and beef kebabs with flatbread for dinner when the game started. I went to the dollar store and bought real items for each of the characters’ item cards and made a scarecrow with a crimson sash to lay outside the room as the murder victim. We sooo can’t wait to play another game over the Christmas Holidays!!

  28. Scott –

    I played Curse of the Pharaoh at my friend’s birthday party. I had a great time. My friend made traditional Egyptian cuisine and all the costumes looked great. I was very impressed with the quality of freeform games, and now I know what to do for my birthday party!

  29. Joyce Dales –

    Well, my husband’s 40th birthday party was a big success. I couldn’t even keep people seated and eating! Everyone was up and interacting and staying in character the entire evening. We rented a tent, and with my sister-in-law’s extensive collection of Arabic d??“öcor we were able to create an amazing atmosphere! Everyone received a black box of secret information upon arrival, and we even included real props such as snakes, scorpions, the black staff and many many more. We has actual ‘antidote’ (Hersheys kisses) and sour candy for poison pills. People seemed to enjoy themselves quite a bit. Thanks to you all at Freeform Games.

    Image #1 from Joyce Dales

  30. Phil Hatherley –

    Had a great time on the whole and was enjoyed by all… excellent story.

  31. Tom Bates –

    Just a note to say that we successfully played Curse of the Pharaoh on New Year’s Eve this year and it was a fantastic success, everyone had a really good time and enjoyed themselves immensely. Thanks very much for your help getting sorted when I messed up the purchase slightly, you were very helpful and understanding.Thanks again, this is the second freeform games I’ve played and they’ve both been superbly written and cleverly designed, I have Way out West to play hopefully in the next month or so and am confident it’ll be as good as the others. Keep up the good work!

  32. Rhonda Dinsmoor –

    What a great time for all! They are still talking about it [Curse of the Pharaoh]. Thank you and I would definitely recommend this one to someone else. They created alliances and wanted to swap abilities and team up against each other. What a hoot! Thanks again.

  33. Rob Tudor –

    Just a quick note to say thanks for helping our New Years Eve go so well! We played Curse of the Pharaoh and everyone had a fantastic time. I was surprised that the cost was the same as purchasing a ‘kit’ from the shops but the money-back guarantee (and the quality of the introduction doc) won me over!

  34. Mark Doney –

    I enjoyed Curse of the Pharaoh very much, and must say congrats to you for creating a great storyline.

  35. Jay Shaffstall –

    We had a great group, and it was a terrific time. For a group where only one of the participants besides myself had every heard of roleplaying, they did a super job at getting into character… Thanks for the wonderful game [Curse of the Pharaoh]!

  36. Emma Bardes –

    Curse of the Pharaoh was last night. It went sooooooooooooo well that I would just like to thank you for doing an amazing job. Thank you! I thought it was perfect. Absolutely amazing.
    Me and my friends had the best time, with relatively no work on my part. Four months later and my friends are STILL talking about it.
    It let us get really creative, and yet we all saw a competitive side of our friends that we hadn’t seen before.

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