The Spy Who Killed Me

Rated 5.00 out of 5 based on 1 customer rating

£34.99

The Spy Who Killed Me is a downloadable murder mystery game for 14 to 18 guests and a host. It is set at an ivy-clad Maudlin College in the 1960s, at the height of the Cold War. Written by Anastasia Kulpa. Recommended for ages 15+.

SKU: 46 Category: Murder mystery games Tags: 15+, 1960s to 1980s, Anastasia Kulpa, For 10-15 guests, For 16-25 guests, Includes combat, Includes poison

Description
Reviews (10)
Q & A

The Spy Who Killed Me is a murder mystery game for 14 to 18 guests and a host. It is set at an elite college in the 1960s, at the height of the Cold War. Download the free introductory pdf file.

The Spy Who Killed Me is a civilized evening of espionage, code-breaking, backstabbing, and graduating with honours! 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 The Spy Who Killed Me?

"The Spy Who Killed Me was very enjoyable and intricate enough to keep everyone involved."
Mary Narcum, United States

See stories and pictures from The Spy Who Killed Me

Read the Oxbridge Oracle

Welcome to Maudlin College, an institution with prestigious roots and an even more promising future. As we are nearing the end of the last term of the year, it is time to celebrate a hard year's work – in the lab, the library, and on the water – at the glorious Summer Ball. Maudlin College's best and brightest have gathered for a evening of celebration recognizing the recipients of prestigious research grants, and academic as well as athletic scholarships, which will be renewed – or not – this evening.

It should be cause for celebration – but the evening is more sedate than planned; as the musicians arrived this evening, the Head Porter announced that Beth Garnet, one of this evening's student honorees, was found dead in her room. There are whispers about that Beth lost her life because of her involvement in espionage – if that is true, she cannot be the only secret agent in the college.

The Spy Who Killed Me 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.

"We loved The Spy Who Killed Me. It was much better than other, more scripted games."
Caleb MacDonald, Canada

Includes rules for the use of poison.

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 Oxbridge Oracle.

Cast of characters

Professors

Professor Rosenthorn: a slightly reclusive economics professor
Doctor Barnes: an abrasive physics professor
Doctor Aberhart: a dramatic music professor
Professor Thompson: an eccentric mathematics professor

Administrators

Master Harris: the Master of Maudlin College
Jamie Carthart: an academic scholarship administrator
Chris Morrison: an athletic scholarship administrator
Jan von Capp: a research grant administrator
Alex Tanner: Jan’s assistant

Postgraduate Students

Margaret Ravenscroft: a postgraduate student in mathematics and academic scholarship recipient
Jennifer Sable: a postgraduate student in physics

Undergraduates

Alicia Schleitwiler: an undergraduate academic scholarship recipient
Daniel Mason: an undergraduate
Genevieve Lyle: an undergraduate, coxswain of the rowing team
Jonathan Calder: an undergraduate and athletic scholarship recipient, captain of the rowing team
Nathan Saunders: an undergraduate
Sam Davidson: an undergraduate
Simon Feverfew: an undergraduate and athletic scholarship recipient, star of the rowing team

The Spy Who Killed Me is for 14 to 18 guests:

14 guests (2 male, 3 female, 9 any)
15 guests (2 male, 4 female, 9 any)
16 guests (3 male, 4 female, 9 any)
17 guests (3 male, 4 female, 10 any)
18 guests (4 male, 4 female, 10 any)

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

How Freeform Games murder mystery games work

The Spy Who Killed Me 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, The Spy Who Killed Me contains plenty of other plots and secrets to keep everyone busy. The Spy Who Killed Me isn't scripted, and lets the players decide how to achieve their goals and thwart their enemies.

"I had a great time playing The Spy Who Killed Me!"
Brian (a playtester), Arizona, United States

On the evening of the game the guests are met by the organizer, the Head Porter, and welcomed to Maudlin College.

They then receive their detailed backgrounds – including dark secrets, objectives and money. The fun then begins as they form alliances, blackmail each other, steal items and maybe even try to murder one another! Along the way they may uncover some of the mysteries of The Spy Who Killed Me. Who is a double agent? Who leads the secretive Holly and Oak Society? Who is a professional assassin, and who is the mysterious 'Elsie'? What is the secret of the cryptogram?

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

Recommended for ages 15+

We recommend The Spy Who Killed Me for those aged 15+, as it includes romance themes: two of the characters are rival suitors for the hand of another.

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)
Jordan Campbell – postgraduate music student. (Any)
(by Aaron McKendry)
Lee Hatfield – tennis-playing undergraduate student (Any)
(by Kathi Bonallo)
Perry Skeeter – reporter for The Times (Any)
(by Kathi Bonallo)
Quinn Wells – tennis-playing undergraduate student (Any)
(by Kathi Bonallo)
Riley Burke – postgraduate economics student (Any)
(by Aaron McKendry)

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 The Spy Who Killed Me 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.

10 reviews for The Spy Who Killed Me

A Customer – 8 March 2022

The Spy Who Killed Me is the third Freeform Game I’ve run, and I think everyone agrees – it was fantastic! The characters were interesting but simple enough to play, the plots were complex but not confusing, and the writing in general was outstanding. In fact, I’d even go so far as to say that out of the three games I’ve run, this was the best one yet! Heartily recommend!
Wayne Parker – 11 January 2020

We had a wonderful time tonight deep in the heart of the Cold War with The Spy Who Killed Me. We had a large group of about 20 who were a mix of teens and adults. Some were new to murder mysteries, and to others of us this was old hat – but this was all of our first time with Freeform Games. I liked the multiple goals and hidden agendas. It was a little too advanced for our newbies, but the rest of us had a blast. There were many unplanned deaths and intrigue filled the room, all together a very fun time.
Aaron McKendry – 4 May 2016

The Spy Who Killed Me went really well! We used it as a reason to bring people back into town for a weekend that had moved. Everyone really enjoyed the evening, and were really getting into their characters, including some spouses that I never would have expected to get so engaged. One of my friends who really doesn’t do anything like this know the answer to every mystery in the game by the end of the evening.
Everyone told me how much fun that they had and how much that they wanted to play the game again.
Thank you guys again for everything that you do!
Loralynne Krobetzky – 11 May 2015

The Spy Who Killed Me was an epic night! What we enjoyed the most was that you could play the game on varying levels, depending on how you interacted. Some people never even got into the spy storyline and wondered why people were killing each other over school scholarships!
Charin Singh – 13 November 2012

We had a lot of fun playing The Spy Who Killed Me a couple of months ago. I’ve neither played nor hosted a murder mystery night, so I must admit it was all a bit of a steep learning curve! I look forward to playing some of your other games in the near future.
A Customer – 16 September 2012

14 of us played The Spy Who Killed Me last night, and it was amazing! Everybody was in character, and each person had so many secret objectives to complete throughout. A few times, we had people running through the house shouting at each other for lying, poisoning, harming or killing each other! The most unlikely alliances were formed, and some characters were very good at keeping their secrets hidden, and diverting the blame to others! Thank you for such a fun night, the conclusion at the end was complex, but believable! At the end, everyone went round and talk to others revealing their info and secrets to others, and others were shocked at some of the characters secrets; things they had never even thought of! People are already asking for more!
Jess Murray – and the York St John drama society – 11 April 2012

Thank you so much from all of us, everyone had a great time playing The Spy Who Killed Me and everyone is asking when the next murder mystery will be! Nothing happpened as I had expected, but that all added to the fun, and everyone’s shock at the end revelations were hillarious! Thank you from all of us.
George Cumberland – 1 October 2011

Eight of us have played 5 or 6 murder mysteries before, the scripted versions around the dinner table, and I wanted something suitable for an evening with friends from church.
We were about 15 originally, but I couldn’t find a boxed version for that many… and thank goodness I didn’t!!
While it’s true to say that just about everyone was somewhat daunted about the information given them (myself included as the host!) our The Spy Who Killed Me evening was an absolute success!
That finding the murder(er’s) was one aim, the fact that everyone had different goals to achieve was brilliant… and I doubt very much that I will look for a scripted version again.
Indeed… already people are asking about the next one ( nine hours after hosting it!) – so I’ll be back here to download that… thank you for a marvellous evening!!!!!!!!! from 19 of us…
Rated 5 out of 5

A Customer – 2 September 2011

The Spy Who Killed Me was very enjoyable. Very good setup and plot. It was less of following the script, and more of a game of trying to figure out who was killing who. Which if anything made it more fun – 10/10!
Fhiona Alsop – 8 February 2011

We’ve already played most of the games you have in the ‘suitable for kids’ section, and my daughters wanted to do The Spy Who Killed Me next. We really enjoy your games.
Kids really get into it, their bloodthirsty streak comes out early, and all sorts of unusual alliances are made! It rarely turns out according to logic, but they love it.